President Joe Biden’s reelection effort will count on help from some anonymous friends.
In the 2024 general election, President Biden will be supported by numerous campaign committees and funds. One of the most significant will be FF PAC, also known as Future Forward. FF PAC has collected and will likely continue to collect millions from a nonprofit group, Future Forward Action USA, that shares leadership and a name with FF PAC.
According to FF PAC’s year-end financial summary filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Jan. 31, the hybrid political action committee brought in $25.3 million in total receipts in 2023. Future Forward Action USA sent FF PAC about $8.3 million, or about a third of its total fundraising for the year.
In 2020, when then Vice President Joe Biden was squaring off against incumbent President Donald Trump, Future Forward USA Action was one of the most important benefactors of FF PAC. According to FEC records, it sent FF PAC $61 million between 2019 and 2020. That’s around 40 percent of the about $151.4 million FF PAC collected in the cycle.
For the 2022 midterm cycle, Future Forward Action USA sent about $16.3 million to FF PAC. That’s around 53.4 percent of the about $30.6 million FF PAC raised between 2021 and 2022.
Future Forward USA Action is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)(4). This type of organization, according to the Internal Revenue Service, is often a so-called social welfare organization. The agency also bars private enrichment and supporting or opposing a specific political candidate. However, social welfare organizations are allowed to engage in some political activities as long as they are not the primary activity.
FF PAC is a hybrid PAC. It can solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions, and other political committees, according to the FEC. It must maintain two bank accounts—one for independent spending on advertisements or voter drives and another for making direct contributions to federal candidates.
As a 501(c)(4) group, Future Forward USA Action is not subject to the same disclosure requirements as other funds associated with political campaigns. FF PAC, President Biden’s principal campaign committee, Joe Biden for President, and his nonqualified joint fundraising committee, Biden Victory Fund, must release their financial information to the public on a regular basis.
In an election year like 2024, the FEC requires monthly disclosures of who’s giving money to these funds, how the funds are spending it, how much money the funds have in the bank, and which federal candidates the funds are spending to support or oppose.
For instance, in 2020, FF PAC reported it spent about $74 million to back the Biden effort and about $54.4 million to fight President Trump. In 2022, it spent about $8.6 million to oppose television personality Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and about $2 million to endorse now Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), along with similar transactions supporting Democrat candidates for Senate.
Furthermore, the most significant donors are limited in how much they can give to a joint fundraising or campaign committee.
According to its FEC filings, the Biden Victory Fund is a nonqualified joint fundraising committee. That, according to the agency, means that it is a political committee working together with “one or more other political committees or unregistered organizations.”
A nonqualified fund, according to the FEC, can “receive limited financial and administrative support from a sponsoring organization that is not a corporation or a labor organization, such as a partnership or an unincorporated association.”
Future Forward USA Action is subject to no such requirements. Under the tax code, it doesn’t need to say who it’s getting its money from, doesn’t have a donation limit, and doesn’t need to report how much money it raised until the close of the tax year.
In effect, its spending activities in 2024 won’t be reported until the end of 2025.
The listed address for both Future Forward organizations is a UPS Store located near Seward Square in Washington. FF PAC’s statement of organization doesn’t list a phone number. Its 990 lists the phone number of the Washington-based MBA Consulting Group.
Future Forward USA Action in 2022, 2021, and 2020
FF PAC doesn’t have a website or social media presence. Future Forward USA Action maintains only a skeleton, two-page webpage that doesn’t list contact information. Instead, it gives the number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard.In 2022, according to its tax records, Future Forward USA Action brought in about $65.7 million in total revenue, about $61.5 million in total expenses, and had about $7.5 million in net assets.
It described its organizational mission as creating “a stronger American democracy and [advocating] for common sense solutions.” It said it spent $57.9 million on “quantitative and qualitative research on issues of national importance then ran media campaigns informed by that research.”
Moreover, Future Forward USA Action sent “grants and other assistance” to 29 organizations. FF PAC was listed as the largest recipient, getting about $12 million.
In 2021, according to its tax records, Future Forward USA Action brought in about $12.6 million, spent $16.8 million, and ended the year with $3.3 million in net assets. It listed similar activities as 2022. It made grants to six organizations, the largest being a grant of about $3.4 million to FF PAC.
In 2020, according to its tax records, Future Forward USA Action raised about $150.9 million, spent about $149.4 million, and ended the year with $6.9 million in net assets.
In the same year, it spent $148.2 million on the same activities as 2022 and 2021. Seventeen organizations received grants. The largest recipient was FF PAC, which got about $60.3 million.
Future Forward USA Action didn’t disclose its donors in any of those years.
