The New Georgia Project, a voter registration and advocacy group founded by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, announced this week it is shutting down after more than a decade marked by political influence, financial scandal, and ethics investigations.
In a statement released by its board of directors, the organization said it was “proud of the milestones we have achieved, the communities we have engaged and the countless individuals whose lives have been strengthened by our work.”
The brief announcement omitted any mention of the ongoing state investigations or the group’s mounting legal troubles.
Founded by Abrams in 2013, the New Georgia Project (NGP) was initially credited with helping register hundreds of thousands of new voters—many of them Black and young—in the run-up to Georgia’s high-profile 2020 elections.
But in recent years, the organization has faced multiple investigations, internal turmoil, and public scrutiny over allegations of financial mismanagement and illegal fundraising activity.
Earlier this year, the Georgia Senate launched a formal inquiry into the nonprofit’s operations, focusing on potential campaign finance violations and alleged misuse of charitable funds. The bipartisan investigative panel also sought to determine whether the group engaged in partisan political activity under the guise of nonpartisan voter engagement—actions that could violate state and federal law.
“The committee will focus on alleged campaign finance violations and possibly the recent New Georgia Project firings allegedly tied to efforts to unionize the voting rights organization,” Atlanta News First reported in March.
In January, the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission fined the group $300,000 after a five-year investigation found that it had illegally raised and spent millions of dollars to influence elections.
According to the commission, NGP raised roughly $4.2 million in so-called “dark money” contributions and used $3.2 million of that on activities that were “clearly political in nature,” including election advertising and direct voter outreach on behalf of Democratic candidates.
The scandal prompted the resignation of NGP’s chief executive, Francys Johnson, who had taken over after Abrams formally cut ties with the organization several years ago.
“This is a nonprofit that lost its mission and became a political machine,” said one Republican member of the Georgia Senate committee. “It’s emblematic of the lack of accountability that plagued the Abrams network for years.”
Abrams, who twice lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, has long maintained that Georgia Republicans engage in voter suppression—a claim that helped drive her national fundraising and activism profile.
However, her organizations, including NGP and its affiliate, Fair Fight Action, have faced growing criticism for questionable spending and political entanglements.
Meanwhile, attention has also turned to Abrams’ involvement with another nonprofit that recently drew federal scrutiny.
Power Forward Communities, a new coalition in which Abrams serves as senior counsel, was awarded a $2 billion grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 under the Biden administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this year that Power Forward Communities had only $100 in reported revenue in its first three months of operation before receiving the multibillion-dollar grant.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, appointed by President Trump, has since launched a review of the grant program, calling it an example of “waste and abuse” under the Biden administration’s climate agenda.
“It’s extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion,” Zeldin said in a statement. “That’s 20 million times its reported revenue.”
In Georgia, the closure of the New Georgia Project comes as the state continues to reevaluate its election oversight and campaign finance rules in the wake of years of partisan battles over voting rights.
While NGP credited itself with “expanding civic participation,” critics argue that its shutdown confirms long-standing concerns about the group’s political bias and financial transparency.
“This is a long-overdue reckoning,” said Georgia State Sen. Randy Robertson. “The New Georgia Project was supposed to help people vote. Instead, it became a political slush fund that undermined trust in our elections.”