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:

• Black Opposition Project is an activist group that conducts polls and “conduct tests” for “thousands of black people” to analyze the “barriers that prevent their resistance” and increase voter participation. The Project is an initiative of HIT Strategies, a Washington D.C-based public opinion research firm that develops polling and voter messaging. Other coalition members of the Project include the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Way to Win, Black Economic Alliance, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, and Project 68.
• Onyx Impact is a left-of-center Atlanta-based nonprofit that claims to research alleged misinformation impacting African-American communities in the United States. The group was founded by Esosa Osa, who previously worked as deputy executive director of Fair Fight Action, a voting access organization founded by Stacey Abrams following her loss in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, and as a senior advisor to Abrams’s 2022 Georgia gubernatorial campaign. In 2024, group received funding from several organizations including the Democracy Matters Foundation as well as the Open Society Action Fund.
• Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation is a private grantmaking organization started by GoDaddy and Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG) founder Robert Parsons and his wife Renee Parsons. In 2013, the Parsons signed the Giving Pledge, a public commitment associated with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, where signatories agree to donate at least half of their net worth to charity in their lifetime. The foundation has previously donated to several community activist groups including the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Team Rubicon.
• Minnesota Elder Justice Center is a “direct-service organization” that provides training and community education services for victims of elder abuse and neglect of those in Minneapolis’ adult protective services systems. The group previously received government funding grants from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) programs. The Center has also received funding from several organizations and nonprofits including the Otto Bremer Trust, the American Endowment Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, and Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund.
• Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is an international cooperation agency that is a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of Switzerland. According to its website, the SDC claims to be “guided by” the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 policy goals that were adopted by all United Nations (UN) focused on addressing issues of climate action, energy production, and global poverty. The group has also provided funding to several pro-Palestinian organizations including Breaking the Silence and the Palestinian Performing Arts Network (PPAN) while previously working with other groups such as the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and Development Initiatives.