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Which wealthy individuals or political figures have publicly donated to Blexit and how much did they give?
Executive summary
Reporting in the provided sources identifies several wealthy conservative donors and foundations that gave to the Blexit Foundation (Owens’ nonprofit) in 2020, most prominently a $250,000 gift from the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation and a $100,000 gift from the Thomas W. Smith foundation; other smaller and named family foundations and organizations are also listed [1]. OpenSecrets hosts detailed pages on the Blexit Fund’s outside‑spending and donors but specific donor line‑items in those OpenSecrets pages are not quoted in the excerpts supplied here [2] [3].
1. What the records you provided actually name — major gifts highlighted
An investigative piece assembled by EXPOSEDbyCMD lists named conservative funders who gave to the Blexit Foundation in 2020: the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation ($250,000) and the Thomas W. Smith foundation ($100,000) are singled out as substantial donors in that reporting [1]. EXPOSEDbyCMD also catalogues a number of other family foundations and conservative donors giving smaller amounts in 2020 (examples cited in the piece include Maston Family Foundation at $10,000 and Center of the American Experiment at $50,000), though the list mixes direct gifts and institutional support and notes that donor‑advised funds can obscure ultimate sources [1].
2. Who these donors are and why their support matters
EXPOSEDbyCMD contextualizes donors: Isaac Perlmutter is described as a wealthy Israeli‑American investor with a family foundation; Thomas W. Smith is framed as a longtime conservative funder who backs anti‑CRT and other right‑of‑center causes [1]. The article highlights patterns — several of the named donors also fund Turning Point USA, PragerU, and other conservative organizations — which suggests ideological alignment rather than purely philanthropic overlap [1]. That pattern matters because when individuals or foundations with a history of funding conservative political projects give to Blexit, observers infer strategic intent to build a particular political message rather than supporting nonpartisan community development [1].
3. The relationship between Blexit, Candace Owens, and TPUSA
Candace Owens co‑founded the Blexit Foundation and later announced that Blexit would be “powered by” Turning Point USA; TPUSA publicly stated it was “officially powering the Blexit Foundation” in March 2023 [4] [5]. This organizational tie is relevant when tracking donors because many of the same wealthy conservative donors also appear in reporting about TPUSA’s funding networks, and affiliated donors or donor‑advised funds can funnel support across related entities [6] [5].
4. Transparency limits and donor‑advised funds — what the sources flag as opaque
EXPOSEDbyCMD explicitly warns that “donor‑advised fund sponsors, which manage charitable accounts for their clients, hide the donors’ names from the public,” meaning some gifts reported to Blexit could mask the ultimate individual or corporate source [1]. The OpenSecrets entries referenced in the search results are the logical place to look for detailed outside‑spending and donor lists, but the supplied excerpts do not quote full donor tables or receipts — they simply point to OpenSecrets’ Blexit Fund pages [2] [3]. Available sources do not provide a complete, audited roster of every wealthy individual or political figure who has ever given to Blexit.
5. Contrasting perspectives: critics, defenders, and the original Blexit
Forbes and Blexit Minnesota (the original, community‑centered Blexit) emphasize a different lineage: the Blexit name originated in 2016 as a grassroots economic‑empowerment effort and not as a partisan GOP project, and that original group objects to Owens’ appropriation of the name [7] [8]. EXPOSEDbyCMD frames the donations as part of a conservative funding network backing Owens’ politically oriented Blexit Foundation [1]. Both threads exist in the record: donors named by EXPOSEDbyCMD fit the pattern of conservative institutional support, while other Blexit entities present themselves as distinct, nonaligned community groups [7] [8].
6. How to verify further — sources to check next
The OpenSecrets Blexit Fund pages are referenced in the search results and are likely to contain detailed outside‑spending and donor records; the page IDs in the supplied results point to Blexit Fund summaries and affiliates for 2020 [2] [3] [9]. Tax filings for the Blexit Foundation (Form 990s) and donor foundation 990s (e.g., the Perlmutter foundation) would provide primary documentation of gifts; those specific filings are not included in the materials you supplied and so are not cited here (available sources do not mention those 990 filings in the excerpts supplied).
Conclusion: based on the supplied reporting, wealthy conservative donors named as having funded Candace Owens’ Blexit Foundation in 2020 include the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation ($250,000) and the Thomas W. Smith foundation ($100,000), with additional smaller gifts and contributions from other family foundations and conservative think tanks reported; transparency gaps (donor‑advised funds and lack of full filing data in the excerpts) mean the public roster of donors likely remains incomplete [1] [2] [3].