At a Glance
Budget (2024): $1.2 million
Located: Bismark, ND
Agenda
Dakota Resource Council is a radical environmental group in North Dakota. The group is part of a regional network of environmental activists that is funded by California-based interest groups.
Personnel and Affiliates
Dakota Resource Council is a member of the Western Organization of Resource Councils, which runs campaigns to drive up the cost of energy in the Great Plains and Mountain States. DRC executive director Scott Skokos is formerly a regional organizer for WORC. DRC has two representatives on the board of WORC.
WORC claims that “Racism and systemic oppression…have been embedded in the cultural and political fabric of the United States from the beginning.” WORC also admits, “We recognize that racism exists within our organization.”
According to InfluenceWatch, then-DRC board membrer Lisa Deville wrote in 2018 that “America was founded on genocide and rape culture of Earth” and “I believe this state [North Dakota] has skyrocketed itself to the top of most (sic) racist state in the country.”
Funding
In 2024, tax records show more than half of DRC’s money came from just two sources: The Western Organization of Resource Councils, based in Montana, and the Common Counsel Foundation, based in California.
The Common Counsel Foundation is a left-wing organization that sponsors and funds a number of “progressive” causes, including Black Lives Matter. Common Counsel has received funding from Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg’s foundation.
The Western Organization of Resource Councils acts as a “coordinating organization for eight left-leaning activist groups.” WORC has been funded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is also a major funder of gun control efforts, and the Schmidt Family Foundation, funded by California billionaire (and former Google executive) Eric Schmidt. WORC has also received more than $500,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a “dark money” group that funds a number of leftwing causes.
The Washington, DC-based “Partnership Project” is another major donor to the Dakota Resource Council. The Partnership Project has received more than $10 million from dark money sources and has funded a variety of leftwing and environmental activist groups.