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:

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is an advocacy group that provides legal services to immigrants within the United States, including educational materials such as “know-your-rights” guides, self-help materials for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applicants, and “anti-discrimination” toolkits. The ILRC also advocates for left-of-center immigration policies such as reducing collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The ILRC has collaborated with advocacy groups and educational institutes including the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), and the University of California, Berkeley.
• Governors Action Alliance (also known as GovAct) is an umbrella network that oversees Governors Safeguarding Democracy and the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, two state-governor coalitions founded to support left-of-center policies. Governors Safeguarding Democracy is co-chaired by Illinois governor B. Pritzker (D) and Colorado governor Jared Polis (D). The Reproductive Freedom Alliance was founded in 2023 by California Governor Gavin Newsom (D). In September 2024, GovAct received $500,000 in funding from Democracy Fund, the private foundation of billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar.
• Movement Advancement Project (MAP) is a think tank that conducts research and advocacy on left-of-center policies, including those focused on LGBT issues and election legislation. MAP oversees online projects including the “Equality Map,” which ranks U.S. states based on their LGBT legislation and its alleged impact on the LGBT community, and the “Democracy Map,” which ranks U.S. states based on alleged pro or anti-democratic policy and activity. Several listed major donors for MAP include the David Bohnett Foundation, the Gill Foundation, the Johnson Family Foundation, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and MacKenzie Scot
• For Our Future PAC is a Washington D.C.-based political action committee (PAC) that aims to “create permanent lasting change” based on “progressive values.” The PAC’s treasurer, Ben Unger, is an advisory board member of Evergreen Action, an environmentalist group that was formerly fiscally sponsored by the Arabella Advisors-managed nonprofit Sixteen Thirty Fund.
• T. Rowe Price Foundation is a private foundation that serves as the grantmaking arm of global investment firm T. Rowe Price. The foundation has previously donated to groups that have supported left-of-center causes including the Maryland Philanthropy Network and the Players Philanthropy Fund. According to its 2022 Form 990, the foundation reported expenses of $11,117,133 that year, which included contributions made to groups advocating for left-of-center policies on education, criminal justice, the environment, and civic engagement.