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Fact check: Which organizations have publicly supported the No Kings protest with funding?
Executive Summary
The core claim is that George Soros’ Open Society Foundations funded the “No Kings” protests via grants to Indivisible totaling $7.61 million; reporting tying that funding to the protests appears primarily in a Fox News piece published October 16, 2025 [1]. Other contemporaneous local coverage of “No Kings” events in Southern California emphasizes local organizers such as 50501 SoCal and SEIU Local 721 without documenting direct Soros or Open Society funding for those specific rallies [2] [3].
1. Why the Soros-Grant Claim Became Central — A Big Media Attention Point
Fox News reported on October 16, 2025 that the Open Society Foundations have provided $7.61 million in grants to Indivisible, and framed those grants as funding the “No Kings” campaign infrastructure, particularly data and communications [1]. That piece is the most explicit linking philanthropic grants to the protest activity and has been cited by other outlets and critics to argue that the demonstrations have significant outside funding. The reporting date matters: the Fox article appeared before many local events and is the principal source for the Soros-to-No Kings narrative [1].
2. What Indivisible’s Role Looks Like According to Organizers and Local Reports
Separate coverage of the nationwide effort and local rallies describes Indivisible as one of several coordinating groups involved in planning more than 2,600 events and providing systems for outreach and communications [3]. Local reporting on Southern California protests on October 18, 2025 highlights grassroots groups—50501 SoCal—and labor unions such as SEIU Local 721 as on-the-ground organizers, and does not mention Open Society funding for those local events [2]. This contrast shows a difference between national-level funding disclosures and the funding narratives presented at the event level.
3. Diverging Narratives: National Funding vs. Local Organizing
The two strands of reporting create distinct narratives: one emphasizes national philanthropic support to a coordinating organization (Indivisible), and the other emphasizes local organizers managing individual rallies without documented external funding. Fox’s reporting links Open Society grants to Indivisible broadly and suggests those resources supported communications and data functions relevant to No Kings organizing [1]. Local stories of October 17–18 foreground organizers’ claims of community-driven protest and do not corroborate direct Soros funding for every listed event [3] [2].
4. What the Available Documents and Dates Do — and Don’t — Show
The dates matter: the Fox report (October 16, 2025) supplies grant totals to Indivisible since 2017 and connects that funding to organizational capacity used in 2025 protest coordination [1]. Subsequent local reports (October 17–18, 2025) describing thousands of events and specific Los Angeles rallies do not reference the Open Society Foundations or Soros funding for those events, suggesting either no direct funding for particular city rallies or that local journalists did not find such links [3] [2]. The mismatch between a national grant disclosure and local reporting is the central factual tension.
5. Alternative Interpretations and What They Leave Out
There are at least two plausible readings consistent with the supplied sources: one, that Open Society funding to Indivisible increased the group’s capacity for communications and data, indirectly supporting nationwide coordination; two, that local events were organized independently by local groups and unions without direct Open Society dollars attached. The media excerpts do not provide documentary evidence, such as grant usage statements or contracts tying specific event budgets to the grants, leaving a gap in the chain of causation between grant dollars and individual protests [1] [3].
6. What Further Evidence Would Clarify the Funding Trail
To close the gap between grant totals and event financing, one would need grant agreements, budget breakdowns, or testimony from Indivisible or Open Society staff showing how funds were allocated to No Kings-specific activities, and invoices or grants to local organizers like 50501 SoCal or SEIU Local 721. The current set of reports includes a national grant total and separate local organizing accounts, but none provide those transactional documents or direct confirmations tying Open Society grants to specific rally expenditures [1] [2].
7. Bottom-Line Finding: Supported Claims and Remaining Uncertainties
The verified, documented claim across the supplied reporting is that Open Society Foundations gave Indivisible $7.61 million in grants since 2017 and that Indivisible is involved in coordinating No Kings activities [1] [3]. What is not definitively shown in these pieces is that those grants directly financed specific local No Kings rallies; local reporting attributes organization to groups such as 50501 SoCal and SEIU Local 721 without reporting Soros-related funding for their events [2]. The evidence supports a link between philanthropic funding and national organizing capacity, but it does not prove point-by-point funding of every local protest.