Overview
United Community Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization based in New York, New York, is primarily a regranting organization that distributes the vast majority of its grants to other countries, though it has provided two grants to organizations in the United States. The majority of its charitable contributions were distributed between 2018 and 2020. United Community Fund has also been cited in multiple congressional investigations, as lawmakers have raised concerns about potential FARA violations (failure to properly register, disclose activities or report financial arrangements in relation to foreign actors). United Community Fund has overlapping board members and financial relationships with other nonprofits that appear to have connections to Neville Roy Singham, an American businessman and social activist who reportedly supports the Chinese Communist Party.
Tax classification — 501(c)(4)
Location — New York, New York
Founded — 2018
Annual revenue — $185,000 (FY 2025)
EIN — 37-1913339
Activities
United Community Fund (UCF) states its mission as “support[ing] education and advocacy programs that promote human rights and social justice.” Additionally, UCF states, “it supports civic engagement programs to empower marginalized populations, and programs to promote journalism that betters the lives of impacted communities.” UCF also reports that it focuses its efforts “principally on foreign communities with large marginalized populations,” and provides “strategic and financial support to local organizations that support the organization’s mission.”
In practice, UCF’s primary activity is issuing grants, with fiscal year 2019 being the most active year in the organization’s history (FY 2019-FY 2025). According to its fiscal year 2019 filing, UCF distributed roughly $3.7 million to organizations within the United States and over $34.5 million to other countries (to sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, South America, Central America and the Caribbean).
Related Organizations and Affiliations
Related Organizations
United Community Fund indicated no related organizations in any of its 990 filings.
Affiliations
UCF sits within a network of nonprofits connected through shared funders, personnel and institutional ties. The People’s Support Foundation and Justice and Education Fund directly funded UCF, while UCF directly funded The People’s Forum and Tricontinental. JEF also funded BreakThrough News, CODEPINK and The People’s Welfare Association and PSF funded PWA. Personnel and operational links further connect the network: CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans has served as PSF’s president and director, former UCF secretary Tings Chak contributes to BreakThrough News and BreakThrough shares an address and programming with the People’s Forum.
United Community Fund has received financial support from both the People’s Support Foundation and the Justice and Education Fund, the two most consequential “funders” in the network. UCF has also provided grants to other organizations in the network.
UCF functioned as both a grant recipient and a grantmaker within the network. In 2019, it granted more than $3 million to The People’s Forum and $700,000 to Tricontinental. Tax filings covering 2018 through 2024 report approximately $21.9 million in grants to UCF from two organizations: $13.426 million from The People’s Support Foundation and $8.5 million from the Justice and Education Fund. Most of that funding arrived in 2018 and 2019.
United Community Fund also shares board members and key personnel with the rest of the network. Tings Chak served as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of UCF in fiscal year 2019. In the same year, Chak was listed as the chair of the Justice and Education Fund’s Board of Directors. Chak is also the co-coordinator of Tricontinental Asia and its art and culture department, according to Tricontinental’s website. Franziska Kleiner, the UCF president since 2018, is also a Tricontinental regional coordinator. Renata Porto Bugni served as UCF’s treasurer from 2019 to 2023 and was listed as Tricontinental’s Deputy Director between 2019 and early-2023. Layan Fuleihan, listed as UCF’s Treasurer between 2023 and 2025, was a board member of the People’s Support Foundation in 2023 and 2024. Fuleihan concurrently served as the Education Director at The People’s Forum in 2022 and 2024.
Controversies
An investigation by The New York Times into the network of nonprofits described above found a relationship between Shanghai-based American businessman and social activist Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly funds these groups, and propaganda aligned with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The New York Times claims UCF is one of “four new nonprofits” at the “center” of “a system” of nonprofits used by Singham “that concealed his giving,” adding that none of the nonprofits connected to Singham have registered under FARA. Singham denied controlling the four organizations, telling the Times, “I do not control them,” although he acknowledged giving money to unnamed intermediaries matching the descriptions of the four nonprofits.
Lawmakers have raised concerns that UCF, as a pivotal part of the network of entities outlined above, may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Specifically, lawmakers have speculated that UCF has funded far-left organizations that oppose U.S. interests and support U.S. adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Lawmakers also drew explicit connections between Singham and UCF, alleging Singham has provided funding to UCF.
On July 10, 2024, then-Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to express their concern over “efforts by the [CCP] and its allies to sow discord in the United States.” The letter cites an investigation by The New York Times and asserts that Singham “has created an elaborate dark money network which allows him to send funds to a series of non-profits, such as the ‘United Community Fund’ and ‘Justice and Education Fund,’ that have almost no real-world footprints.”
Eleven months later, on June 13, 2025, several members of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent two letters — one was addressed directly to Singham and the other to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The letters suggest that Singham, by providing financial support to a network of nonprofit organizations that include UCF, is aiding CCP efforts to “sow discord in the United States,” including by encouraging riots and violence in Los Angeles, California. The letter to then-Attorney General Bondi outlines Singham’s connections to the CCP and encourages the Department of Justice to investigate a list of nineteen organizations, including UCF, for potential FARA violations.
In addition, on September 15, 2025, Representatives James Comer (R-Ky.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlighting their concern that Singham “may have acted as an agent for the CCP.” The letter requests that the Department of the Treasury evaluate the applicability of “federal sanctions law…or criminal penalties enforced by Treasury — to include the freezing or seizure of assets” with respect to the nonprofit organizations allegedly tied to Singham, like UCF.
Finances
In its fiscal year 2025 filing, UCF reported $131,366 in total assets, with $185,000 in revenue and $197,908 in expenses. In fiscal year 2024, UCF reported modestly higher total revenue with $425,000. The most significant year — by far — in terms of revenue for UCF was fiscal year 2019, during which it reported revenue of $39,959,903 and distributed $38,289,055 in grants. Of the $38 million UCF distributed in grants, over $34.5 million went to other countries: $22,863,055 to sub-Saharan Africa, $10,106,000 to South America, $1,555,000 to Europe (including Iceland and Greenland) and $50,000 to Central America and the Caribbean. No specific overseas grant recipients were identified in the filings. In addition, according to fiscal year 2019, UCF issued two grants to organizations in the United States: $3,015,000 to The People’s Forum in “general support” and $700,000 to Tricontinental for “operating costs.”
Tax filings by two network organizations report payments to UCF totaling approximately $21.9 million between 2018 and 2024. The Justice and Education Fund reported $8.5 million: $8.33 million in 2019 and $170,000 in 2020. The People’s Support Foundation reported $13.426 million, including $6.171 million in cash transfers in 2018 and 37 grants totaling $6.71 million in 2019. Its later returns report another $545,000 in grants during 2020, 2023 and 2024.
Collectively, between 2018 and 2024, the grants UCF received from the Justice and Education Fund and the People’s Support Foundation account for roughly 50 percent of UCF’s total revenue.
Assets and liabilities
Revenue and expenses
Compensation
Across its filings for fiscal years ending September 2019 through September 2025, UCF reported zero employees and no compensation paid by UCF to its directors.
Board of Directors
United Community Fund’s fiscal year 2025 filing lists three individuals on the Board of Directors: Franziska Kleiner (Director & President), Layan Fuleihan (Director & Treasurer) and Smangele Luvela (Director & Secretary). Across the organization’s history, six individuals have served on the Board of Directors:
Franziska Kleiner, President (2018-2025)
Layan Fuleihan, Treasurer (2023-2025)
Renata Porto Bugni, Treasurer (2018-2023)
Smangele Luvela, Secretary (2023-2025)
Lucas Dos Santos Tinti, Secretary (2019-2023)
Tings Chak, Secretary (2018-2019)
Founded in 2026, the Civil Defense Institute is a nonpartisan investigative research organization. We research people, organizations and networks whose conduct undermines civil society and Americans’ freedom to participate in public life. Our work examines extremist and conspiracy-driven campaigns, foreign influence, organized harassment and the institutions that enable them.