Type: Private Family Foundation
The Heavenly Father’s Foundation was founded in 2011 by Dan Wilks and his wife, Staci. Wilks is a Texan billionaire who made his fortune with his brother Farris from the fracking boom in the early 2000s. Both brothers, with their wives, operate independent foundations that avidly and primarily fund right-wing politicians and Republican Party committees. The Wilkses gave $15 million to a Super PAC backing then-Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz in 2016. In 2012, a report found that 70 percent of Republican legislators in Montana received contributions from the brothers.
The HFF funneled more than $1.2 million to the American Family Association between 2014 and 2016. The AFA is one of today’s most powerful Religious Right organizations, with its radio arm, American Family Radio, broadcasting from stations in at least 40 states, and affiliated activists groups promoting its message through various fronts. AFA leadership and officials have used these platforms to spread misinformation and propaganda such as claiming that “Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, , for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam” that “Islam is clearly the religion that Satan is promoting, to be the counterfeit alternative to Christianity” and that “the threat to our freedoms comes not from radical Islam but from Islam itself.”
