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:

• A Way Home America is a community advocacy group that promotes left-of-center policies on housing, homelessness, and LGBT rights. According to the group’s 2024 annual report, three of its proposals were introduced as legislation in the 118th Congress: the Youth Homelessness Guaranteed Income Pilot Project Act of 2024 (H.R. 7451), the Homes for Young Adults Act of 2024 (H.R. 8722), and the Commission on Youth Homelessness Act (H.R. 7908). According to its website, A Way Home America’s financial supporters include left-of-center grant makers such the Raikes Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Melville Charitable Trust, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
• The Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance (APSA) is a Pro-Palestinian network that opposes partnerships between Israel and the United States while supporting the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) It is a fiscally-sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice, which houses numerous left-of-center organizations and initiatives. According to its website, APSA’s partner organizations within its network include Jewish Voice for Peace, No More Deaths, and Students for Justice in Palestine.
• Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE) is a voter advocacy group that works to advance “progressive values and policies for the betterment of all its communities.” Co-founder Natali Fierros Bock was previously the co-executive director of RAZE alongside co-founder Pablo Correa, before she left the organization in 2024 to become the executive director of One Arizona. RAZE has received funding from left-of-center organizations that include the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, the New Venture Fund, the Tides Foundation, Way to Rise, the Windward Fund, and the Women Donors Network.
• Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund (WE LEAD) is a grantmaking initiative that promotes and helps develop environmental groups led by women and nonbinary-identifying individuals. It is one of seven such initiatives launched by the Tides Foundation beginning in 2019, with others including the Frontline Justice Fund and the Stronger Together Fund. In 2023, WE LEAD made $1.54 million in grants to organizations that included the Native Movement, Indigenous Climate Action, the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Honor the Earth, and MOVE Texas.
• Election Law Navigator is an online legal database that provides information on state election laws. It is a project of the Election Law Program, itself a joint project of William & Mary Law School and the National Center for State Courts. The Election Law Navigator was created with funding from the Democracy Fund, the Election Trust Initiative (ETI), the Hewlett Foundation, the Klarman Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Co-director Rebecca Green is a professor of law at William & Mary and associate reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Election Litigation.