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:

• Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) is a network of staff and faculty from over 120 universities across the United States that advocates for ending study abroad programs with Israeli universities and supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. FJP has coordinated with local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) that have organized pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks against Israel. Universities that have chapters of FJP include Columbia, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California Berkeley.
• ISEAL Innovations Fund is a United Kingdom-based grantmaking organization that provides funding to environmentalist and climate-activist groups. It was formed in 2016 through a collaboration between the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, an economic bureau within Switzerland’s government, and ISEAL Alliance, an environmentalist non-governmental organization (NGO) of which ISEAL Innovations Fund is the fundraising arm. ISEAL Innovations Fund has provided funding to left-of-center groups including the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), which advocates for more restrictive mining industry practices.
• Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides training for journalists in using technological services. Formed in 2003, GIJN received tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2015 and claims to have 251 member groups across 95 countries as of 2024. GIJN has received funding from several left-of-center organization including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Ford Foundation, Humanity United, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and the Oak Foundation.
• Abundant Futures Fund (AFF) is an advocacy organization that promotes left-of-center immigration policies in the United States. The AFF is fiscally sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and is primarily funded by the Emerson Collective, the Ford Foundation, and the JPB Foundation. As of 2024, AFF has provided grants to left-of-center organizations including the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Detention Watch Network, and the National Immigration Project.
• Heal the Bay is an environmentalist organization that advocates in favor of climate-related polices that it claims will protect Santa Monica Bay in California. Operating a local aquarium as well as beach cleaning efforts, the group also advocates for left-of-center environmental polices such as banning certain plastics usage, blocking drilling for oil, and opposing the development of desalination facilities. As of 2024, the group has received funding from left-of-center groups including the California Community Foundation, the Ocean Conservancy, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Resources Legacy Fund.