A nonprofit that previously served as a conduit for millions of dollars from Elon Musk and has deep ties to some of Musk’s closest political associates reported a sudden surge in funding during the 2024 election cycle, according to newly obtained tax records.
Building America’s Future, a conservative “social welfare” organization, raised nearly $100 million in 2024, its newly filed Form 990 shows. About $74.5 million of that total came from a single anonymous donor.
The group injected tens of millions in “dark money” into pro-Trump super PACs, spent millions more directly on political ads, and was behind a deceptive digital campaign claiming to be tied to Kamala Harris. Its total spending on the year topped $98 million, according to the filing.
Musk and a shell company he controls are known to have spent at least $288 million in 2024 on helping to elect Donald Trump and Republicans. If the $74.5 million donation to Building America’s Future was made by Musk, his total support would surpass $360 million.
An inquiry sent to Tesla did not receive a response as of publication.
In its early years, Building America’s Future existed as a relatively small pro-business advocacy group. In 2020, the organization reported raising just a few hundred thousand dollars. But its financial profile changed sharply ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, tens of millions of dollars that passed through Building America’s Future in 2022 came from Elon Musk. The money was routed through the group and sent onward to Citizens for Sanity, another dark money group that spent heavily on attack ads targeting Democrats in battleground states.
The Journal reported that Musk’s involvement was designed to avoid public disclosure, using intermediary nonprofits and limited-liability companies. Around the same time Musk became a donor, Building America’s Future replaced its board of directors and rapidly expanded its fundraising and political spending.
According to the filing, Building America’s Future raised approximately $99.8 million in 2024. The filing does not identify the source of its $74.5 million contribution. It says only that the money came from an individual, whose identity remains shielded from public scrutiny under federal law.
The donation came as Musk was publicly embracing Donald Trump’s candidacy and pouring money into Republican causes through other vehicles, including a super PAC he launched to support Trump’s reelection.
To help steer his work for Trump, in the summer of last year Musk hired political consultants Generra Peck and Phil Cox, both of whom are tied to Building America’s Future.
Peck was formerly the group’s president, and she maintained a working relationship with the group as of this past August, when she was quoted in news articles as a spokesperson.
Cox runs a firm called P2 Public Affairs that has multiple ties to the group. P2 employs Building America’s Future’s executive director, Katherine Neal, as a senior vice president. P2 principal Katie Miller was working as a senior advisor for Building America’s Future as recently as September 2024, before she was named by President-elect Trump to join the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Miller is the spouse of Trump advisor Stephen Miller.
In 2022, Building America’s Future functioned as a pass-through for funds that fueled Citizens for Sanity’s midterms advertising blitz. Citizens for Sanity was staffed by employees of America First Legal, the conservative legal organization founded by Stephen Miller. Its ads attacked Democrats on immigration and transgender health care and aired heavily in swing states in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.
Building America’s Future has been tied to a deceptive digital campaign during the 2024 election season that attempted to link Kamala Harris to a fictitious “Project 2028” initiative. The project involved digital ads and text messages that claimed to show Harris endorsing policies like a mandatory gun buy-back program, expanding social welfare support for undocumented immigrants, and other controversial issues.
Project 2028 was run by IMGE LLC, according to OpenSecrets, a public relations firm where Cox is a senior partner. IMGE LLC also worked in 2024 with Musk’s America PAC and several super PACs that were funded by Building America’s Future. In 2024, Building America’s Future paid IMGE LLC $14.4 million for “data acquisition/digital,” according to the filing.
Building America’s Future gave more than $10 million in 2024 to a nonprofit called Interstate Priorities, Inc., which operated a campaign calling itself the Fair Election Fund that was offering payments from a $5 million fund for whistleblowers who could provide evidence of election fraud. The group’s findings have been cited by Republicans in efforts to sue ActBlue over allegations of improper vetting of donations. Musk has taken up the cause, repeatedly targeting ActBlue in posts on X to his 230 million followers.
