The Shortest Path to Zionism: A Network Analysis of the US Nonprofit Industrial Complex

Activists have shown how the nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) co-opts grassroots social movements, and how the dependence on donors limits what nonprofits can say or do—especially concerning Palestine. Yet the NPIC is rarely analyzed as a whole system. This article analyzes the massive funding network of the NPIC, reconstructed from tax forms, and highlights Zionism’s place within it. I show how the NPIC’s funding web binds many organizations to Zionist nonprofits that directly fuel settler-colonialism in Palestine. The links between these organizations are facilitated by donor-advised funds, which form the “hubs” in the interconnected funding network. I explain the political implications of this finding using two “activist” nonprofits: the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation (BLMGN) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). I argue that being a major player in the NPIC not only limits what an organization can do but also normalizes the broader funding networks driving colonial projects.