It's money Dave, from BIG corporations, laundered through successive levels of activist groups. Here is a list of donors to the Ruckus Society:
Funding From Foundations & Corporations | Total Donated | Time Frame | ||
Turner Foundation | $115,000.00 | 1996 - 1999 | ||
Ben & Jerry's Foundation | $111,000.00 | 1998 - 2001 | ||
Prentice Foundation | $72,300.00 | 2000 - 2000 | ||
Body Shop Foundation | $40,000.00 | 2000 - 2000 | ||
Solidago Foundation | $40,000.00 | 1999 - 2000 | ||
Max & Anna Levinson Foundation | $40,000.00 | 1997 - 1999 | ||
As You Sow Foundation | $30,000.00 | 1997 - 2000 | ||
Patagonia Fund | $30,000.00 | 2000 - 2000 | ||
Agape Foundation | $23,000.00 | 2000 - 2000 | ||
Angelica Foundation | $17,000.00 | 1999 - 2000 | ||
Foundation for Deep Ecology | $15,000.00 | 1999 - 2000 | ||
Patagonia, Inc. | $15,000.00 | 2001 - 2001 | ||
Threshold Foundation | $12,060.00 | 1998 - 1999 | ||
Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation | $11,000.00 | 1997 - 2000 | ||
Tides Foundation & Tides Center | $23,400.00 | 1999 - 2000 | ||
Ecology Center, Inc. | $8,600.00 | 1998 - 1998 | ||
Friends of the Earth | $5,000.00 |
Now, lest you think that these are mostly small time companies run by wealthy renegades, check out the likes of the Tides Center who got nearly $100,000,000 from the Pew Charitable Trusts, and millions more from the Rockefeller, Packard, Jones, Ford, and McArthur Foundations. These same foundations fund groups such as the Foundation for Deep Ecology, As You Sow, etc.
The point is that the money tree is multilayered for laundering purposes. Turner is one of the few who will fund the more radical groups directly.