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 Alliance of Baptists is a nonprofit coalition of churches advocating for left-of-center policies on issues such as critical race theory and environmentalism. In 2023, the group released a statement condemning commercial farming practices such as genetic modification, claiming that they were contrary to Christian theology. The statement also criticized the agriculture industry for activities connected to carbon emissions as well as unsafe working conditions.
• Chicago Public Media (CPM) is a local media nonprofit that operates the WBEZ FM radio station, which is a charter member of the National Public Radio (NPR) network. CPM emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies while also claiming that such issues are at the heart of its news reporting. In 2022, CPM acquired the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, making it the largest nonprofit news organization in the U.S.
• The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice (Hive Fund) is a funding intermediary that connects donors to local environmental advocacy organizations. The Hive Fund supports cutting carbon emissions to half of 2021 levels by 2030 as well as ending construction of all new gas pipelines. The Hive Fund is fiscally sponsored by the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by the philanthropic consulting firm Arabella Advisors.
• Labor for Palestine is a coalition of pro-Palestinian labor activists founded by the New York City (NYC) chapters of Al-Awda and US Labor Against the War. The coalition supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to economically isolate the state of Israel, while its founding manifesto advocates for the “end to Israeli occupation and colonization of all Arab lands.” Individual signatories to Labor for Palestine’s founding principles included those in executive roles with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 535 in Oakland, California; the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in NYC; and the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 235 in Detroit, Michigan.
• The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is a network of businesses that promotes international trade while supporting the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The ICC claims that it played a “vital role in scaling widespread action on Sustainable Development Goals,” which are a series of UN policy goals for member nations targeting climate action, gender, energy production, and other issues. Former ICC secretary general Maria Cattaui sits on the board of directors for the Open Society Foundations, a grantmaking network founded by billionaire and left-of-center philanthropist George Soros.