The Right’s $1.2B Nonprofit Ecosystem Targeting Young People, Particularly Men, and their Media
The Left Hasn't Made Similar Scale Investments
Voters 18-29 swung 11 points to Trump from 2020 to 2024 (and roughly 15 points for men 18-29), larger than any other age group. This was not a coincidence. And this shift wasn’t because of Kamala Harris’ position on tax policy, for example (although young adults are largely progressive on these issues). The right has built a sustained and well-funded effort around organizing young people and building a robust media ecosystem primarily focused on them.
To illustrate this focus, we tracked the contributions made to right-leaning non-profits focused on young adults and new media. We found over $1.2 billion in contributions over the last five years to a constellation of at least 20 right-leaning nonprofit groups (it’s likely significantly more–a number have yet to file their 2023 forms, and there are a number of smaller organizations). Funding on the left pales in comparison. This is on top of the billions of explicitly political spending invested to elect Trump.
These groups have been especially focused on targeting young men. Turning Point’s founder and president, Charlie Kirk, wrote shortly before the election, “Early vote has been disproportionately female. If men stay at home, Kamala is president. It’s that simple. If you want a vision of the future if you don't vote, imagine Kamala's voice cackling, forever. Men need to GO VOTE NOW.” Kirk also said, “If you are a man in this country and you don't vote for Donald Trump, you're not a man.”
There is a vigorous conversation happening on the left about whether we could, or should, try to create a media ecosystem to compete. While many (fairly) argue that online talent often develops organically, that argument ignores that there is a massive, sustained effort to grow and nurture smaller talent on the right, which amplifies and feeds the broader right-leaning echo chamber. Democrats, and the left more broadly, can’t rely on a robust network of creators if those figures are not making a living–and shaping opinion and culture–in non-presidential years. Regaining lost ground to engage and communicate with young people will take time and be enormously expensive, but not trying isn’t an option.
Almost $800 Million on Organizing Young People, Led by Turning Point
In the last five years, ten of the largest right-leaning nonprofits focused on young people have raised $780 million, including $305 million for Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action (its c4 arm). The other groups are Young America's Foundation, Leadership Institute, Students for Life of America, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Foundation For Excellence In Higher Education Inc, Students for Liberty, Young Americans for Liberty Foundation and the National Association of Scholars.
Turning Point Action said they “trained over 6,000 grassroots leaders at the first-ever action conference, hosted seven regional events with over 17,000 attendees, and organized 30 community events that engaged hundreds of thousands of community members.” Students for Liberty said they “conducted trainings for 6,319 student volunteer participants that engage with thousands of student groups across the world during fy23.” This is not limited to those eligible to vote: Turning Point has also built an extensive high school network.
The Right’s $400M Digital-First Media Ecosystem, Led by PragerU’s Use of “Influencer-Intellectuals”
After the election, Taylor Lorenz wrote “Ultimately, there will never be a ‘Joe Rogan of the left’ or ‘Nelk boys of the left’ because there is no funding or institutional Democratic support to even begin to form such a network. There appears to be zero appetite from the Democratic party establishment to embrace left-leaning populist messaging and policies.” There was a fair amount of mockery of the column, with commenters making the (accurate) point that Rogan has been an entertainer for decades.
But focusing on Rogan misses Lorenz’s larger point: that the right has been pouring money into building an ecosystem for years. In the last five years, ten of the largest digital-first nonprofits on the right have raised $420 million, led by PragerU’s $245 million. (The other groups are: Project Veritas, Real Clear Foundation, Informing America Foundation, Free to Choose Network, Daily Caller News Foundation, Epoch Times Association, American Private Radio, Emergent Order Foundation, and Free the People Fight the Power Foundation).
PragerU says they “promote American values through the creative use of digital media, as our mission. Taking full advantage of today's technology and social media, we educate millions of Americans and young people about the values that make America great.” Tyler Leeds calls their approach “strategic hybridity” using “influencer-intellectuals,” writing that “PragerU mingles the charisma of influencers, the credentials of professors, and the targeted precision of social media ads—combining resources from social media fame, the academy, and online marketing.”
All of this is in addition to the many for-profit right-leaning media properties consumed by younger audiences, such as the Daily Wire, Evie (a Peter Thiel-backed women’s lifestyle site), and yes, Rogan, Barstool and the Nelk Boys. Today is America is a private company, but at one point claimed to support “over 320 influencers” with a “creator fund.” And Russia understood the power of this murky space, paying Tenet Media $10 million to create posts supporting their position on the war in Ukraine.
These Organizations are Training, Supporting and Promoting Hundreds of Creators
Charlie Kirk has said, “We made long-term investments in creators and in influential voices that we believe will be the opinion shapers of tomorrow.” Turning Point claims that “Over the past five years, TPUSA has partnered with hundreds of dynamic personalities and content creators, from in-house contributors crafting content five days a week to influencers seamlessly integrating the message of freedom into their online presence.”
Hasan Piker wasn’t being facetious when he complained “i got 7.5 million live views on my election night coverage but i dont have the backing of right wing donors that do pr for me so i assume it doesn't warrant a vanity fair article.” TPUSA assures applicants to its program that “Our dedicated Public Relations team relentlessly pitches our influencers to relevant media outlets, resulting in numerous appearances on Fox News, Fox Business, Real America’s Voice, Newsmax, and many more.” Young Voices says they provide, “pro bono op-ed editing, pitching, and broadcast interview placement services to talented writers ages 18-35 knowledgeable in the classical liberal tradition. Our fiscal year 2023 was the most successful to date for the program, successfully placing 1,929 media hits (e.g. op-ed, radio, TV, podcast, etc.) in noted outlets including Fox News, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, reaching an estimated audience of 74 million.”
The Right Has Long Understood the Power of Investing in Media
In 1993, Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, led by Paul Weyrich, started National Empowerment Television, which they claimed carried “its message of cultural conservatism and anti-Establishment politics into more than 11 million homes.” Weyrich said, “In any kind of battle, communication is number one.” At the time, Free Congress was the third highest recipient of funding from conservative foundations.
Today, even older forms of right-leaning nonprofit media continue to receive significant investment from foundations. Reason Foundation, National Review Institute, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, American Studies Center/ Radio America, Foundation for Cultural Review, Middle East Media And Research Institute Inc, Franklin News Foundation, FDRLST Media Foundation, American Ideas Institute (American Conservative) and Encounter for Culture and Education have raised a combined $200 million in the last five years.
At Young Men Research Initiative, we think it is critical to better understand the media ecosystems that impact young men and will be devoting more time and resources in 2025 to explaining the gaps, highlighting the imbalances in support, and laying out some of the opportunities to address the problems going forward.