InfluenceWatch Friday

InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers’ funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.

The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties research to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.

CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:

• The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a nonprofit that organizes the “voluntary standards and conformity assessment system” within the United States. It has previously received government funding from the U.S. State Department, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It has also received funding from NSF International and the Gates Foundation.
• Root Capital is a group that provides funding and training services to assist rural communities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa with agricultural development. In 2022, it received a $25 million grant from Yield Giving, the philanthropic organization controlled by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos. Root Capital has also received funding from the Waverley Street Foundation and the Ezrah Charitable Trust. In 2024 it donated $583,458 to Catholic Relief Services.
• GreenLatinos is a membership-based coalition representing Latino community organizations that advocate for left-of-center environmentalist policies. In 2022, the group created the “Justicia y Equidad Fund” as a grantmaking initiative that received support from the Bezos Earth Fund, as well as government funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s (USDA) Urban and Community Forestry Program. GreenLatinos has also received funding from the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, the United States Energy Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the New Venture Fund.
• CHISPA, or the Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association, is a California-based nonprofit that develops and manages apartments and single-family homes for low-income residents in Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties. CHISPA has previously received government funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Off-Farm Labor Housing Program. It has also received grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the East Bay Community Foundation, and the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders.

• Avina Americas is a left-of-center grantmaking organization and the United States-based affiliate of international philanthropic group Fundacion Avina. Fundacion Avina was initially founded by Swiss entrepreneur Stephan Schmidheiny and is one of several organizations within the Avina network of philanthropic groups. Avina Americas has received funding from the Valhalla Foundation, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, the Ford Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation.