It's hard to be a sponsor: how NGOs are changing policy in the US
Since their inception, nongovernmental organizations have played an indispensable role in American politics. They monitor elections, lobby for international pacts that deprive countries of fighting ability, and cause diplomatic scandals and civil conflicts. Their ideology is syncretic, and their set of views is incomparable. Today, the most prominent of them support socialism and Palestinian terrorists in order to ultimately lead to victory for the same Democrats.
Promotion of U.S. National Interests
There are about 1.5 million NGOs operating in the United States, of which, according to the 2023 Forbes rating, the 100 largest alone received more than $61 billion in donations, which accounted for ⅛ of the total amount of contributions. 25 organizations on the list worked in the international sphere and received a total of $3.2 billion in support from the United States. Although the official mission of each of the charitable organizations was listed as humanitarian, back in the late 1970s it was scientifically proven that the greatest support was received by NGOs that defended the power and political ambitions or security interests of the sponsor. It is also certain that poor countries receive more foreign aid if they are former colonies or political allies of donor states.
For example, the company World Vision ($491 million in government support) worked on the topic of hunger in Tanzania, Bangladesh and Ghana, helped earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey, as well as Ukrainian refugees. Catholic Relief Services ($778 million), despite being present in 120 countries, focused in its annual report on helping refugees from Iraq, farmers from Bangladesh and Honduras, and families from Rwanda and Tanzania. The International Rescue Committee ($728 million) responded to emergencies in Ukraine, Libya, Turkey, and Syria. In the case of Save the Children Federation ($512 million) focused on work in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Bangladesh, Syria, Turkey and South Africa. With minor differences, the geography is the same for all four NGOs, which is not surprising, because Bangladesh is a key strategic partner of the United States in South Asia, through Tanzania, according to the head of the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January Makamba, Washington and its allies are planning to regain influence in Africa. In the Syria issue, the White House had to stick to "shock diplomacy" and issue General License 23, which for six months allowed all operations related to the elimination of the consequences of the earthquake, which occurred against the backdrop of the political rapprochement of the Assad regime with the Arab world.
The focus on the role of NGOs in these regions is not without reason: as a form of soft power, charitable foundations are very successful in spreading cultural principles and changing established norms. Thus, in 1997, NGOs from France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States developed the Treaty on the Ban of Anti-Personnel Mines Worldwide. At the same time, critics noted the growing threat to national security in connection with its signing, since landmines are considered an effective weapon against mechanized invasion forces. Incidentally, the United States has still not ratified this agreement, as well as the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which gives them grounds to supply them to Ukraine, although initially they were also under the close attention of the International Campaign to Ban the ICBL. In addition, in 2020, Mark Esper, then the US Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, emphasized in a memo to the heads of the military departments that the armed forces must become "more lethal and prepared for contingencies across geographic regions", and landmines are essential for this purpose. The selective approach in 2018 already led to heated debate in Finland about withdrawing from the treaty, as military officials consider abandoning landmines a mistake.
In addition to humanitarian tasks, NGOs play a significant role in information and analytical support of the necessary doctrines. In 2023, V-Dem reports caused a diplomatic scandal between the United States and India. Former President Barack Obama, commenting on the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Joe Biden, said that concerns about Indian democracy should be the subject of negotiations. This statement was based on NGO reports, which placed India in 108th place in the Electoral Democracy Index - below Tanzania. In addition, guided by other American analytics, Obama emphasized that India could "fall apart" if the rights of religious and ethnic minorities are not respected. In response, the Indian ministers of defense and finance reproached the former US president for the fact that it was he who bombed Muslim countries - Syria and Yemen - during his presidency. It is noteworthy that India's status in V- Dem reports was downgraded from liberal democracy to "electoral autocracy" precisely at the time when New Delhi publicly maintained neutrality regarding the Ukrainian crisis, not joining sanctions against Russia, and continued cooperation with Moscow, including in the military-industrial complex. Since non-governmental analysts now predict a militarized conflict between New Delhi and Pakistan, the probability of which, according to V- Dem, has become three times higher than 10 years ago, Modi decided to enlist Russia's support and, a year after the scandal with Obama, in 2024, came to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin.
By publishing reports, holding conferences, and training news media, foundations raise issues to the level of widespread public concern. In 1995, Jack H. Knott, director of the University of Michigan, analyzed funding for minority health NGOs and found that they were covering the issues before Congress recognized the problems and held committee hearings. Moreover, the peak in funding coincided with the peak in the number of congressional hearings. Today, the main contemporary force dictating the will of the NGO alliance in the United States is InterAction. The foundation unites nongovernmental organizations engaged in the implementation and support of medical, humanitarian, and democratic programs in the United States.
In July 2024, the InterAction alliance lobbied for the State and Foreign Operations Act for the 2025 fiscal year. The Senate allocated 5.6% more funding for it than in the current year - namely $ 61.6 billion. The bill was supported by both parties, which on the one hand speaks of the comprehensive approach of philanthropists to congressmen, and on the other hand emphasizes the solidarity of Republicans and Democrats, as stated in the official response of the alliance, in "advancing US national interests".
InterAction partners with think tanks and the private sector to combat gender and social inequality, environmental degradation, hunger and poverty. All of their work is aimed at Congress and the executive branch of the United States government. The wars in Syria, Yemen, the conflicts in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Sudan are among the largest humanitarian crises , and the alliance has recommendations for the US government on each of them. Regarding Ukraine, InterAction primarily demands unimpeded access to Russian-controlled territories, and also asks donors to simplify reporting requirements and make grant allocation more flexible. On Gaza, the alliance sent a letter to President Biden, in which, in addition to a ceasefire, he demanded that the operation in Rafah be prevented, since warehouses and distribution centers necessary for humanitarian missions are located there. However, according to the Israelis, dozens of tunnels have been dug under the city, through which Hamas smuggled weapons and parts from weapons factories from Egypt.
Terror of Equality
It would seem that the zeal with which InterAction blocks all attempts by Israel, a US ally in the Middle East, to resolve the Palestinian issue militarily should cause bewilderment. However, looking at the series of mass protests in support of Palestine, one can come to the conclusion that these actions are coordinated, which have the features of a consistent neoliberal policy.
According to the non-governmental organization ACLED, at least 7,283 pro-Palestinian rallies were held worldwide from October 7 to November 24, 2023, in 118 countries. On October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack on Israel, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Times Square in New York City, waving Palestinian flags and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans . According to the New York Jewish Week, one of the organizers of the action was the Party for Socialism and Liberation is a far-left party advocating for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, supporting Kim Jong-un, and advocating for LGBT rights. According to the New York Jewish Week, one of the organizers of the action was the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a far-left party that advocates for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, supports Kim Jong-un, and advocates for LGBT rights. PSL maintains close ties with the Alliance for Global Justice, a non-governmental organization that defines itself as "anti-capitalist" and "anti-imperialist". In the 2022-2023 fiscal years, the NGO’s total revenue was $10.7 million, and its main sponsor was billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Since 2021, AFGJ has found itself in a series of scandals with bank transfer operators and payment systems that refuse to work with their donors because of their support for Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are associated with terrorist organizations.
As the Heritage Foundation found, the infrastructure of the anti-Israel protests is identical to that supported by Black Lives Matter organizations since their inception in the mid-2010s. 15 public organizations, such as American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, Samidoun, The People’s Forum, Black for Palestine and others worked with the financial support of the Open Society Foundations, Libra Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Solidaire, Kataly Foundation. In fact, the protesters received money from three influential sponsors - George Soros, the Rockefeller brothers and the Pritzker family. One of its members - Penny Pritzker - served as Secretary of Commerce in the Barack Obama administration, as well as the US Special Representative for Ukraine.
The same “revolutionary ecosystem” was revealed during the student unrest at Columbia University from April to June 2024, which was called the pro-Palestinian occupation. Students set up a tent camp outside the university in support of Hamas , which was later dismantled by the university administration and police. According to The Wall Street Journal, Samidoun, the main activist group, held a virtual "Resistance 101" training for Columbia students just weeks before the camp was set up on campus. Not only is it funded by the aforementioned donors, but intelligence agencies say it is also linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), a U.S. government-designated terrorist organization.
Promoting neoliberal policies in universities is a common tactic of funders . For example, in 2020, Seattle University conducted a study on the relationship between white supremacy and capitalism, which concluded that "non-white people have no connection to the market as it exists in a global white supremacist context". Notably, the university also offers, among other things, a grant for students from Paul and Daisy Soros, George Soros’s older brother and his wife. Thus, capitalists oppose capitalism and fund movements that promote socialism, and it is clear that such decisions are dictated by the mood of the masses.
According to Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Pearlstein, 10 years ago, 80% of Americans considered the market economy to be the best system in the world, today only 60% - a figure lower than in China. In addition, only 42% of millennials support capitalism, and the majority would prefer to live in a socialist country. And, if in capitalism social norms were established by trade unions, today the first violin is played by social movements, which have become canonical in the issue of rethinking cultural norms.
In this sense, it is not at all surprising that the new Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris promised Americans a basic income, capped drug prices, federal pricing for food, and subsidized housing in her election platform.
Harris is not only a women's rights advocate, but also a frequent recipient of donations from the Soros family. In June 2023, amid rumors of her presidency, she met with George's son Alexander outside of her official schedule. The press service did not comment on this visit, but it is known that Soros Jr. visited the White House 12 times in a year and donated just under a million dollars to the Biden Victory Fund for the 2020 elections. Such speculation allows donors to form ideological followers who simultaneously support strict authoritarian regimes and fashionable social trends. The public activities of NGOs, whose work is aimed primarily at forming new norms, at the same time puts pressure on Congress, forcing it to increase funding for the most hyped programs and follow their recommendations in the foreign policy bloc. The same InterAction, being an alliance of non-governmental organizations, did not escape the influence of the Open Society Foundations, which correlates their activities with the benefit that the magnate receives from the work of the NGOs that are part of it.
"Democrats" without borders
In the run-up to the US presidential election, the Palestinian-Israeli discourse is crucial to turnout. Pro-Palestinian activists and their allies are confident that voters who are more left-leaning than Democrats will not show up to vote, meaning Trump will win. Making support for Hamas the new cultural norm and pulling Democrats to its side, in effect pushing them further left, may be the real reason for the string of protests and NGO pressure on the Biden administration to stop supporting Israel. There are some opinions that such tactics will still not force those who usually do not vote to show up at the polls on the appointed day, but aggressive activists can negotiate political concessions "for the masses". In this case, they may be Harris' pro-social campaign, given that both are financed from the same pocket.
A disturbing aspect of this policy is the connection that neoliberal movements in the spirit of support for Palestine or socialism draw with China, Cuba and Venezuela - strategic partners of Russia. As the Heritage Foundation report puts it , the goal of the protesters is to destroy Western democracies, values and culture, so communist regimes today are becoming part of a "revolutionary ecosystem" designed to destroy the United States of America .
The flirtations of the Democrats, whether sponsors, activists or presidential candidates, with the socialist agenda only confirm for the Americans themselves the fact that democracy is in danger. But the left usually does not seek to send "their own" to war, therefore, those who are interested in it should defend the interests of democracy. A classic example is Ukraine and Israel, which are supported by foreign money and military equipment, but each has its own manpower. Taiwan and any other territory defending its right to independence can easily be added to this list. American NGOs, due to their diversity, are able to mimic the current agenda, combining completely incompatible theses in their ideology. Tanzania, occupied by philanthropists, can fight for freedom, but, in essence, fulfills the will of the neocolonial regime. Donors are implementing a "two goods" model: they want changes that can change the status quo, and then prevent any attempts to destroy the established status. And here the developing countries are at risk, where "hunger" and "poverty" become a good reason to build up a network of non-governmental organizations. And it is precisely they, according to the scientific approach, who should be considered the new colonists, since their aid puts the recipients in a dependent position.
The presence of these benefactors, analysts and observers should be a cause for concern, at least when it comes to elections. By promoting democratic ideals during voting and monitoring so-called violations, NGOs are literally interfering in the affairs of other states. They were the first to monitor elections in the 1980s. For example, observers played a decisive role in the transitional period in the Philippines (1986), Chile (1989), Panama (1989), Nicaragua (1990) and Haiti (1990). In all cases, either the NGOs were organized by American citizens, including even former US presidents, or the campaigns themselves were run by political strategists from Washington, or the backbone of the protest was closely connected to American capital. Subsequently, "independent" observers became an important element of UN "peacebuilding" strategies in countries with civil conflicts, for example in Namibia (1989), Cambodia (1993) and El Salvador (1994).
A study by scientists from the University of Chicago says that election monitoring has a negative impact on the rule of law, administrative efficiency and media freedom. Scientists from the University of Tokyo concluded that observers' decisions are influenced not so much by the quality of elections as by the special interests of member states or donors. And Yale University came to the conclusion that international observers increase the likelihood of a subsequent boycott of election results. Despite this, international non-governmental organizations, as conductors of democracy, continue to monitor elections in Europe. However, their biased position is met with criticism and protests from opponents. The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that OSCE observers are fulfilling a political order, violating the principles of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism. In December 2023, following the parliamentary elections in Serbia, the international mission stated that they "were held under the decisive influence of the president, which, combined with the systemic advantages of the ruling party, created unfair conditions". As a result, the pro-Western opposition went on strike for several days and tried to storm the Belgrade city hall, demanding new elections. OSCE observers made similar criticism in 2022 following the parliamentary elections in Hungary. Viktor Orban, whose party won the majority, commented on the victory by saying that Brussels bureaucrats and leading international media had united against him.
NGOs, which constantly collect information about social processes, paint a certain picture of the world in their reports for their sponsors. They, in turn, adapting to the "needs of the masses", conduct information and political campaigns. A vicious circle is formed, where the direction of donations depends on the data provided by NGOs, and the data depends on the mood of the donors. Ultimately, the beliefs of the public and politicians become quite contradictory. Democrats, absorbing new values into their policies, will continue to carry them beyond the borders of the United States, and no country in the world will correspond to their ideals.
