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Concord Fund

American political advocacy organization

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ21070822
Source-derived summary

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.

Editorial summary

“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.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2026, 2020, 2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2005. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Concord, Fund and American.
Editorial analysis

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.

Evidence profile

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.

Critical limits

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.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Concord Fund”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Concord Fund primary sources, Concord Fund archive and Concord research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Concord Fund”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

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.