2. Non-profit Positions
Power Research in Action
In 2019, activists from the group Decolonize this Place and their allies successfully pressured Warren Kanders, owner of tear gas company Safariland, to resign from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s board of trustees.
What to look for: Are they a board member of any non-profits? This might include trade groups (like the Chamber of Commerce or a local CEO roundtable), cultural institutions (like museums), or think tanks. What kinds of policies do the non-profits they are part of advocate for? Any super ring-wing orgs? Most of the think tanks and trade groups they are part of will forward policies that help corporations and the ultra wealthy to the detriment of everyone else.
Where to find it: Google, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
Tips for Googling for this information:
- Try doing an inurl search. For example, “greg winkler inurl:board.”
- Look at the websites for the non-profits mentioned and see if your person or someone else from their company is listed as part of their boards, a key sponsor, etc. Often, in interviews with local media these folks will mention some of the non-profits they are associated with. They’ll sometimes also list them on their LinkedIn pages, interact with these groups on twitter, etc.
- You can also use Google to do a site search of the website citizenaudit.org.Citizen Audit allows you to search nonprofit organization’s 990s, the annual report that nonprofits are required to file with the IRS. You can do a site search for the person you are mapping. For example, you can search: site:citizenaudit.org jamie dimon. If you do that search, you’ll see JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is a Director at the Partnership for New York City, a powerful corporate trade organization in New York City. You can always confirm that he is still on the board by Googling Partnership for New York City board and reviewing the most recent list of board members.
