Seattle arts funder, after Guardian report, disavows ‘hateful ideology’

SEATTLE — Andrew Conru — a Seattle tech entrepreneur who is emerging as a major local arts funder — distanced himself last week from several organizations that he has funded after an investigation published by British newspaper The Guardian. The article showed that Conru funded an organization that has promoted the genetic superiority of certain ethnic groups.

In emails sent to The Seattle Times last Thursday, Conru said he has stopped funding the Human Diversity Foundation and other groups. Conru also disavowed “racism, discrimination or hateful ideology,” attributed his contributions to insufficient due diligence, and said he has launched a review of his investments and donations.

The Guardian report revealed that Conru, who made his wealth in a host of early web businesses, sent $1.3 million to the Human Diversity Foundation. The article was published last Wednesday following an investigation with U.K. advocacy group Hope Not Hate and German publications.

A published by Hope Not Hate found that Conru provided funding to various other groups and people who have promoted white nationalist ideas and pseudoscientific studies trying to prove the supposed superiority of white people.

The 56-year-old Seattle philanthropist, who purchased the former Lusty Lady building last year, said he thought he was supporting “nonpartisan academic research” at HDF.

Conru became aware of the group’s “issues” after being approached by The Guardian, he said, and was “deeply troubled” by the findings. Conru said he has stopped funding the group and that the investigations triggered an internal review of his philanthropy and investments.

“I was introduced to HDF through academic circles as an organization committed to exploring challenging topics with scientific rigor,” Conru said. “HDF presented itself as an organization dedicated to studying human diversity from various perspectives, including genetics, anthropology and sociology. It seemed to me that their goal was to foster open academic discourse on topics that are often considered too sensitive for mainstream discussion. Their pitch aligned with my belief in the importance of free inquiry and evidence-based research.”

“I now realize that my due diligence and ongoing monitoring process should have been more thorough,” Conru added. “Let me be unequivocally clear: I reject any form of racism, discrimination or hateful ideology.”

Public tax filings for the Conru Foundation (a nonprofit established in 2017) do not show financial contributions to the Human Diversity Foundation. Conru said Thursday that the previously undisclosed $1.3 million in funding for HDF was separate from his foundations but declined to provide further details.

In recordings reviewed by The Guardian, Matthew Frost — previously affiliated with HDF’s media arm — described Conru as the organization’s principal benefactor, having acquired a 15% stake in the group.

According to public filings, a Wyoming-based LLC called Human Diversity Foundation was created in 2022. While it’s not certain that’s the group Conru invested in, William Engman — an apparent alias of Emil Kirkegard, HDF’s owner, as reported by The Guardian — signed official paperwork for the LLC.

Kirkegard didn’t return a request for comment on this story. Conru said he has ceased funding HDF but declined to specify if that meant he sold or transferred his stake in the group. He did not answer further questions regarding the LLC.

An undercover Hope Not Hate researcher posed as a potential donor to make the aforementioned recordings, taping activists who discussed “remigration,” a euphemism for “mass removal of ethnic minorities,” per The Guardian, among other topics. The recordings also showed the group at one point worked with Erik Ahrens, a “right-wing extremist,” as labeled by German authorities quoted in the newspaper Die Zeit.

While Conru’s support of HDF wasn’t previously disclosed, the Guardian article also focused on Conru’s public funding through his foundation, which aims to “counter false narratives in media, academia, policy and society … to help foster the enlightenment values of truth, evidence and free inquiry.” Public tax records reflect support for a wide range of causes over the years, including local arts groups, climate change initiatives, conservation nonprofits, LGBTQ+ support programs, and conservative media watchdogs, advocacy nonprofits and think tanks.

This includes $50,000 for the Center for Immigration Studies, according to public records first reported on by The Guardian. The CIS is an American think tank classified as a hate group by human rights nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center for its “circulation of white nationalist and antisemitic writers.”

The foundation also gave $150,000 to Turning Point USA, a youth-focused organization that platforms “extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists,” per the Anti-Defamation League, an NGO that combats antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination. Turning Point USA is led by Charlie Kirk, who called the hanging of a pride flag at a Turning Point conference venue “an insult to all of us, to our traditions and our customs.”

Conru’s foundation sent $5,000 to The Unz Review, a website labeled a white nationalist publication by Southern Poverty Law Center. It was founded by Ron Unz, who has written, “I think it far more likely than not that the standard Holocaust narrative is at least substantially false, and quite possibly, almost entirely so.”

According to Hope Not Hate, Conru has also funded Jared Taylor, the founder of American Renaissance, a website and conference that the Anti-Defamation League says has promoted pseudoscientific studies trying to show the intellectual and cultural superiority of white people.

Conru told The Seattle Times that these funds were from “years” ago and that he has ceased funding Taylor, Turning Point, CIS and The Unz Review. Conru’s foundation sent these funds between fiscal years 2019 and 2021, according to tax records.

“As with HDF, I did not conduct sufficient due diligence, and those are additional examples of why I should have been more vigilant, and why I am reviewing my own philanthropic funding and investments to be more careful,” Conru said. “I believe in supporting a range of perspectives to foster healthy debate, but I condemn racism and extremist views from any part of the political spectrum.”

Conru has kept a relatively low philanthropic profile until recently, when he started scaling up his financial support for the Seattle arts scene. That includes a bevy of local arts funding last year, per tax records, including the Seattle Art Museum, Northwest African American Museum and public art nonprofit Urban ArtWorks, among others.

In spring 2023, Conru (who is also an artist) purchased the Lusty Lady building in downtown Seattle. While he originally made the purchase through an LLC that did not include his name, he said last year that he was prepared to take on a more public profile.

Since then, he has launched the Conru Art Foundation, a new 501(c)(3) organization through which he intends to support the local arts community. Already, the group has saved Seattle art publication PublicDisplay.ART from shuttering. Conru said in June that Conru Art Foundation will provide about $1 million a year to support PD.A as well as a 20,000-square-foot downtown event center that will be free for art-related nonprofits to host events and gatherings.

“My sole philanthropic focus is now on Seattle,” Conru said Monday.