A watchdog group that has attacked the private-equity industry is hitting up donors for fresh funds ahead of an anticipated crackdown by the Trump administration on ‘political’ nonprofits, according to one DC insider.
Sources said the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) — which outlined a mission in a recent social media post to “expose abuses, bring transparency, and fight to hold this industry accountable to people, not profits” — is now scrambling for cash, sources said.
Specifically, the Chicago-based group has asked supporters to donate on ‘Giving Tuesday’ ahead of an expected 2026 Treasury and IRS probe of the latest tax filings by so-called 501(c)3 nonprofit groups.
“It is more like Terrified Tuesday,” said one DC insider of the outfit that is often name-checked by left-wing firebrands such as AOC and Elizabeth Warren.
George Soros’s Open Society Policy Center, another nonprofit that could be in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, donated a total of $400,000 to PESP from 2021 to 2022. The donations stopped in 2023, according to the latest available filings for both outfits.
“All you have to do is look at who works at these places, their pronouns, and the sort of political activism they have been engaged in,” the source said. “They’ve handed in their homework, and now it’s going to get graded.”
A well-placed source said 501(c)3 organizations will face “heavy scrutiny” if they “blur their lines” between genuine advocacy and political activism. In addition to Soros’ Open Society, that could put left-wing groups, including Black Lives Matter, under the microscope, the source said.
Insiders pointed to Chicago-based PESP’s move to raise money that “would help fund potential lawsuits with the federal government.”
“The administration has a laundry list of suspects who have been using and abusing their non-profit tax status,” the source added. “No one is against political work. But you need to pay your fair share of taxes.”
Trump administration sources confirmed to The Post that multiple 501(c)3s — named after the section of the US tax code that was initially intended to grant tax breaks to various nonprofits such as charities, schools and religious groups — are on the radar of senior officials at Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service.
“We have to get it right on the first shot. Everything we do has to be iron-clad,” one person familiar with the matter said in a thinly veiled reference to a possible legal challenge.
Indeed, one well-connected DC lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned Trump officials: “Anything that smacks of political vendetta simply won’t fly in court.”
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Fox News reported in June how PESP staffers were vocal supporters of anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country, with one employee calling herself “a disciplined Communist” who enjoyed hobbies such as “queer line dancing.”
“Your claim that ‘PESP is bracing itself for a crackdown on non-profits’ is totally false. What is your source for this?” Sam Garin, a spokesperson for the group, said in an email response with a signature that displayed (she/they) pronouns.
Garin declined to comment further when pressed by The Post about allegations the group was “political,” instead supplying a link to a Wikipedia page about “Giving Tuesday”.
The group’s latest available annual tax filing, which nonprofits call a 990 form, describes its mission as showing how private equity “impacts on human rights, jobs, housing, consumers and the environment.”
Its executive director, Jim Baker, earns just over $102,000 per year for working a 40-hour week, the same source shows.
Private equity firms like Apollo Global Management, Blackstone and KKR pool money from wealthy clients, pension funds and institutions to buy underperforming companies and then turn them around to be sold for a profit.
Critics note that buyout firms, in some case,s have slashed jobs to reap fat dividends for themselves, sometimes leaving companies on shaky footing.
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