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Gov. Gavin Newsom has helped to funnel more than $4.4 million in donations from organizations and powerful figures to a political nonprofit created by his spouse, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an analysis by The Post found.
The California Partners Project, a nonprofit launched by Siebel Newsom in 2020 to promote gender equality, has raked in a significant amount of cash from donors at the request of her hubby — thanks to a murky loophole, according to a review of nonprofit filings and state records.
The findings come as it was also revealed that Newsom helped push woke documentaries produced by another one of his wife’s pet projects, The Representation Project, into California classrooms.
Donors to the California Partners Project include Silicon Valley Bank ($100,000), the wealthy Pritzker family (almost $572,000), the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians ($1.9 million combined), Blue Shield of California Foundation ($50,000) and New Venture Fund ($100,000) — the last of which is a progressive “dark money” group.
Dark money groups refer to politically active non-profits that don’t have to disclose donors, unlike political action committees.
The sizeable donations to the California Partners Project were made as “behested payments,” with Newsom’s help. A behested payment is a donation made to a third party at the request of a public official, allowing pols to solicit unlimited money for initiatives or charities they favor.
The payments are not considered campaign contributions or personal gifts, but any donation of $5,000 or more in a calendar year must be reported.
“The whole concept of behested payments is disgusting,” railed Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for California governor.
“It’s literally corruption in plain sight. You can be certain that as governor, I will not be engaging in this corrupt practice and I will do everything in my power to ban it.”
Many of these donors have also benefited from Newsom’s seven years in the governor’s office, such as his lobbying for the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 and his blocking the Koi Nation from building a competing tribal casino north of San Francisco in 2024.
Newsom also gave Blue Shield a no-bid contract for COVID vaccinations early in the pandemic, while soliciting Blue Shield entities for $20.8 million in behested donations, according to state records.
Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor, told The Post that Newsom’s “decisions are based solely on serving the best interests of all Californians.”
“Charitable contributions play no role in his decision-making,” Gardon wrote in an email. “Any claim to the contrary is categorically false.”
Dan Schnur, a teacher of political communications at USC and UC Berkeley, said the governor’s excessive use of behested payments to his wife’s charity is an “obvious loophole” in campaign finance law.
“They are not breaking any laws,” Schnur said, “but [Newsom] is following this law more aggressively than any other politician in modern memory.”
While the governor’s behested payments to the California Partners Project are legal — albeit ethically questionable — Siebel Newsom appears to have benefited from the donations while raking in a high salary for herself.
The governor’s wife does not draw a salary from the California Partners Project, but the organization has coordinated on projects that overlap with the mission of her other nonprofit, The Representation Project, which pays Siebel Newsom a $150,000 salary as founder and chief creative officer, according to IRS filings.
In late 2022, the California Partners Project and the Representation Project co-hosted a screening of Siebel Newsom’s film “Fair Play,” which focuses on the work women do in caring for their families. That screening was then documented in a glowing report by the state’s Commission on the Status of Women.
That nonprofit also appears to give an annual payment of $150,000 to Siebel Newsom’s production company, Girls Club Entertainment, according to the same filings.
The state-created California Volunteers Fund has also given thousands of dollars to the Representation Project. IRS filings show the California Volunteers Fund gave $5,000 to Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit in both 2023 and 2024.
Over the last 17 years, Girls Club Entertainment’s state business license has been suspended or flagged for delinquency multiple times for basic compliance failures — most recently in 2020.
Still, during this time, the company continued to take six-figure payments from the Representation Project, according to nonprofit records.
An official for the California Secretary of State’s office noted in an email to The Post that a business with a suspended license “loses its rights, powers, and privileges to do business in California.”
It’s unclear whether Siebel Newsom has received any additional compensation from her nonprofit, as the Representation Project’s vague annual disclosures of film expenses amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Officials for the Representation Project did not respond to requests for comment.
McKenzie Smith, a spokesperson for Siebel Newsom, declined to answer specific questions about finances but said in an email that there is a formal agreement between the California Partners Project and the Office of the First Partner to share resources to launch their advocacy campaigns.
Joan Harrington, a former director and current fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, called the financial dealings between the California Partners Project and the other entities linked to Siebel Newsom and the governor “very tangled.”
“Why didn’t those other organizations donate directly to the nonprofit? Why did they go through Newsom?” Harrington said, referring to the governor soliciting behested payments to his wife’s political nonprofit.
“If they are truly caring about those issues, they should be giving directly, and if they’re not giving directly, we come to a natural conclusion.”
To Harrington’s point, California Partners Project is a 501(c)(4) that cannot accept tax-deductible donations unless they go through the organization’s fiscal sponsor, the Central Valley Community Foundation.
Meanwhile, Siebel Newsom gets to parade around cultivating an image of a regal First Lady — erm, “First Partner” — as her gubby hubby weighs a run for president in 2028.
“What is she getting out of this?” Harrington said. “She is getting $300K and a raised profile.”
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