Three nonprofits associated with dark money megadonor and architect of the conservative Supreme Court supermajority Leonard Leo funneled more than $50 million into the world’s largest lay Catholic organization — whose donations, in turn, advanced anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ causes, according to analysis of the two most recent years of tax returns.
The Knights of Columbus, the all-male Catholic service organization commonly associated with local Tootsie Roll fundraisers and pancake breakfasts, spent eight figures on funding unregulated pregnancy centers, political initiatives campaigning against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, and donated money to nonprofits directly tied to Leo, according to tax filings from 2023 and 2024.
Leo has a well-documented history of using his networks to funnel money to ultraconservative causes from working to limit access to abortion medication to supporting anti-trans laws.
Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society, is best known for his part in building the Project 2025 blueprint for Trump's presidency and for helping build the conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court, advising President Donald Trump on the appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, along with recommending lower court appointees who would rule favorably on conservative causes.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh ahead of a state dinner held by President Donald Trump in honor of Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House on April 28. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
On Wednesday the Supreme Court’s ruling in the gerrymandering case, Louisiana v. Callais, weakened Section 2 of the Voting Act — a cause for which Leo has engaged his dark money networks.
Investment from Leo groups into the Knights of Columbus “certainly fits ideologically with Leo's aims,” said Robert Maguire, vice president for research and data at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who has investigated how Leo’s firms have raked in millions from his own dark money network.
But, most people who contribute dues and donations to the Knights of Columbus are likely unaware of the extent to which the organization supports more extreme conservative hot button issues — and its recent ties to Leo groups.
The Knights of Columbus “invest a considerable amount of money and energy in political campaigns that have the blatant stated objective of restricting reproductive freedom and of restricting LGBTQ rights, and the Knights of Columbus just do not represent the views of most Catholics,” said Kate Hoeting, director of education and research at Catholics for Choice, a nonprofit advocating for reproductive rights.
“It is really kind of shocking at the end of the day, the disconnect between the story that you might see in a parish bulletin and the story that the money tells when you actually follow it.”
About 60 percent of Catholics support abortion rights, according to a 2025 Pew Research report, and about 75 percent of Catholics support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people and around 70 percent support same-sex marriage, according to research from the Public Religion Research Institute released in March.
“Most people do not know who Leonard Leo is, but Leonard Leo is impacting almost every aspect of their life because Leonard Leo is the Catholic billionaire who, from my perspective, his mission appears to be taking his … unpopular interpretation of Catholicism and making sure that everybody must follow it,” Hoeting said.
Leo and the Knights of Columbus could not be reached for comment.
‘Outsized influence’
The three Leo-affiliated groups who gave significant grants to the Knights of Columbus in 2024 are The 85 Fund ($39 million), Rule of Law Trust ($1.4 million) and Marble Freedom Trust ($500,000), according to tax filings.
The Rule of Law Trust gave the Knights of Columbus $4.05 million and Marble Freedom Trust gave $6.7 million in 2023, according to tax filings.
The 85 Fund, managed by Leo, is formerly known as the Judicial Education Project and is the oldest in the network, Maguire said.
Both tied to Leo, the Rule of Law Trust is “a very large dark money group,” and “Marble Freedom Trust seems to be the really the hub of Leo's financial network,” Maguire said.
Marble Freedom Trust received a $1.6 billion infusion from industrialist Barre Seid in 2022.
“You have these shell groups that are holding themselves out as social welfare organizations, but they essentially exist as shell entities funded by a small set of extremely wealthy donors who, by virtue of the amounts of money they're giving, have outsized influence over policies, over nominations, over the outcomes of elections,” Maguire said.
The Knights of Columbus 501(c)(8) — a tax-exempt status for fraternal society organizations who provide life and accident benefits to its members in a lodge system — brought in revenue of $2.76 billion in 2024 and has $31.2 billion in assets, according to the tax filing.
Knights of Columbus in Slidell, Louisiana (TineyHo/Wikimedia Commons/Flickr)
That year the Knights of Columbus gave more than $2 million to anti-abortion groups and Leo-affiliated groups. For instance, the Knights of Columbus donated $825,000 to March for Life, a nonprofit that puts on the largest anti-abortion demonstration in the world.
The Knights of Columbus gave $500,000 to Florida Voters Against Extremism, a political action committee opposing Florida Amendment 4, the “Right to Abortion Initiative.” The amendment got 57 percent of the vote but fell short of the 60 percent supermajority required to pass.
The group gave $200,000 to oppose South Dakota Constitutional Amendment G that would’ve established a right to abortion in the state but did not pass.
Leo is on the board of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which received $325,000 from the Knights of Columbus, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which received $100,000.
The Becket Fund received a grant of the same amount in 2023, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center received $200,000 that year, according to tax filings.
In 2023, the Knights of Columbus contributed at least $2.8 million to anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ causes, including an $877,000 to March for Life that year.
The Southern Poverty Law Center designated Do No Harm, a medical policy advocacy group opposing gender affirming care and DEI in medicine, as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. Knights of Columbus granted the group $100,000 in 2023.
Among the Knights of Columbus’ other donations to anti-abortion groups in 2023 was $1 million granted to Protect Women Ohio, which opposed Issue 1 which protected the right to abortion in the Ohio state constitution. The amendment passed.
“You're giving your $10 to the Knights of Columbus — you're probably not thinking they're going to put $1 million towards a losing anti-abortion campaign in Ohio,” Hoeting said.
‘Evade scrutiny’
The Knights of Columbus has other nonprofits and charitable funds who've contributed significantly to Leo-affiliated groups and anti-abortion causes.
The Knights of Columbus Charities gave nearly $2.6 million in 2023 and at least $2.4 million in 2024 to anti-abortion groups as part of its “culture of life” program, according to tax filings.
Knights of Columbus at a ceremony (Photo by Robert F. Farmer/Creative Commons)
The Knights Of Columbus Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund, gave more than $11.5 million in 2024 to groups where Leo serves on their boards. That includes $10.7 million to the Catholic University of America, $455,000 to the Ethics and Public Policy Center, $240,000 to the Napa Legal Institute and $135,000 to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
At least $424,000 was donated to unregulated pregnancy centers and anti-abortion groups, according to the tax filings.
Those same Leo-affiliated groups brought in more than $6.1 million in 2023 and anti-abortion causes received at least $534,000.
“Whether that's a donor advised fund or another dark money entity .. people who might not want the blowback for the types of large investments that they're making and controversial causes are increasingly using these types of dark money vehicles to evade scrutiny, evade the spotlight,” said Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on reducing the influence of money in politics.
“That's one of the reasons that you see these types of entities being increasingly popular, especially when it comes to funding lightning rod issues and highly controversial advocacy campaigns.”
‘Weaponized’
The Knights of Columbus has become part of Leo’s “huge network that is set on imposing its will on all Americans,” said Alyssa Bowen, deputy executive director at watchdog group True North Research.
“He has his hand in many kinds of avenues to impose his agenda and his unpopular will on all Americans through the courts and the legal system.”
While Trump has recently started turning on Leo after receiving unfavorable rulings to the administration, Leo’s influence on advancing Trump policies remains undeniable.
“A lot of the conservative advocacy that we see, whether that's advancing President Trump's agenda, his economic agenda, his immigration related agenda, the attacks on voting rights that we're seeing, some of the money flowing through Leonard Leo's network ends up in that ecosystem,” Beckel said.
“His organizations are part of a central hub of money flowing into Republican politics and conservative nonprofits these days.”
Bowen said the lack of transparency around the causes the Knights of Columbus supports might mislead donors who don’t realize their donations may support extreme conservative causes.
“The takeover of Knights of Columbus is significant because it allows him to use this long-standing organization that has legitimacy in the eyes of a lot of Catholics, and most Catholics probably don't understand that it's being weaponized to push this anti-abortion, anti-trans, very political agenda,” Bowen said.
“Now that it's been weaponized, you see millions and millions of dollars going to these extremely political causes that the people contributing to Knights of Columbus are likely not to know about.”
