(p 458-459)
Among their most astonishing feats, the Kochs had succeeded in persuading hundreds of the other richest conservatives in the country to give them control over their millions of dollars in contributions, in effect making them leaders of a billionaires' caucus. ...
..but during the previous five years alone [2010-2015] he, and his brother David, and their allies had contributed over $760 million to mysterious and ostensibly apolitical nonprofits such as the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the Center to Protect Patient Rights, and the TC4 Trust. From there the money had been disbursed to dozens of other nonprofits, some of which were little more than mailboxes, which had then spent the funds promoting the donors' political interests both directly in elections, and indirectly in countless other ways. ...
As for the transparency of Charles Koch's foundations, two of them had made grants of nearly $8 million between 2005 and 2011 to DonorsTrust, whose stated purpose was to mask the money trail.
"It's extraordinary. No one else has done anything like it," said Rob Stein, the Democratic activist who tried to create a progressive counterweight called the Democracy Alliance. "It takes an enormous amount of money, and many years, to what the Kochs have done. They're deeply passionate. They're disciplined, and they're also ruthless."