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 Ark Foundation is a private foundation based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is controlled by the Dant family, and of 2023 all five unpaid trustees of the foundation were members of the family. The Ark Foundation has donated to left-of-center organizations including the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Santa Fe Dreamers Project.
• The Boston Women’s Fund (BWF) is a charity that provides grants to “support marginalized women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in achieving racial, economic, social, and gender justice.” Listed partners of the BWF include the Barr Foundation, the New York Women’s Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Women’s Funding Network. BWF has previously received grants from left-of-center organizations including the NoVo Foundation, the Angell Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the Imago Dei Fund, and the  Foundation for Women.
• The Tomkat Ranch Educational Foundation (TKREF) is a private foundation started by billionaire Tom Steyer and his wife Katherine Taylor to promote environmentalist and agricultural practices. TKREF is one of several organizations within the Steyer Network, all founded by Steyer, which include the TomKat Charitable Trust, the TomKat Foundation, the NextGen Education Fund, and NextGen Policy. In 2023, TKREF received donations from the Battery Foundation, the Campbell Foundation for the Environment, the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation.
• The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York & Vicinity (NYC BCTC) is the New York City affiliate of the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, or North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). As of 2025, the NYC BCTC is comprised of dozens of locals from national labor unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Union of Elevator Constructors. Gary LaBarbera, the president of the NYC BCTC since 2009, is a member of the executive board of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO and president of the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council.
• Speak Up for Justice is a legal advocacy group that works to defend an “independent judiciary” from what it calls “unprecedented attack[s].” It has hosted web-based events with guest speakers including the former president of the American Board of Trial Advocates Andrea L’Verne Edney, retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy, and North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson (D). Federal Election Commission (FEC) data shows that the group’s founder, Paul Kiesel, has previously donated to Democratic Party-aligned organizations including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the American Association for Justice PAC.