Dark money groups, nonprofits, and shell companies spent a record $1.9 billion during the 2024 federal election cycle, all without revealing their donors. What impact have these groups had on American elections in the last few years, and how can progressive communities organize our money to fight back?

In this session leading up to the 2026 midterms, Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at The Intercept, will break down the effect these players have had on our elections over the last half-decade — including groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose mission to build unconditional US support for Israel vexes the American Jewish left. Then, we'll hear from Molly Schultz Hafid, adjunct associate professor at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, about the state of our progressive funding landscape today, and how we need to organize progressive dollars to build the electoral power we need to fight back and win. This conversation will be moderated by Alex Kane, senior reporter at Jewish Currents.

Time: October 28, 7pm EST

Location: New York City (Venue and location information provided after registration)

Featured Speakers

Session 1: AIPAC, elections, and how we can fight back  - New York, October 28, 7pm EST

Panelists:

Moderator: Alex Kane 

Alex Kane is the senior reporter for Jewish Currents.

Panelists:

Akela Lacy 

Akela Lacy is a Senior Politics Reporter at The Intercept and co-host of The Intercept Briefing podcast. She was previously The Intercept’s inaugural Ady Barkan Reporting Fellow; prior to that, she was a Politics Fellow in the D.C. Bureau.

She has also worked at Politico and the Pulitzer Center. She is currently a PhD student at the City University of New York Graduate Center and graduated from the College of William and Mary with a B.A. in sociology and Italian. She is based in New York.

Molly Schultz Hafid, MPA 

Molly is the Executive Director (part-time) of the Butler Family Fund, a limited lifespan foundation whose mission is to seek lasting solutions to homelessness and an equitable criminal legal system. She also manages a consulting practice, MSH Consultants, and works closely with individual donors and foundations, providing strategic guidance on grantmaking, next-generation engagement, lifespan strategies, leadership transitions, governance assessment, and organizational development.

A sector leader who provides strategic guidance and thought leadership, Molly is a co-founder and the current Chair of the Board of JustFund, the only nonprofit grantmaking solution created by funders and organizers of color.  She serves as the Vice Chair of the Philanthropy New York Board of Directors and recently completed a decade of service on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), which promotes accountability and the highest standards of integrity and openness within the philanthropic sector.  She regularly serves as an expert panel reviewer for Lever for Change awards, including a recent round of the Yield Giving Open Call (Mackenzie Scott) grants.  Molly was honored to be selected as an Aspen Institute and Neighborhood Funders Group Philanthropy Forward Fellow in 2021-2022 and to receive the Neighborhood Funders Group Award for Excellence in Philanthropy in 2018.

Molly is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service at New York University and part-time faculty at The New School, teaching strategic philanthropy, nonprofit management, and fundraising.  In 2023, she was appointed to the U.K-based National Centre for Social Research International Advisory Board, which guides the Centre’s social research expertise with a global outlook. She also teaches a course on corporate sustainability at the Africa Business School in Rabat, Morocco, and served for over a decade as a faculty member for Philanthropy New York’s Essential Skills and Strategies course for new grantmakers.  She has a Master of Public Administration specializing in International Nonprofit Management from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, an executive education certificate in Nonprofit Financial Sustainability from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School, and a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Literature from Antioch College.