Organization Trends
InfluenceWatch Friday
October 4, 2024

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 Carroll Petrie Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants for environmental policies within the state of New Mexico. It was founded by Carroll Petrie, wife of retail businessman and philanthropist Milton Petrie, who left her a $150 million trust fund following his death in 1994. The foundation has provided grants to left-of-center organizations including the Earth Island Institute, WildEarth Guardians, and the Humane Society of the United States. Between 2019 and 2022, the foundation gave a total of $2,650,000 to left-wing activist group Center for Biological Diversity.
- Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 is the Minneapolis-based chapter of Veterans for Peace, a membership organization that campaigns against nuclear proliferation and the use of war as a policy tool. According to its website, the group has partnered with left-of-center organizations including Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, Women Against Military Madness, and Code Pink. Veterans for Peace Chapter 27’s last publicly availably form 990 was filed in 2010, with IRS e-Postcards being filed from 2011 onward declaring gross receipts of less than $50,000 per year.
- The Delaware State Education Association (DSEA) is a teacher’s union and the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). The DSEA has previously endorsed left-of-center policies including providing “gender-affirming care” for students and decoupling teacher evaluations from test scores. In 2018, DSEA president Mike Matthews was forced to resign following what media reports called “sexist, racist, and other inflammatory remarks” on a former blog.
- The Maryland Philanthropy Network (MPN) is a collaborative of over 110 grantmaking organizations advocating for left-of-center policies within the state of Maryland. Member organizations include the Abell Foundation, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Osprey Foundation. MPN has received grants from other left-of-center funders including the Open Society Foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
- The Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund (MCHIEF) is an organization that advocates for left-of-center state healthcare policies. It is the sister organization and charitable affiliate of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, also known as Health Care for All, which advocates in favor of universal taxpayer-funded health care in Maryland and the United States, mandated increased access to health insurance, and higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. MCHIEF has received funding from left-of-center groups including Arnold Ventures, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, the Hopewell Fund, the Horizon Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation.