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 New York Bar Foundation is a grantmaking organization that provides funding to legal aid groups and runs educational programs for financially-disadvantaged students in the New York region. In 2023, it gave roughly $600,000 to legal services organizations including left-of-center groups such as International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ), the Legal Aid Society, the Urban Justice Center, Immigration Equality, and the Worker Justice Center of New York.
• Urban Ocean Lab is an environmentalist think tank that promotes replacing traditional city infrastructure with green technologies while claiming that racial equity is a key reason to support climate change policies. Co-founder Ayana Elizabeth Johnson co-authored a “Blue New Deal,” which she modeled on the Green New Deal, to promote ocean conservation. As of 2023, its text appeared on a campaign website for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
• The Carmel Hill Fund is a grantmaking foundation that provides funding to student literacy programs with a particular focus on New York, Louisiana, and Colorado. In 2023, the group partnered with the Omidyar Network, created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, to fund technology policy and censorship initiatives. Other left-of-center groups that provided funding include, the Oak Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
• The Jubitz Family Foundation is a grantmaking foundation that provides funding to environmental and anti-war efforts. One of its programs, the War Prevention Initiative, claims that worldwide culture is one of white supremacy. The Fund has provided grants to other left-of-center groups including Advocates for the West, the Council on Strategic Risks, the Foundation for National Progress, the Ploughshares Fund, and the Win Without War Education Fund.
• The Council on Foundations is a private membership association of over 850 foundations, other grant makers, and associated organizations worldwide that supports and provides legal assistance to the philanthropic sector. In 2022, the Council released a guide on alleged hate groups and other forms of extremism, borrowing its definition for the latter from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).