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related: Charles Koch · Americans for Prosperity · Heritage Foundation · ALEC · Cato Institute · Donors Trust · Master Donor Database · Donor Registry - Master Index
Who They Are
Stand Together. Charles Koch’s rebranded philanthropic and political infrastructure — the operating system of the largest private political network in American history. Formerly known as Koch Seminars (2003) and Freedom Partners (2014–2020), Stand Together operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization based in Arlington, Virginia, with Brian Hooks as CEO. The organization is the central node in a constellation of foundations, think tanks, university programs, advocacy groups, super PACs, and litigation organizations, all ultimately controlled by Charles Koch’s wealth and ideological direction.
The full network (2024 cycle): The Koch political operation raised approximately $578 million and spent approximately $548 million during the 2024 cycle — making it the largest non-party political spending operation in America. The two flagship Koch entities, Americans for Prosperity (501(c)(4) advocacy, $397M raised) and Americans for Prosperity Action (super PAC, $181M raised), constitute the electoral arm. Stand Together and its sub-entities (Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, Stand Together Trust, Charles Koch Foundation, Charles Koch Institute) constitute the policy and philanthropic arm.
Stand Together moved approximately $176 million annually through its network in 2022 alone, distributing to 501(c)(3) nonprofits that function as both idea factories and political infrastructure. The total Koch network footprint — political spending, philanthropic grantmaking, academic funding, litigation support — exceeds $700M+ per cycle when all entities are combined.
The Koch Network Architecture
The Koch network is not a single organization — it is an ecosystem of legally distinct entities that function as a unified political operation:
| Entity | Type | Function | 2024 Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stand Together | 501(c)(3) | Philanthropic grantmaking, policy infrastructure | $176M+ annually |
| Stand Together Chamber of Commerce | 501(c)(6) | Dark money conduit to AFP/AFP Action | $43M to AFP Action |
| Americans for Prosperity (AFP) | 501(c)(4) | Grassroots organizing, issue advocacy, lobbying | $397M raised ($215M in 2024 alone — record) |
| Americans for Prosperity Action | Super PAC | Electoral spending, independent expenditures | $181M raised ($40M from Koch Industries, $43M from Stand Together CoC) |
| Charles Koch Foundation | 501(c)(3) | Academic grantmaking, university programs | $50M+ annually |
| Charles Koch Institute | 501(c)(3) | In-house think tank | Included in Stand Together budget |
| Koch Industries PAC | Traditional PAC | Direct candidate contributions | $40M to AFP Action (2024 cycle) |
| Donors Trust | 501(c)(3) | Donor-advised fund for anonymous Koch-aligned giving | $100M+ annually |
The money flow: Charles Koch’s personal wealth (net worth ~$128B) → Koch Industries profits → Stand Together entities → AFP/AFP Action → electoral spending. The 501(c)(3) arm (Stand Together, CKF) produces the policy ideas; the 501(c)(4) arm (AFP) organizes the grassroots pressure; the super PAC arm (AFP Action) spends on elections. Each entity has different disclosure requirements, allowing donors to choose their level of anonymity.
What They Want
Stand Together operates on a single strategic principle: convert billionaire wealth into policy-making capacity by funding every institution in the policy pipeline — from academic research to model legislation to electoral enforcement to judicial litigation.
Deregulation across all sectors: Environmental (EPA rollback, opposition to climate regulation), financial (Dodd-Frank opposition, derivatives protection), labor (anti-NLRB, right-to-work, independent contractor classification), healthcare (ACA subsidy opposition, Medicaid block grants). Koch Industries is one of the largest private conglomerates in America with operations in refining, chemicals, fertilizer, paper, and trading — every regulatory agency in the federal government oversees some Koch business.
Tax policy: Opposition to corporate tax increases, wealth taxes, capital gains reform, and estate tax restoration. The 2017 TCJA’s permanent corporate rate reduction from 35% to 21% was the Koch network’s single greatest legislative achievement. AFP launched a $20M “Protect Prosperity” campaign in January 2025 to pressure Congress to renew the TCJA provisions.
Education privatization: School choice, voucher programs, charter school expansion, and weakening of public education systems. Koch funding aligns with Jeffrey Yass’s school choice spending through Club for Growth — the two donors share this ideological commitment.
Criminal justice “reform” as libertarian state-reduction: Stand Together’s most sophisticated recent move — funding progressive-coded criminal justice reform (bail reform, sentencing reduction, prison closure) that actually advances Koch’s libertarian priority of reducing state capacity and public sector union strength.
Project 2025 infrastructure: Koch networks funneled $4.4M+ through Stand Together Trust to Project 2025 advisory groups in 2022 alone, alongside Leonard Leo’s $50.7M — building the personnel and policy infrastructure for the second Trump administration.
The $548 Million Political Operation (2024 Cycle)
The Koch network’s 2024 political spending was its largest ever:
Americans for Prosperity: Raised $397M (with $215M in 2024 alone — its biggest year in two decades). AFP’s grassroots infrastructure includes paid staff in 38 states, volunteer networks, canvassing operations, and phone banking. This is not just a check-writing operation — it’s a permanent political organizing machine that functions as a parallel Republican Party.
AFP Action (Super PAC): Raised $181M. Major funding sources: Koch Industries ($40M in two donations — May 2023 and July 2024), Stand Together Chamber of Commerce ($43M dark money pass-through). AFP Action shattered its election spending record in 2024, spending heavily on Senate, House, and state races.
2025 activity: AFP Action raised $28.9M in 2025 (off-year), including $6.5M from Stand Together Chamber of Commerce. AFP launched the $20M “Protect Prosperity” campaign targeting TCJA renewal — an ad blitz across all 50 states pressuring members of Congress to support permanent tax cuts.
ACA subsidy campaign: In late 2025, the Koch network launched a major campaign to kill ACA enhanced subsidies set to expire in 2025 — pressuring Republican members to oppose subsidy renewal, which would strip health insurance affordability provisions from millions of Americans while reducing federal spending (the Koch priority).
The Ideology Laundering Machine — Think Tanks and Academic Capture
Stand Together’s philanthropic arm funds the institutions that produce the intellectual justification for Koch policy priorities:
Think tanks: Heritage Foundation (model legislation factory), Cato Institute (libertarian messaging on drug policy, criminal justice, deregulation), Mercatus Center at George Mason University (academic credibility for deregulation — Koch’s flagship academic program). These institutions produce “research” that pre-determines conclusions aligned with Koch interests, then that research is cited by legislators as independent scholarship to justify Koch-preferred legislation.
Academic programs: Stand Together and Charles Koch Foundation fund over 350 programs across 200+ organizations, with particular focus on embedding libertarian economics in higher education. The strategy: produce the next generation of lawyers, regulators, economists, and legislators who arrive in government already aligned with Koch ideology — not because they were persuaded, but because their entire education was funded by Koch institutions.
The pipeline: Koch money → academic “research” → policy papers → model legislation (through ALEC) → state and federal legislation → judicial defense (through Koch-funded litigation organizations). This is a complete policy manufacturing pipeline from idea to law, funded by a single family’s wealth.
Criminal Justice “Reform” as Policy Laundering
Stand Together’s criminal justice funding is the clearest example of ideology laundering:
Koch network funding for criminal justice reform appears progressive but functions as libertarian state-capacity reduction. Bail reform reduces state power over pretrial detention. Prison closure advocacy reduces public sector employment and union membership. Sentencing reform reduces incarceration costs (the Koch priority) while being framed as reducing incarceration itself (the progressive priority). Police accountability focuses selectively on civil liability (reducing government cost) rather than structural reform.
The effect: Koch money appears to back progressive causes while actually advancing deregulation and state-capacity reduction. Progressives accept the funding and claim victories. Koch advances his agenda. Both sides claim alignment. Policy is designed by the donor class and laundered through progressive branding.
The $30M+ annual Koch investment in criminal justice reform is not philanthropy — it is policy infrastructure disguised as social justice.
Class Analysis
Money
Stand Together is the most sophisticated donor-class infrastructure operation in American politics. The $578M raised in the 2024 cycle — funneled through a dozen legally distinct entities with different disclosure requirements — represents one family’s attempt to reshape American governance according to libertarian ideology that happens to perfectly align with their corporate interests. Charles Koch’s $128B fortune derives from Koch Industries, a conglomerate regulated by the EPA, OSHA, the SEC, the CFTC, and a dozen other agencies. Every dollar Stand Together spends on deregulation advocacy directly protects Koch Industries’ profit margins.
The structure is designed for maximum influence with minimum accountability. Stand Together (501(c)(3)) produces the policy ideas. AFP (501(c)(4)) organizes the grassroots pressure. AFP Action (super PAC) spends on elections. Donors Trust anonymizes the giving. Stand Together Chamber of Commerce passes dark money to the super PAC. Koch Industries PAC makes direct corporate contributions. Each entity has different disclosure requirements — the network can spend $548M on politics while maintaining the fiction that each entity is independent and that the philanthropic arm is separate from the political arm.
The criminal justice “reform” funding reveals the strategy most clearly: Koch money funds progressive-coded reforms that actually reduce state capacity and public sector unions — advancing Koch’s libertarian agenda while earning progressive goodwill. This is policy laundering at industrial scale. The $176M in annual philanthropic distribution is not charity — it is the infrastructure cost of remaking American government according to one billionaire’s specifications. The think tanks produce the ideas. The universities train the operatives. ALEC writes the model legislation. AFP organizes the grassroots pressure. AFP Action funds the elections. The judges are vetted by the Federalist Society (Koch-aligned). The entire pipeline from idea to law is Koch-funded, Koch-directed, and Koch-profitable.
Sources
- EXPOSEDbyCMD: Charles Koch’s “Stand Together” donor conduits move $176M — 2022 network mapping (Tier 2)
- EXPOSEDbyCMD: Koch super PAC shatters election spending record — 2024 cycle $548M (Tier 2)
- OpenSecrets: Koch network’s flagship super PAC pours big money into 2024 elections (Tier 1)
- NBC News: Leo, Koch networks pour millions into Project 2025 groups — $55M+ (Tier 2)
- Read Sludge: Koch network fuels Republican push to kill ACA subsidies (Tier 2)
- InfluenceWatch: Stand Together — organizational profile (Tier 2)
- Wikipedia: Stand Together (Tier 3)
- Wikipedia: Koch network (Tier 3)
- SourceWatch: Stand Together Foundation (Tier 3)
- Charles Koch Foundation — Learn & Work Ecosystem Library (Tier 3)
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