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:

• Faye Wattleton was president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) from 1978 to 1992. She was the first African American to lead the PPFA, and the first woman since its founder Margaret Sanger. In 1989, she founded the group’s advocacy arm Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Wattleton was previously the executive director of Planned Parenthood’s Dayton, Ohio branch. She has held numerous board positions, including at Columbia University and the United Nations Association of the United States of America.
• The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) is a business league that advocates on agriculture policy-related issues on behalf of retailers and distributors. The ARA has criticized the Second Trump Administration’s policies on tariffs, claiming that “damage to export market relationships from bilateral tariff escalations would likely be severe and long-lasting.” The ARA has previously supported the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which call for a 17% increase in agricultural productivity and reducing greenhouse gas production by 21%.
• Americans Against Government Censorship (AAGC) is a membership organization of nonprofits and labor unions formed in December 2024 to advocate against changes to nonprofit regulations they claimed would be carried out by the Second Trump Administration. Founding members reportedly include the AFL-CIO, Oxfam America, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Indivisible. AAGC’s identified spokesperson, Caitlin Legacki, was previously a senior advisor for the Biden Administration‘s Department of the Treasury, as well as the former director of communications for House Majority PAC.
• Inter CPA LLC is a for-profit accounting firm that provides financial services for nonprofits. It promotes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, such as joining “coalitions and networks pushing for equitable energy transition policies.” Since the start of the Second Trump Administration in 2025, Inter CPA LLC has advocated against staff downsizing at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), while arguing that the agency should transition into a “a Small Business Administration-style organization.” The firm was founded by Jesus Pizzaro, a board member of the Sunrise Movement Education Fund, who previously worked as CFO of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs and the Sunrise Movement.
• NYC Pride is a community advocacy group that organizes and promotes LGBT events within New York City. The group’s partner organizations include the Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National LGBTQ Taskforce, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. In May 2023, NYC Pride criticized retail company Target for removing certain pride and LGBT-themed merchandise from its stores following national boycotts. It also revealed that the company had previously been a “platinum sponsor” of NYC Pride, as well as a founding sponsor of its annual Youth Pride event.