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, and closely aligned with, the Western Organization of Resource Councils, which runs campaigns to drive up the cost of energy in the Great Plains and Mountain States. WORC acts as a “coordinating organization for eight left-leaning activist groups.” DRC executive director Scott Skokos is formerly a regional organizer for WORC. DRC has two representatives on the board of WORC.
WORC’s platform includes “progressive” social causes and DEI initiatives. According to InfluenceWatch, a former DRC board membrer wrote that North Dakota is the “most racist state in the country” and that “America was founded on genocide.”
Out-of-State Funding
Despite billing itself as a “bottom up” and “grassroots” organization, 2024 tax records show more than half of DRC’s money came from just two out-of-state 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 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.
The Western Organization of Resource Councils itself is funded by donors from the East and West Coasts. 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.