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Consumer Reports

U.S. consumer-advocacy nonprofit (center-left on policy)

Owned byOwned by Consumer Reports, Inc., an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit (formerly Consumers Union). It has no parent company or private owner. A small 501(c)(4) arm, Consumers Union Action Fund, handles some lobbying.
FundingMostly member and subscription revenue, roughly 70% of its total, from digital and print memberships. Grants from foundations such as Hewlett, Ford and Craig Newmark Philanthropies add to that, along with donations and some licensing or partnership income. It takes no advertising and accepts no free product samples for testing. Reported revenue is about $238 million.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Consumers Union was founded in 1936 by Colston Warne and others, and began publishing Consumer Reports as an alternative to advertiser-supported product guides. Its main sources of income have long been subscriptions and memberships, and it refuses advertising so that it can rate products independently. It runs its own test labs and buys the products it tests at retail. The organization later took the name Consumer Reports, Inc., and now has more than five million members across its magazine and website. It has also grown into advocacy on car safety, data privacy, tech policy, food safety and financial protection. It discloses lobbying spending of about $1.2 million and works through its Consumers Union Action Fund. Foundation funders are mostly left-leaning, and critics on the right have questioned its regulatory advocacy and its environmental and safety positions. Its car and appliance ratings have drawn criticism from manufacturers, and it has debated how to keep its business model going in the digital era. I could not find a specific recent Consumer Reports statement on the Trump administration in my searches. The 'broadly critical' stance is therefore an inference from its long-standing pro-regulation advocacy, which runs against the administration's cutbacks at the CFPB and elsewhere. That inference should be checked against its recent coverage.

Sources

  1. Consumer Reports - Wikipedia
  2. Consumer Reports - Influence Watch
  3. Consumer Reports: A Nonprofit Icon with Business Model Questions - Nonprofit Quarterly
  4. Consumer Reports Just Dropped $3 Million on Its Biggest Ad Push in Five Years - Adweek
  5. Consumer Reports - Support Our Work

Profile compiled 2026-10-15; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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