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:

• Pro-Life Colorado Fund, also known as Right to Know CO, was the registered issue committee of Pro-Life Colorado (Pro-Life CO), a coalition of over 50 organizations advocating for pro-life policies in the state. Pro-Life CO opposed the passage of Colorado Amendment 79, the Right to Abortion and Health Insurance Coverage Initiative, in November 2024. Other opponents included Coloradans for the Protection of Women and Children and the Colorado Life Initiative. Colorado Amendment 79 ultimately passed and Pro-Life Colorado Fund was reported as terminated in April 2025, but its website was still active as of September 2025.
• The Gianforte Family Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that primarily provides funding to organizations in Montana. In 2023, the foundation gave to several right-of-center organizations including Alliance Defending Freedom, Turning Point USA, and the Family Research Council. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R-MT) and his wife Susan Gianforte are listed as trustees of the foundation.
• EcoJustice Working Group is an advocacy initiative that supports left-of-center environmentalist policies such as the Green New Deal. It promotes “Eco-Justice,” which it defines as “justice, or rights, for all of nature – humans, all other creatures, and all other parts of our ecology, such as trees, rivers, mountains.” EcoJustice Working Group is a project of the Thomas Merton Center, a left-of-center advocacy group that supports “anti-racist” and “equitable” advocacy, “environmental justice,” and “immigrant justice.” EcoJustice Working Group is listed as an organizational member of the Better Path Coalition, an environmentalist coalition that opposes traditional sources of energy in Pennsylvania, such as fossil fuels.
• Goodnation is a nonprofit that provides fiscal sponsorship services for other organizations, through which it has managed donations from funders including Arnold Ventures, Borealis Philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. In 2023, Goodnation provided grants to recipients that included the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Movement Voter Project, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
• Prager University Foundation (often stylized as PragerU), is a right-of-center educational advocacy group that publishes content promoting “American values through the creative use of digital media, technology and edu-tainment.” Its funders include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the National Christian Charitable Foundation, and the Richard and Betsy DeVos Foundation. According to its 2024 IRS Form 990, PragerU’s top disbursements to independent contractors in 2024 included $11.6 million to Meta (listed as Facebook), $10.5 million to Google, and $1.5 Million to X Corporation (formerly Twitter).