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:

• Justice 2018 PAC is a political action committee (PAC) created in 2017 to raise money for the campaigns of U.S. Senate Democrats running for office during the 2018 midterm election cycle, with different iterations being reformed every two years between 2018 and 2024. During the 2018 midterm cycle, the PAC contributed to the campaigns of then-U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), then-U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D). Between 2017 and 2024, the group also contributed towards Democrat Party-aligned PACs and committees including America Votes, American Bridge, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Emily’s List, and ActBlue.
• Ecojustice Canada Society is an environmentalist advocacy group based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and claims to be the largest environmental advocacy nonprofit group in the country. The group has engaged in pro-climate advocacy activities with similar organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the World Wildlife Fund Canada branch. In 2023, the group received funding from several U.S-based organizations including the Goatie Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, 444 S Foundation, Brainerd Foundation, and Bullitt Foundation.
• Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) is an environmental advocacy group that promotes community action and demonstrations against industrial projects in the Memphis, Tennessee region. MCAP has been associated with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). The SELC supported a MCAP-organized protest against a proposed Byhalia oil pipeline in 2021, and both groups advocated for the closure of Sterilization Services of Tennessee, a controversial medical equipment sterilization company. In 2024, both MCAP and SELC advocated for the Shelby County Health Department to investigate the opening of a XAI data processing center in Memphis by X (formerly Twitter), owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
• Chicago Housing Justice League (CHJL) is a fiscal project of the Alliance for Global Justice and advocates for left-of-center housing policies in the Chicago metropolitan region. CHJL is a coalition of roughly 37 organizations as of 2025, which includes the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights,  Communities United, the Law Center for Better Housing, and the Shriver Center on Law and Poverty. The group’s parent company, Alliance for Global Justice, has received controversy for previously being a fiscal sponsor of Samidoun, also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. In 2024, the S Department of Treasury and Canada designated Samidoun as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”
• The Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) is a fiscal project of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), which claims to advocate for supporting Arab-American communities across the country through donor-advised funds as well as “impact area” funds and “giving circles.” As of 2024, CAAP’s community impact fund has donated over $1 million in grants to local advocacy groups including the Arab American Action Network, Arab American Civic Council, and Palestinian American Community Center. CAAP has received donations from several left-of-center organizations through ACCESS including the Charities Aid Foundation of America, Ford Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.