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:

• United Women of Color (UWOC) is a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) and advocacy organization that seeks to increase the influence of ethnic-minority women in the government decision-making process. In August 2023, members of UWOC dubbed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D-GA), U.S Special Counsel Jack Smith, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. (D-NY) as “defenders of democracy” due to their ongoing efforts to prosecute former President Donald Trump.
• Unite and Renew Fund is a grantmaking and advocacy organization that supports implementing ranked-choice voting (RCV) and non-partisan primaries to “weaken the grip” of supposed extremists on Congressional primary elections. It claims to support several other left-of-center organizations including US, United to Protect Democracy, and Voting Rights Lab. Voting Rights Lab is a project of New Venture Fund, a nonprofit managed by consulting firm Arabella Advisors.
• Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology FactLab (RMIT FactLab) is an Australia-based research organization that studies and fights alleged online misinformation. In 2022 the organization was hired by Meta (formerly Facebook) to “grey-out” misleading posts on the social media site. In August 2023, Meta suspended its partnership with RMIT FactLab amid allegations that the latter had favored one side during an Australian referendum.
• Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation established in 1929 by philanthropist Harry Frank Guggenheim. It supports research into the origin and different forms of human aggression and violence including war, terrorism, and political extremism. The foundation receives support from several left-of-center organizations including Arnold Ventures and the David Rockefeller Fund.
• Amistad Law Project (ALP) is a public interest law firm that advocates in favor of ending mass incarceration and life-without-parole sentences for prisoners. ALP believes that social inequality is what leads to violence and thus supports efforts to defund the police, replace police intervention with mental health crisis response, and presses local district attorneys to support their efforts. ALP receives funding from left-of-center advocacy organizations including Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) and Pennsylvania Voice.