Concord Fund
American political advocacy organization

The Concord Fund (formerly the Judicial Crisis Network and the Judicial Confirmation Network) was an American conservative advocacy organization active from 2005 until its dissolution in 2026. Its president was Carrie Severino, a former law clerk for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In 2020, OpenSecrets described the organization as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary." It was among a network of organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a co-chair of the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors, with funding distributed by Concord and a related group, The 85 Fund.
Background
The organization was founded in 2005 to promote the judicial appointees of then president George W. Bush. Fundraiser and lawyer Ann Corkery, along with California real estate magnate Robin Arkley II, were key to the beginning of the organization.
Carrie Severino served as the group's president. She was previously a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Funding
The leading funder of Concord was the Wellspring Committee, which is directed by Ann Corkery. Wellspring was part of the Koch political financing network leading up to the 2008 elections, then was later used by Leonard Leo's associates to direct money to Concord's predecessor organizations. Wellspring, which does not disclose who funds it, gave close to $7 million to Concord in 2014; between 2012 and 2015, it reported giving Concord more than $15 million.
“Concord Fund” enters the record as american political advocacy organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Concord, Fund and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Concord Fund” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Concord, Fund and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21070822. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2026, 2020 and 2008.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Concord Fund” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.