SACRAMENT- Gov. Gavin Newsom took the stage at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday and outlined one of the main ways he is responding as the Trump administration shifts federal climate priorities.
“I'm showing up,” he said.
In recent months, that has meant trips to Brazil, Switzerland and now Germany, where he has repeatedly positioned California as a global climate partner. The trip has also revived a recurring question from critics and watchdog groups: Who pays for those trips?
In many cases, the costs are not borne by taxpayers. The governor's office said his international trip is paid for by the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit organization funded primarily by corporate donations and run by a board appointed by Newsom.
For decades, California governors have relied on nonprofit organizations to foot the bill for official travel, diplomatic events and other costs that would otherwise be paid for with taxpayer funds.
“The Foundation's mission is to reduce the burden on California taxpayers by reimbursing appropriate expenses associated with advancing the state's economic and diplomatic interests,” said Jason Elliott, a former top Newsom aide whom the governor added to the foundation's board of directors.
While the agreement helps the state's pocketbook, critics say it is another way for corporate interests to gain influence. The foundation's donors include health care giants like Centene and CVS Pharmacy, while most of the revenue comes from separate nonprofits affiliated with the governor, made up of powerful players with business before the state.
“The problem with the protocol foundation and others like it is that donors to these foundations have access to the politicians whose trips they fund,” said Carmen Balber, executive director of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.
When did nonprofits start paying for governors' travel?
The Protocol Foundation was created as a tax-exempt charity during the administration of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004.
Similar nonprofits have existed since Governor George Deukmejian created one in the 1980s. In the early 2000s, Governor Gray Davis dramatically increased the use of nonprofits to cover travel, housing, and political events.
When Schwarzenegger left office, his supporters handed the basis of the protocol to supporters of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who in turn handed it to Newsom's camp. The foundation describes its mission in federal tax filings as “relieving the State of California of its obligations to fund certain expenses of the Governor's Office.”
Newsom appoints members to the foundation's board, which is then responsible for determining what expenses to cover in the governor's office. In its most recent tax filing covering 2024, the foundation lists its board chairman as Steve Kawa, who served as Newsom's chief of staff when he was mayor of San Francisco. The foundation's secretary in those documents is Jim DeBoo, who was Newsom's chief of staff in the governor's office until 2022.
The foundation reported total revenue of $1.3 million in 2024 and, after expenses, had a balance of less than $8,000.
What does the foundation pay?
The foundation covers the cost of Newsom's international travel and certain domestic trips, including Climate Week in New York, when he acts in his role as governor. The foundation also covers travel for its staff. The governor's office declined to say whether the foundation also pays for Newsom's security team.
Publicly available records are vague, but Newsom's annual financial disclosure forms show the foundation paid more than $13,000 for the governor's trip to Italy in 2024, where he gave a speech on climate change at the Vatican.
That same year, the foundation paid almost $4,000 for her trip to Mexico City to attend the inauguration of Mexico's first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum. The cost of both trips included flights, hotel and meals for their “official trip,” according to the disclosure records, which are filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission and are known as Form 700.
Newsom has reported receiving $72,000 in trips, staff picnics and holiday events from the protocol foundation since taking office in 2019, according to the disclosures.
The foundation paid $15,200 for the governor's trip to China in 2023, where he visited five cities in seven days during an agenda packed with meetings, sightseeing and celebrations, including a private tour of the Forbidden City.
In 2020, the foundation paid $8,800 for Newsom to travel to Miami for Super Bowl LIV, where he said he was representing the state when the San Francisco 49ers faced the Kansas City Chiefs.
The governor's office said it did not yet have the amount raised by the foundation for Newsom's trip to Brazil to attend the United Nations climate summit known as COP30 or to Switzerland for the World Economic Summit.
Who are the donors behind the foundation?
In some cases, the wealthy funders behind the foundation's cash flow are easy to identify on state websites.
Donations to the foundation that Newsom solicits directly or indirectly are recorded with the Fair Political Practices Commission as requested payments. A solicited payment occurs when an elected official requests or suggests that a person or organization make a donation to another person or organization for a legislative, governmental, or charitable purpose.
The Environmental Resources Legacy Fund contributed $100,000 to the Protocol Foundation last year, a donation that records show came shortly after the organization announced it had hired Newsom Mayor Phil Ginsburg's former chief of staff.
Last year, the US Energy Foundation, a clean energy nonprofit, donated $150,000 for the California delegation to attend COP30 in Belém, Brazil. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation donated $300,000 in a promised payment in 2023 to the California delegation traveling to China for climate change meetings. UC Berkeley donated $220,000 for the governor's office trip to the Vatican in 2024.
Most donations simply indicate that they are intended for “general operational support” of the foundation. That includes two donations from Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox Inc., worth a cumulative $80,000.
Two charities created to pay for Newsom's inaugurations in 2019 and 2023 have transferred more than $5 million to the protocol foundation since 2019. The financial backers behind those inaugural charities include powerful labor unions, corporations, tribal casino interests, trade associations and health care giants, organizations with significant financial interests in state policy decisions.
The foundation's previous expenses have been criticized
During Schwarzenegger's administration, his office avoided fully disclosing $1.7 million in travel costs paid by the foundation, relying instead on vague internal memos and, in some cases, oral accounting, according to a 2007 Los Angeles Times investigation.
Schwarzenegger's expenses borne by the foundation included renting Gulfstream jets that cost up to $10,000 an hour and suites that cost thousands of dollars a night. The Times investigation found that costs included $353,000 for a single round trip to China on a private jet in 2005.
The foundation also paid for Schwarzenegger's trips to Japan, Europe, Canada and Mexico.
At the time, Schwarzenegger's representatives told the Times that the governor did not have to report travel costs on his annual disclosure forms because payments for the planes and suites were gifts to his office, not to him.
Newsom's office said the governor travels commercially, not on private planes.
