How a dead pharmaceutical founder has helped fuel conservative candidates and given more than $5million to PAC that served as secret donor 'ATM'

The late founder of one of America's pharmaceutical giants has spent over $200 million funding conservative groups, including one that allegedly serves as a 'secret donor ATM.' 

The Searle Freedom Trust emerged from the G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company, which originated many medical innovations from the artificial sweetener aspartame to Ambien to the birth control pill before it was bought by Monsanto for over $2 billion in the 1980s.

Over the last decade, the trust funded by the company's late ex-chairman Daniel C. Searle - the great-grandson of its founder, who died in 2007 - is now the biggest donor to conservative nonprofits. 

When asked about his intentions in a 2006 interview, Searle said: 'I began to wonder: What if we could change the slope of the curve that leads to more loss of freedom?' 

Some of the money's destinations are unclear, including a $5 million gift to DonorsTrust, which is derided by leftist website Mother Jones as 'The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement.' 

Daniel T. Searle, the late founder of one of America's pharmaceutical giants has spent over $200m million funding conservative groups, including one that allegedly serves as a 'secret donor ATM.'

Over the last decade, the trust funded by the company's late ex-chairman Daniel C. Searle - the great grandson of its founder, who died in 2007 - is now the biggest donor to conservative nonprofits

However, Searle wanted the trust to be closed at the end 2025, so they're making a last dash of awarding grants in 2024 and had $59 million in cash to dole out at the end of 2023, according to CNN.

Their beneficiaries have ranged from typical conservative economic think tanks and anti-regulation organizations to more MAGA-friendly causes loosening COVID restrictions (around $9 million to one group) ones that push voter ID laws (nearly $4 million), ending affirmative action and stopping progressive climate policy (over $8 million).

They've become more directly connected to former President Donald Trump in recent years, including giving money to the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit run by ex-Trump administration officials preparing for his possible second term. 

However, they have kept one hand on a less Trump-friendly version of the Republican Party, having donated $100,000 to a group backed by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Searle has also bequeathed millions to groups arguing before the Supreme Court, as well as the Federalist Society, which often recommends conservative judges to local and federal posts.  

The foundation is now run by CEO Kimberly Dennis, who says that she often works with advisors - including Searle's sons - to try and almost channel his wishes into the modern world.

'I often say our Searle board meetings are more like séances,' she said. 'We're always asking what Dan would have done.' 

Searle left behind a mission statement for what the trust should cover before his passing, highlighting lobbying against government programs that only work for 'lazy and indolent' people.

The Searle Freedom Trust emerged from the G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company, which originated many medical innovations from the artificial sweetener aspartame to Ambien to the birth control pill before it was bought by Monsanto for over $2 billion in the 1980s

Searle has bequeathed millions to groups arguing before the Supreme Court, as well as the Federalist Society, which often recommends conservative judges to local and federal posts

He claimed to want to espouse the value of 'private enterprise, individual responsibility and limited government' and 'aim to restore the intellectual and cultural legacy of Western experience and the Judeo-Christian tradition.'

'While the Foundation's work will respect all cultures and religions, I believe the values embodied in the Judeo-Christian culture are those that are best capable of sustaining a just and prosperous society,' he wrote.

Ironically, some of the trust's biggest gifts end up arguing against the breakthrough they made their name and fortune. The company developed the first birth control pill, which Daniel Searle's father helped develop in the 1950s and his sister as one of the first people to use it.

'The Searle family made a lot of money off of the birth control pill,' said Kristen Batstone, the policy manager for the National Women's Health Network.

However, in recent years they've aided groups that have argued against the pill and the Biden administration's attempts to make it more widely available, including The Heritage Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Reason Foundation.  

'It's ironic that the money they profited off of women is now being used to fund conservative initiatives and organizations that are very much against women's reproductive health,' Batstone added. 

The founding documents claim the organization will shut down on December 31, 2025, and were given explicit directions to 'spend itself out of existence.'

They will likely do so funding causes to assist conservative goals in 2024 and likely the first year of a second Trump term, should he defeat Biden in November.

With time running out on the trust and a huge election year in the balance, it's likely the trust will be generous and will make liberals furious, according to one expert.

'The fact that our political system works in a way where wealthy people who died years ago can continue to have such profound influence over our politics and our beliefs about science and the world is just incredibly damaging,' said Galen Hall, a researcher at the University of Michigan.