Two years ago, an anonymous philanthropist in Spokane worked with the Innovia Foundation to start a new fund at the non-profit entitled the “Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund.” The stated goal of the fund was to create and host local events that would bring the Spokane-area together in multiple ways that would encourage people to engage with their community.

The move comes a month after the Southern Poverty Law Center included an example of a gift to a white nationalist group as evidence of the type of anonymous giving through community foundations that can escape the public eye.