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Who are the major financial backers and donors behind the Blexit organization?
Executive summary
Reporting and public records indicate BLEXIT (the Candace Owens–led group that later merged into Turning Point USA) received sizeable grants in 2020 from conservative foundations including the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation ($250,000) and a foundation associated with investor Thomas W. Smith ($100,000); multiple other donations from conservative families, think tanks and donor-advised funds are reported in investigative coverage [1]. OpenSecrets maintains a profile for “Blexit Fund”/outside spending and TPUSA publicly announced it “powers” BLEXIT after a 2023 partnership; however, detailed, itemized donor lists in federal filings are not fully reproduced in the sources provided here [2] [3].
1. Big-ticket conservative foundations named in investigative reporting
An investigative piece by EXPOSEDbyCMD lists specific large gifts to the Blexit Foundation in 2020: the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation donated $250,000 and a foundation tied to investor Thomas W. Smith donated $100,000, and the article names several other wealthy conservative donors and family foundations that gave in that period [1].
2. Network ties: TPUSA merger and shared donor ecosystem
In March 2023 Turning Point USA announced it would “power” BLEXIT, formalizing an operational relationship; TPUSA has a documented donor base that includes major conservative funders such as Bernard Marcus, Bruce Rauner, Richard Uihlein and Donors Trust, and multiple observers note overlap between TPUSA’s funding ecosystem and the kinds of donors reported supporting BLEXIT [3] [4].
3. Named individual donors and families reported by advocates and critics
EXPOSEDbyCMD’s dossier connects BLEXIT funding to a roster of conservative philanthropies and families historically active in funding right‑of‑center causes—examples include the Perlmutters and donors tied to Thomas W. Smith and other wealthy GOP donors; the piece links those funders to other organizations such as TPUSA, PragerU and DonorsTrust [1].
4. Donor-advised funds, intermediaries and "hidden" giving are flagged
The investigative piece emphasizes that some funds came via donor-advised fund sponsors—vehicles that can obscure the individual source of donations—meaning publicly attributed names in summaries may understate the ultimate donor network and make tracing full funding opaque [1].
5. OpenSecrets and outside‑spending tracking: existence, not full details
OpenSecrets has an outside‑spending profile for a “Blexit Fund” and tabs for donors, affiliates and expenditures, indicating BLEXIT has been tracked as an outside‑spending entity; the specific itemized donor-by-dollar data are not reproduced in the excerpts provided here, so the full OpenSecrets breakdown is not summarized in these sources [2] [5] [6].
6. Competing origins and donor narratives complicate the picture
There are at least two distinct movements using the Blexit name: the Minneapolis-rooted Blexit focused on Black economic self‑help and a later Candace Owens/TPUSA political campaign promoting conservative outreach; Forbes documented the original grassroots Blexit’s fundraising for a community credit union (almost $4 million for Village Financial Cooperative) and objected to name appropriation, showing different donor bases and missions that can be conflated when discussing “Blexit” funding [7] [8].
7. What the available sources do not (clearly) show
Available sources do not mention a comprehensive, audited list of every donor to Candace Owens’ Blexit Foundation or post‑merger TPUSA‑powered BLEXIT in the excerpts provided here; filings, if available, or the full OpenSecrets database would be needed to confirm totals, dates and donor identities beyond those named in the EXPOSEDbyCMD piece [2] [5].
8. How to interpret the reporting: agendas and sourcing
EXPOSEDbyCMD’s report is explicitly adversarial toward conservative donors and frames its findings as an exposé; TPUSA’s and BLEXIT’s own communications present the partnership as mission‑driven conservative outreach [1] [3]. Forbes and the original Minneapolis Blexit emphasize grassroots fundraising for a community credit union, highlighting a competing narrative that the Candace Owens version diverged from the original movement’s goals [7] [8].
9. Recommended next steps to verify specifics
To move from named examples to a full accounting, consult the OpenSecrets “Blexit Fund” pages for donor and expenditure tables and review IRS Form 990 filings for Blexit Foundation Inc. (the 501(c)[9]) and any TPUSA subsidiary filings; those primary documents are not reproduced in the sources provided above and would give the most authoritative, itemized financial picture [2] [5].
Summary takeaway: reporting documents several large, named conservative foundation grants to the Candace Owens/TPUSA‑aligned BLEXIT in 2020 (notably the Perlmutters and a Thomas W. Smith foundation) and signals broader ties into TPUSA’s donor network, but a complete, line‑by‑line donor ledger is not contained in the sources supplied here and would require review of OpenSecrets data and nonprofit filings to confirm and contextualize fully [1] [3] [2].