Kansas Reflector’s Soros-connected parent collects record cash in 2024, but loses even more

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — States Newsroom, the nonprofit online media organization bankrolling left-biased Internet publications like The Kansas Reflector in multiple states, spiked a near 61 percent increase in donor cash between 2023 and 2024 according to IRS 990 tax filings.

It needed the money, those tax records show, because expenses mostly in payroll have toppled the leftist organ into the red the past two years, even after 2024’s record donations haul.

States Newsroom, its subsidiaries and the politics of its donors have become a particular focal point of conservative interest in recent weeks, after a Kansas Reflector writer attacked Kansas Republican gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson when the office seeker and Kansas Senate President called out the Reflector for its leftwing bias. Masterson noted the Reflector’s advocacy mechanics of providing its biased content free to struggling local media, as well as its ancestral funding tracked through patchworks of donations to billionaire progressive George Soros and other known liberal monied activists – who also fund Democrat political operations.

Despite denials by Reflector staffers, public records show Soros’ philanthropic network, primarily the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and its affiliates, made significant grants to the D.C.-based Arabella Advisors network of 501c3 funds over recent years. These grants have included contributions to several Arabella-managed non-profits including the Hopewell Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, and others, according to the Capital Research Center. The Hopewell Fund incubated and provided direct financial support to States Newsrooms until SN obtained its own 501c3 in 2019.

According to financial data aggregated from public filings and reported by Capital Research Center, Open Society Foundations entities gave tens of millions to Arabella-managed nonprofits from 2018 through 2022, with a notable portion going to the Hopewell Fund (around $16.8 million in that period). States Newsrooms claims to receive no present funding from Hopewell, but lists the similarly-leftist focused Wyss Foundation among its major funders. Wyss has demonstrated financial and partnership ties to Arabella and its funds, as well as others pressing climate and other political initiatives.

In reporting from Olathe-based data scientist Earl Glynn at Watchdoglab.substack.com, Soros-related nonprofits also sent grants of some $10 million to the Hopewell Fund’s “Free Election Fund” project and other amounts to Arabella-linked funds as part of broader funding strategies in 2023.

That swirl of organizational funding as well as States Newsroom’s claims of individual contributions ramped the organization’s revenues from just under $7 million in 2019 to more than $27 million in 2024. According to IRS Form 990 filings compiled by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, States Newsroom reported $27.45 million in revenue for fiscal year 2024, up from $17.09 million in 2023. Over that same one-year span, expenses increased to $29.39 million from $25.37 million, or about 16%.

The numbers reflect a nonprofit that has scaled quickly since its tax-exempt recognition in 2019, and that appears to have entered 2024 with spending increases that continued to surpass even its record fundraising mark. The ramp up of spending in both the 2022 and 2024 election years is a coincidence that doesn’t go unnoticed by those following the organization.

ProPublica’s extracted Form 990 data lists the following totals:

• 2019: Revenue $6.98M; Expenses $2.08M; Net +$4.91M
• 2020: Revenue $9.98M; Expenses $9.68M; Net +$0.30M
• 2021: Revenue $21.64M; Expenses $13.18M; Net +$8.45M
• 2022: Revenue $23.40M; Expenses $18.73M; Net +$4.67M
• 2023: Revenue $17.09M; Expenses $25.37M; Net –$8.28M
• 2024: Revenue $27.45M; Expenses $29.39M; Net –$1.93M

While revenue ends the period far above early-year levels, the filings also show a notable deficit in 2023 followed by a smaller deficit in 2024, suggesting 2024’s revenue gains narrowed but did not erase the gap between income and spending. In 2024, ProPublica’s extracted data indicates contributions accounted for nearly all revenue, about $27.15 million, or 98.9%.

States Newsroom says it is funded by a broad base of individual contributions and institutional grants, and it lists on its supporters page all donors who have given more than $1,000 since becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The organization emphasizes it has received more than 100,000 contributions under $1,000 in addition to larger gifts.

While States Newsroom does not publish a year-by-year donor list in its 990s, public statements and independent sources identify several significant institutional funders over the years:

• The Wyss Foundation — Wikipedia citations note a $1 million gift in 2020, making it one of SN’s earliest large supporters.
• Pew Charitable Trusts — Provided a $3 million grant according to Nieman Lab to support the transition and incorporation of Stateline, an established policy news service that became part of States Newsroom in 2023. Pew has often supported left-leaning interests including climate initiatives reduction of incarceration for criminals.

Separately, States Newsroom collaborates with news-funding entities that supply reporting resources which may be tied to supported reporting positions or fellowships, distinct from direct operating gifts. These include Report for America, a national program funded by grants that places journalists in underreported community newsrooms, often criticized as left-leaning due to its general staff coverage and foundational funding from Google News Lab. SN’s website also lauds its partnerships with organizations like NPR Midwest Newsrooms, a network of public radio stations across the center of the country embracing the influence of NPR’s documented liberal and progressive programming and coverage bias. That editorial slant prompted President Trump to end federal funding for NPR July 2025.

According to the IRS filing data available through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, States Newsroom’s expenses for 2024 of $29,387,263 included $17,522,698 in salaries and other wages, about 59.6 percent, and $60,500 in professional fundraising fees.. Key personnel payroll on that tax filing included:

• Christopher Fitzsimon (President & Director): $238,813 (+ $20,288 benefits)
• Scott Greenberger (Stateline Executive Editor): $186,809 (+ $38,490 benefits)

Despite the strong revenue rebound, States Newsroom still posted an operating loss of approximately $1.93 million in 2024, though that deficit was far smaller than the $8.28 million shortfall reported in 2023, according to the same filings.

With the political leanings of States Newsrooms major funders so well defined, the political contributions of its employees provides no particular surprises. Earl Glynn’s research into FEC contributions by those identifying as States Newsroom employees in electronically filed reports showed 19 out of 19 contributors donated to Democrat candidates or aligned causes:

In an editorial published recently in The Kansas Informer, Salina attorney Jay Vanier questions whether the level of advocacy apparent in coverage from States Newsrooms reporting vehicles justifies a 501c3 (non-partisan, non-profit) designation under federal tax codes, and whether instead the organizations’ publications should operate under “advocacy” provisions as 501c4s.

“The real question, then, is not which box is checked on an IRS form, but whether the Kansas Reflector in practice operates like a neutral charitable newsroom or like an advocacy outlet shaping political outcomes,” Vanier writes. “If an outlet’s consistent framing, editorial posture, and strategic emphasis resemble activism by another name, it is fair to ask whether a 501(c)(4) structure would be a more honest fit for the Reflector than a 501(c)(3) label that depends on nonpartisan credibility.”

Vanier said Kansas voters can decide for themselves what they think of that.

“But they should be clear-eyed about what the Kansas Reflector is: not a lone local paper, but a state-branded outlet inside a national network, financed by national donors, operating under a legal structure that carries public expectations of nonpartisan restraint,” he said.