The Weeden Foundation

The Weeden Foundation funds anti-immigrant organizations to build anti-immigrant sentiment among the leadership of the environmental movement in order to steer them toward taking an anti-immigrant stance. Between 2006 and 2015, the Weeden Foundation, combined with individual donations from Weeden family members, donated just over $2 million to anti-immigrant groups.

The leadership of the Foundation is not content to merely fund these organizations, but also play a leadership role within them. For example, current Weeden Foundation Executive Director, Don Weeden, serves as the treasurer for NumbersUSA.

Don Weeden believes that limiting immigration to the U.S., along with curtailing population growth, is a key to conserving natural habitats and species: “We recognize that 80 percent of population growth is due to our immigration policies… Do we want to grow to a country of 600 million, doubling our population by the end of the century? I think environmentally, no we don’t.” Additionally, Alan Weeden, Don Weeden’s father, serves not only on the Board of Directors of the Weeden Foundation, but also on the Board of Advisors for FAIR, and Jon D. Weeden, a board director for the Weeden Foundation, serves on the advisory board at CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization).

During the early 1990s, the foundation made at least one donation to FAIR at the same time that FAIR was still accepting funds from the white supremacist, pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund. Alan Weeden was also one of the FAIR board members who met with Pioneer Fund’s then-President Harry Weyher in 1997 — three years after FAIR had ceased taking Pioneer Fund money — to discuss fundraising for FAIR.