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 Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is a grantmaking foundation established by Home Depot co-founder and Democrat Party donor Arthur M. Blank. In 2023, Blank contributed $406,600 to support President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and another $41,300 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Fay Twersky is the president and director of the Foundation, having previously served as vice president of the left-of-center William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
• The Arab Resources and Organizing Center (AROC) is an activist organization that is sponsored by the Tides Center, a nonprofit arm of the Tides Nexus that funds multiple left-of-center organizations. AROC supports the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and following the October 2023 Hamas terror attack against Israel, AROC released a statement calling for a free Palestine and the abolition of “Zionism” in the region.
• The Yaqeen Institute is a Texas-based think tank that promotes Islamic religious practices. Following the October 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, the institute’s founder and president, Omar Suleiman, promoted several anti-Israeli allegations including a debunked claim that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza that killed 500 people, when it was later revealed to have been caused by a malfunctioning missile launched from Gaza.
• Foreign Policy for America (FP4A) is an advocacy group founded in 2017 following President Donald Trump’s election, claiming that the Trump Administration’s “America First” policy was “cynical.” FP4A supported the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, partnering with left-of-center groups such as the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. It has also supported nontraditional energy policies for “decarbonizing” America.
• StopAntisemitism.org is an online watchdog organization that monitors, chronicles, and reports antisemitic incidents within the United States. In 2023, the organization endorsed a brief by the Zachor Legal Institute, “The Unseen Threat of The Mapping Project,” which argued that the Mapping Project’s reporting on Israeli-linked entities was a threat to the security of U.S assets and institutions due to possible Iranian involvement in its creation and promotion.