Since fall 2018, the Nevada Alliance has poured more than $7 million into the coffers of left-leaning groups and to support ballot initiatives in Nevada, making it one of the 10 most active donors in state-level politics during that period, according to an analysis by The Nevada Independent.
But unlike the other top political groups, the Nevada Alliance — which has also made six-figure contributions to federal groups and PACs — does not disclose its donors, leaving the public in the dark about who is funding some of the most prominent Democratic-backed campaigns and ballot questions in the state.
Why?
Federal tax law does not require the disclosure of donors for any group registered as a 501(c)(4), a type of nonprofit that can raise unlimited funds and lobby on issues that exclusively “promote social welfare” but cannot engage primarily in political activity. It is up to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine what constitutes political activity, but it typically consists of donating money to a candidate or campaign.
Nationwide, these entities — which are often referred to as “dark money” groups due to the lack of transparency on who funds them — gave a combined $1.2 billion to federal political committees in the 2020 and 2022 elections, according to OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks money in politics.
Dark money groups have existed for decades, but the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission — which opened the door to allow corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections — gave these nonprofits more legal certainty.
“They’re sort of a coequal player alongside super PACs and parties,” UNLV political science professor Ken Miller said.
With little physical or online presence beyond a mailing address at a Las Vegas coworking space, the Nevada Alliance functions as a kind of dark money matryoshka doll — taking in millions of dollars from other dark money groups, and in turn doling out dollars to a wide variety of Democratic-aligned PACs and organizations.
Bradley Schrager, the group’s lawyer who typically represents Democratic-backed causes, described the group as “a Nevada nonprofit supporting Democratic and progressive issues.”
Its IRS paperwork promises to “connect smart investment opportunities to passionate and committed investors for Nevada specific gains on the issues that matter most here at home.”
“Our work is to invest in strategic and lasting political change that will create long term wins reaching beyond any single election cycle or issue campaign,” it states.
What we know about the group
All that is publicly known about the Nevada Alliance’s finances are the details provided in the organization’s tax forms. Unlike campaign finance reports, which are typically required to be reported quarterly and list all donors and contributors above a certain size, tax forms released by the IRS typically are released almost a year later and only include topline information about money raised.
The forms show that Nevada Alliance generated about $13.8 million in revenue from 2018 through 2022, almost all of which came from the nearly $12 million it accrued in 2022, which is the last year of publicly available forms.
In 2022, the secretary-treasurer of the group was Kelli Despain, who owns Bottega Exchange, an office space company in Las Vegas. Records show it is also the address for other key Democratic entities in the state, such as the Assembly Democratic Caucus.
The chair of the group was Yindra Dixon, who is the managing director of a political consulting group. Another listed board member was Kathleen Rozner, who previously worked for Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).
Rozner declined to comment when reached over the phone and referred The Indy to Dixon and Despain. Dixon did not respond to a request for comment, while Despain referred to Schrager, the group’s lawyer.
Through looking at other nonprofit tax forms, it’s possible to paint an (incomplete) picture of groups that have contributed to Nevada Alliance, but the details are scant because almost all of them are also dark money groups.
The group has received about $5 million from other nonprofits since 2018. The largest contributor is the Strategic Victory Fund, which gave more than $1.1 million to the Nevada Alliance and also does not have to disclose its donors. This PAC was started by the Democracy Alliance, a left-of-center group, to defeat former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Three other dark money groups have also donated more than $500,000 to the Nevada Alliance:
These three groups, all considered dark money heavyweights, collectively raised more than $950 million and spent more than $1 billion in 2022 on a wide range of social justice and Democratic-backed causes, according to their tax returns.
“Money moves around among these groups all the time,” Miller said.
Those three groups have also been active in two ballot initiatives in Nevada in the past year, collectively donating more than $1 million to the group leading the abortion ballot question and $380,000 toward an effort to end high-interest lending in the state.
Miller said he did not know what incentive donors may have to donate through the Nevada Alliance when many of its donors have already given to Nevada causes.
It’s unknown where the remaining $9 million raised by the Nevada Alliance since 2018 came from.
Nevada recipients
According to state and federal financial records, the Nevada Alliance has given money to nearly 20 Nevada-based groups that all are either connected to the Democratic establishment or Democratic-backed initiatives.
A Stronger NV, the PAC tied to former Gov. Steve Sisolak’s re-election bid in 2022, raked in $3 million from the Nevada Alliance, all from three donations made in the final stretch of the 2022 election cycle. These donations made up about one-eighth of the total money brought in by the PAC during the cycle.
The next most prominent recipient of the Nevada Alliance’s money was Protect Your Vote Nevada, a group formed in 2022 to oppose the ballot question establishing ranked-choice voting and open primaries in all non-presidential races in Nevada. This question narrowly passed two years ago but must again receive the support of a majority of voters this year to become law.
A Protect Your Vote official declined to comment.
The other group to receive at least $1 million from Nevada Alliance is Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, which is the group behind the ballot question to establish a constitutional right to an abortion. The Nevada Alliance gave $525,000 last year as the effort to qualify for the ballot began, and another half a million this year as signature gathering ramped up. An official with Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom did not respond to a request for comment.
Other groups to receive money from the Nevada Alliance include the Nevada State Democratic Party ($50,000) and the Nevada wing of a national group devoted to safe and fair elections ($250,000). It also gave $180,000 to Leadership in Nevada, a PAC formerly affiliated with then-Democratic Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson but is now registered to Rozner, one of the group’s listed members in 2022.
Home Means Nevada (another Sisolak-affiliated PAC) received $400,000 in 2022 and the Patriot Freedom Fund, a left-leaning group that meddled in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary with attacks on then-Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo, received about $270,000 from the group.
Nevada Alliance also gave to some national groups. Unite Here, a major North American union, received more than $3 million through its associated PACs, Somos PAC, a Latino political engagement group, received $750,000 from Nevada Alliance a month before the 2022 election and the Senate Majority PAC received $200,000.
