The political advocacy group Opportunity Wisconsin tells voters it is a “coalition of Wisconsin residents fighting for an economy that works for working people.”
The website features local testimonials from Wisconsin voters to support its campaign efforts against Republicans Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Rep. Bryan Steil (with an intense focus on Van Orden), but behind the Wisconsin facade is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit.
District of Columbia corporate records identify Opportunity Wisconsin as a trade name of the North Fund, a Washington-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Opportunity Wisconsin’s own rules identify its sponsor as “North Fund, d/b/a Opportunity Wisconsin.”
In other words, Opportunity Wisconsin is the public-facing name. North Fund is the legal nonprofit entity operating it. 501(c)(4) organizations generally are not required to publicly identify their donors. Political and issue advocacy spending routed through such organizations can make the original sources of the money difficult for voters to trace — commonly known as dark money.
Opportunity Wisconsin launched Jan. 30, 2020, as an issue campaign focused on President Donald Trump’s economic record. Its initial public steering committee included Wisconsin business owners, community leaders and labor representatives. The public facing organization was Wisconsin, but the legal structure was not.
The Washington Examiner reported in January 2026 that Opportunity Wisconsin operates as a North Fund trade name and was running a seven-figure advertising campaign targeting Wisconsin Republicans, including Van Orden and and Steil.
The Washington Free Beacon previously documented the same relationship in 2022, when Opportunity Wisconsin spent roughly $4 million on television advertising targeting Sen. Ron Johnson. The organization has continued operating under the Opportunity Wisconsin name through the 2026 election cycle.
Opportunity Wisconsin is not a separate Wisconsin charity operating independently of North Fund. It is a public-facing project operated under the North Fund legal entity.
North Fund’s financial records have also placed it within a nonprofit network associated with Arabella Advisors, a Washington-based consulting firm that provided administrative and fiscal-sponsorship services to a collection of large progressive nonprofits.
Organizations associated with that network include the Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund and Windward Fund.
In 2019, Sixteen Thirty Fund supplied essentially all of North Fund’s reported revenue, he group’s revenue subsequently increased dramatically the next year. According to Influence Watch, the North Fund’s total revenue jumped to $66.6 million in 2020 (up from $9.3 million in 2019).
The primary catalysts behind this 2020 funding surge included:
The New Venture Fund: Another prominent entity within the Arabella Advisors managed network, it injected $11 million into the organization that same year.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund: This fellow progressive powerhouse granted the North Fund approximately $30 million—accounting for nearly half of the organization’s total 2020 revenue.
Arabella Advisors announced in November 2025 that it had ceased operations, with its fiscal-sponsorship business moving to Sunflower Services, but the change did not end Opportunity Wisconsin’s activities in Wisconsin elections.
One Nonprofit, Multiple Names
The significance of this network is one nonprofit entity operates multiple public-facing advocacy projects under different names while reporting its finances through the same legal organization.
Among the projects and trade names associated with North Fund are:
Opportunity Wisconsin — economic and political advocacy in Wisconsin
51 for 51 — advocacy concerning District of Columbia statehood
Voting Rights Lab Action — state voting-law advocacy
Accountable Tech, Design It For Us and Log Off Movement — technology-regulation campaigns
Just Democracy, Count Every Vote Project and Free and Fair Elections USA — voting and election-related advocacy
Democracy Docket Action Fund — advocacy and reported support involving Democratic-aligned redistricting litigation
Some watchdog databases identify additional projects in this network when more relationships are included.
When Wisconsin voters see a Wisconsin-branded organization campaigning against Derrick Van Orden or Bryan Steil, it’s important to identify who is actually behind the organization and who is ultimately providing the money. The answer is more complicated than the “Wisconsin” name suggests.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series examining Opportunity Wisconsin, North Fund, Rebecca Cooke and the financial and organizational relationships surrounding the group.
