A local conservative activist group that has worked with the Trump administration to attack Jeffco Schools over its transgender inclusion policies, and which recently brought a top Trump official to speak at its annual gala, is the same legal entity as a dark money group that helped conservatives claim a brief majority on Jeffco’s school board more than 10 years ago.
IRS filings reveal that Jeffco Kids First (JKF) took over the nonprofit 501(c)3 registration of an older organization, Jefferson County Students First (JCSF). Instead of creating its own nonprofit, JKF is registered itself as a trade name for the original group, listed in court records as “Jefferson County Students First d/b/a [doing business as] Jeffco Kids First.”
Formed online during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Jeffco Kids First began as an anti-lockdown school parent Facebook group that organized in-person events, such as protesting against public health regulations. The group later shifted to attacking Jeffco Schools over policies promoting racial justice and LGBTQ inclusion. At the time, founder Lindsay Datko acknowledged that the group’s pivot from fighting COVID restrictions to protesting curriculum and policies (almost all of which were LGBTQ-related) she called “appalling” might cause some group members to leave, but felt it had to be done.
By early 2022, the group’s online membership numbered several thousand, giving it the potential for significant fundraising. The process for forming a nonprofit organization that can accept tax-deductible donations isn’t quick or easy, for obvious reasons. It’s a multi-step process that involves applications to both state and federal agencies and can take months or years to complete — if successful at all.
Should a nonprofit also want to get involved in politics, such as endorsing candidates, the typical structure is to form both a traditional 501(c)3 entity to accept tax-deductible donations, as well as an affiliated 501(c)4 nonprofit, to which donations aren’t tax-deductible but more of its money can be spent on political activity.
Instead of starting from scratch, it can be simpler, faster, and, depending on whether you hire a professional to help with the forms, likely cheaper to rename an existing nonprofit (or in this case, a c3/c4 pair) — if its mission is closely enough related to your activities — and start collecting donations using its existing tax identification number.
Enter the decade-old Jefferson County Students First (JCSF) 501(c)3, and its 501(c)4, Jefferson County Students First Action. After its formation in 2011, JCSF attacked the district’s administration as well as the Jeffco teachers’ union with conservative messaging echoed by a slate of right-wing candidates whose well-financed campaigns flipped the Jeffco School Board in 2013. Those candidates included Ken Witt, who has since been involved in the similar takeover of Woodland Park’s school board, and Julie Williams, the sister-in-law of Republican then-legislator Tim Neville, who also served on the JCSF board. The 501(c)4, JCSF Action, was previously run by former Jeffco School Board member Laura Boggs, a controversial figure who was censured twice while in office, the second time for agreeing with a talk radio host that the JCSB superintendent “should be shot.”
Big GOP donors originally behind JCSF
The JCSF-backed candidates would go on to push conservative education policies similar to those JKF advocates for. The school board found itself in the national spotlight after the conservatives proposed a “committee for curriculum review,” aiming to alter history courses to prioritize “patriotism” and “respect for authority” over civil rights activism. This controversial move sparked widespread protests and led to the conservative board members being recalled in 2015.
JCSF’s political activity was in part funded by the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a group which has pumped millions of dollars into a wide range of conservative political projects nationwide for decades. The Bradley Foundation gave $75,000 to JCSF in 2015, as well as $50,000 to the Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank which supported the JCSF-backed candidates. The stated purpose of the Bradley Foundation’s grant to the Independence Institute was “to defund teachers’ unions and achieve real education reform.”
Additional funding came from other prominent Republican donors. A 2013 Republican-led fundraiser for JCSF listed beer magnate Pete Coors as a member of the host committee, as well as Terry Considine, a Denver real estate mogul who co-founded Advance Colorado, the conservative group focused on ballot initiatives with ties to GOP billionaire Phil Anschutz. Considine is also the former chairman of the Bradley Foundation.
Datko did not respond to an email inquiry asking how she came to use the JCSF/JCSFA nonprofits rather than create new ones for JKF. CTR also asked if JKF still gets support from any of the old JCSF funders, specifically any of the Bradley Foundation, Terry Considine, Alex Cranberg, Stephen Schuck, or any of the Coors family. This article will be updated with any response received.
Jeffco Kids First’s ties to Republican politics
JKF’s ties to JCSF are only one example of the group getting cozy with Republicans.
2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl was a member of JKF in 2022. When JKF members started using their private Facebook group to crowdsource evidence of “furries” in local schools, Ganahl promoted their claims on conservative talk radio. After Colorado Community Media published an article about the group’s fuzzy evidence, Datko hired former Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler to sue the news organization for libel. After an initial, albeit partial, victory in district court, the verdict was overturned by an appellate court, and JKF’s subsequent appeal to the state Supreme Court was denied. Ultimately, JKF not only lost the case but also was required to pay CCM’s legal fees.
JKF’s annual fundraising galas, which began after it formally acquired nonprofit status from JCSF in 2023, have hosted increasingly prominent conservative figures with an anti-trans bent. The inaugural 2023 gala featured Jennifer Sey, a former Levi’s executive who resigned over her vocal opposition to COVID-era school closures before launching XX-XY, an anti-trans clothing line. In 2024, the gala’s keynote speaker was fifth-place collegiate swimmer turned anti-trans activist Riley Gaines. This year, it brought in Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump lawyer who now leads the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and has refocused the department’s work almost exclusively on rolling back LGBT-inclusive policies. Under her leadership, nearly 75% of the staff have quit or been forced out, and over 200 of them signed a letter decrying her “near-destruction” of the civil rights division.
The 2024 gala was pitched as helping fund JKF’s legal action against Colorado Community Media, as well as marketing, a student scholarship program, and community outreach.
Additionally, the Colorado Times Recorder reported in June that JKF seemingly played a part in instigating federal threats against Jeffco Schools. A report from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, which alleged to have found “up to 61 boys in girls sports” in Jeffco, concluded that the district had violated Title IX, and threatened to pull funding. In the months prior, Datko made numerous posts indicating that she had communicated directly with the Department of Education on this and other issues. Jeffco Schools is now suing the Trump administration to stop it from pulling funding.
