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:

• South Carolina Daily Gazette is a local media outlet founded in 2023. It is a state affiliate of the national media network States Newsroom. States Newsroom was formerly a project of the Hopewell Fund, one of several nonprofits managed by consulting firm Arabella Advisors. Seanna Adcox, the editor for the Gazette, previously worked for the Associated Press (AP) and the Post and Courier 
• Growth Opportunity Partners (also known as Growth Opps) is a Cleveland-based financial firm that provides services regarding green and weather-dependent energy sources. According to its website, its partners include the George Gund Foundation, J.P. Morgan Chase, the Cleveland Foundation, the Coalition for Green Capital, the United States Department of the Treasury, and Bank of America. In April 2024, during the Biden Administration, it was announced that Growth Opportunity Partners and the Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition had received a Solar for All grant totaling $156 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to fund solar energy projects.
• Builders Initiative Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation originally founded by Lukas Walton, a grandson and heir of Walmart founder Sam Walton. According to a September 2024 Inside Philanthropy story, Builders Initiative also maintains a donor-advised fund through the Chicago Community Trust. In 2023, the Builders Initiative Foundation made grants to the RAND Corporation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Tides Center, the Walton Family Foundation, the Windward Fund, the New Venture Fund, and many other groups. That year, the foundation reported over $1.5 billion in assets.
• Energy Action Fund (previously known as Green Tech Action Fund) is an environmental advocacy group and the lobbying arm of the Energy Foundation. The Energy Action Fund has given grants to groups that include the BlueGreen Alliance, Environment America, the Sierra Club, and ProgressNow. Ryan Werder, the group’s executive director, was also a senior advisor for the Energy Foundation, a deputy director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and a staffer for then-U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI).
• African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) is a San Jose, California-based nonprofit whose “three pillars” are “education,” “community building,” and “advocacy.” One of its listed advocacy issues is “reparations.” According to its website, AACSA’s “friends and partners” include Comcast, Wells Fargo, IBM, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). AACSA has previously received grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Penner Family Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.