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Encyclopedia · sourced reference entry · updated November 13, 2026

The 85 Fund

Virginia-incorporated 501(c)(3) charity formerly called the Judicial Education Project; its IRS filings document election-law advocacy programs, grants and consulting relationships.

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Identity, formation and statutory status

The 85 Fund is a federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, EIN 20-2466871, organized in 2004 and legally domiciled in Virginia. Its 2024 Form 990 lists a principal mailing address in Fort Worth, Texas and says its mission is to educate the public and support activities concerning limits on government power, dignity and individual freedoms. The IRS database records recognition of its exemption in November 2011. The nonprofit's legal identity is separate from the 501(c)(4) Concord Fund. [1] [2]

The organization's 2024 program description encompasses constitutionalism, limited government, religious liberty, the courts, education policy and election reform. Its filings show both direct program expenditures and substantial outgoing charitable grants. Its identity should be established by EIN, not by a shorthand reference to a broader advocacy movement. [2]

Earlier names and related organizations

The organization previously operated under the name Judicial Education Project. Investigations in 2020 documented its renaming to The 85 Fund in late 2019, with Judicial Education Project retained as an alternate registered business name. The Honest Elections Project was also registered as an alternate name of the 501(c)(3) organization. Contemporary Senate research described another 85 Fund program name, Free to Learn. Alternate names attached to a single corporation are not separate nonprofits merely because the projects have different websites or missions. [5] [7]

The Concord Fund, a distinct 501(c)(4) entity, was formerly called Judicial Crisis Network and retained that name for public advocacy. Reporting and congressional investigation identified overlapping personnel, activities and administrative infrastructure among the two corporations, including the complementary Honest Elections Project Action name on the Concord side. They should be connected, not merged: tax filing, payment and legal claims must be assigned to the correct entity. [5] [7]

The combination became a subject of controversy over the public visibility of political advocacy funding. Supporters characterize the arrangements as lawful charitable and social-welfare advocacy; critics argue that name changes and donor nondisclosure complicate accountability. These interpretations are not substitutes for the original corporation, registration, tax and expenditure records. [5] [7]

Governance and named officers in 2024

The 2024 Form 990 identifies Todd Graves as chairman and director, Carrie Severino as director and secretary, and Gary Marx as director and treasurer. Severino signed the return and is named as principal officer. The form reports three voting board members, one of them independent under the filing's test. These were filing-year assignments; the document does not establish who will occupy the roles in a future year. [1] [2]

The same 2024 officer and employee listing includes counsels Ormal Skinner, Jason Snead, Chad Ennis, Ann Corkery and Jacqueline Doyer. Reportable pay listed for the year was $308,333 for Skinner, $264,600 for Snead, $222,853 for Ennis, $215,952 for Severino, $212,360 for Corkery and $173,270 for Doyer; Graves and Marx were shown at zero reportable compensation in that column. [2]

Carrie Severino's documented roles in this organization and the Judicial Crisis Network / Concord Fund provide a personnel connection between legally distinct advocacy vehicles. That relationship should be documented as governance and overlapping organizational activity, not described as one legal organization. [2] [5]

Financial position and grantmaking

The 85 Fund's 2024 IRS Form 990 reported $168,530,018 in contributions and total revenue, $169,654,423 in total expenses and a deficit of $1,124,405. It ended the year with $2,754,902 in assets and no listed liabilities. Total grants and similar assistance were $118,174,781, of which $118,172,181 appeared in the itemized Schedule I recipient dataset; the small difference reflects differing reporting lines and is not a reason to treat the figures as interchangeable. [1] [2] [9]

The program-service expense reported for 2024 was about $163.1 million. Both grant transfers and other program expenditures figure into that total, so the $118.17 million grant line must not be added to program expenses as if it were wholly separate spending. Annual revenue rose from $65.78 million in 2020 to $168.53 million in 2024. The substantial size of the charity's transactions makes annual donor and recipient records important to interpreting its activities. [2]

Incoming institutional funding and donor-advised accounts

Grantors' public filings identify institutional grants to The 85 Fund totaling approximately $148.3 million from Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc. in 2024, $4.7 million from National Philanthropic Trust, $2.135 million from DonorsTrust, $725,000 from Vanguard Charitable, $450,000 from National Christian Charitable Foundation and $225,000 from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. These amounts come from each grantor's 2024 reporting records; they are not, by themselves, a donor-by-donor reconciliation of the recipient's cash receipts. [4] [8]

For 2019–2024, the grantor-record index totals about $630.9 million from Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc., about $68 million from DonorsTrust and about $19.8 million from National Philanthropic Trust. Those are institutional grantmaker names rather than necessarily the original people or trusts that recommended gifts. The originating account holder behind any particular donor-advised grant is not supplied by the public outgoing schedule. [4]

The 2024 DonorsTrust filing lists $2,135,000 in grant rows to The 85 Fund. That filing also lists $4,433,000 to Teneo Network, a separately incorporated recipient chaired by Leonard Leo according to Teneo's own 2024 return. Both nonprofit grants can be recorded as independent links to DonorsTrust; neither proves a transfer directly from Teneo to The 85 Fund or vice versa. [8]

Named outgoing grants and multi-year recipients

In its 2024 Schedule I, The 85 Fund disclosed a $67,900,000 grant to DonorsTrust and a $39,000,000 grant to Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund. Other recorded 2024 grants included $1,500,000 to Club for Growth Foundation, $1,325,000 to Ethics and Public Policy Center, $1,100,000 to Hawthorn Foundation, $1,000,000 to Paragon Health Institute, $925,000 to Fidelis Center for Law and Policy, $760,000 to Maine Policy Institute and $429,881 to American Legislative Exchange Council. These are source-recipient amounts for the 2024 filing, not proof of downstream actions. [3] [9]

Its 2023 Schedule I recorded a $92,050,000 grant to DonorsTrust, and the 2022 schedule reported $92,000,000 to that institution. In 2020 the same recipient received $12,482,846, as reported in the earlier IRS schedule. These year-specific amounts establish recurring institutional grants; they should not be summed together with DonorsTrust's subsequent grants and presented as one newly created pot of spending. [9] [12]

The 2020–2024 recipient index also identifies grants to the Federalist Society, Turning Point USA, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Foundation for Government Accountability, legal advocacy organizations and state-policy groups. ProPublica additionally documented 2020 grants to the Public Interest Legal Foundation and Students for Fair Admissions, as well as grants to Speech First in 2020–2021. This identifies institutional funding relationships; it does not determine whether particular litigants' legal positions were directed by the grantor. [6] [9]

Consulting, services and Leo-related network ties

The 85 Fund's 2024 Form 990 Schedule O describes an important ongoing relationship with CRC Advisors, a for-profit public-affairs and consulting firm. The filing expressly describes the services furnished and says independent board procedures and outside advisers were used to assess compensation arrangements. It also itemizes $36,804,575 in a separate aggregate consulting, advocacy, research and payroll-services expense category; that category is not a verified dollar amount paid solely to CRC Advisors. [2]

A prior ProPublica investigation, examining 2021 nonprofit filings, reported that The 85 Fund paid approximately $22 million to CRC Advisors in that year and that Leonard Leo chaired the consulting company. The nonprofit–contractor relationship and payments are material recorded facts; a transaction involving an associated firm is not, without additional evidence, a finding that the expenditure was unlawful or that all proceeds benefited Leo personally. [6]

Leo is reported to have played a strategic role in a broader constellation of conservative advocacy and grantmaking organizations. In September 2024 Axios reported that he was conducting a review of The 85 Fund's grantmaking priorities and sending a letter to supported groups. This is a documented association with the funding strategy rather than a representation that he held an unreported 2024 voting-board seat at The 85 Fund. [10]

Public campaigns, legal disputes and scrutiny

Under its Honest Elections Project name, the organization became active in debates over election administration, voting rules and litigation. A 2020 Guardian investigation connected the project to the older Judicial Education Project name and documented its relationship to the Concord Fund/Judicial Crisis Network. The activities attracted criticism from voting-rights advocates and support from conservative election-law advocates. [5]

ProPublica's 2022 reporting traced grants from Leo-associated nonprofits to organizations engaged in litigation on elections, anti-discrimination policies and college admissions. Separately, congressional lawmakers scrutinized the structure of the 85 Fund–Concord Fund pair and use of alternate registered names. Publicly attributable allegations and watchdog interpretations should remain labeled as such; the existence of grants, cases, documents and speakers is documented independently. [6] [7]

The 2022 disclosure that businessman Barre Seid transferred an interest in Tripp Lite to the separately incorporated Marble Freedom Trust, under Leo's leadership, is important context for the larger funding environment, but the disclosure does not identify The 85 Fund as the recipient of Seid's entire $1.6 billion transfer. The Marble trust, 85 Fund, DonorsTrust and Teneo must remain distinct graph entities until an original record establishes a particular transfer or governance relationship. [11]

Chronology

  • 2004: Organizational formation year reported on The 85 Fund's Form 990. [2]
  • 2011: IRS records federal tax-exempt recognition. [1]
  • Late 2019–2020: Judicial Education Project renamed The 85 Fund; Honest Elections Project adopted as a program/alternate name, according to contemporary reporting. [5]
  • 2020: The organization reports $65.78 million revenue. [2]
  • 2021–2022: ProPublica examines donations to litigation groups and contractor payments. [6]
  • 2023: Its IRS Schedule I reports $92.05 million to DonorsTrust. [12]
  • 2024: $168.53 million revenue; $118.17 million in grants, including $67.9 million to DonorsTrust. [1] [3]
  • November 2025: FY2024 return recorded by nonprofit filing indexes. [1]

Documented connections

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Sources

  1. The 85 Fund, EIN 20-2466871, IRS Form 990 data and filings for 2020–2024, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer
  2. The 85 Fund, 2024 Form 990: financials, leadership, program narrative and Schedule O text
  3. The 85 Fund, 2024 Form 990 Schedule I, grants paid to named organizations
  4. Named institutional grants received by The 85 Fund, compiled from grantors' 2019–2024 filings
  5. The Guardian, May 27, 2020, investigation of Judicial Education Project, The 85 Fund and Honest Elections Project
  6. ProPublica / The Lever, December 2022 investigation of grants and vendor payments in Leonard Leo-associated nonprofits
  7. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Senate floor account of The 85 Fund and Concord Fund identities, August 2021
  8. DonorsTrust 2024 IRS Form 990 Schedule I: grants to The 85 Fund and Teneo Network
  9. The 85 Fund IRS-derived grant dataset, identified recipient amounts and years
  10. Axios, September 12, 2024, Leonard Leo's grantmaking review and Teneo reference
  11. ProPublica, Barre Seid, Leonard Leo and the separate Marble Freedom Trust, August 2022
  12. The 85 Fund, FY2023 IRS Schedule I, grants to DonorsTrust and other recipients

CRC Advisors: three verified annual contractor payments

The 85 Fund's original IRS Form 990 independent-contractor disclosures list payments to CRC Advisors of $21,715,382 in 2021, $21,360,985 in 2022 and $24,913,865 in 2023. Sources: IRS filing history, original 2022 return, 2023 return. The $36,804,575 reported in an aggregated 2024 expenses category is not solely CRC's fee; these vendor payments are separate from grant transfers.