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 Schott Foundation for Public Education is an advocacy group that promotes critical race theory-aligned educational policies. Its listed “Funding Partners” include the American Federation of Teachers Education Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the NEA Foundation, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. The group’s president, John H. Jackson, previously worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was a senior policy advisor in the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration.
• Break Free From Plastic is an environmentalist organization that advocates for left-of-center policies such as banning single-use plastic products. Its member organizations include Greenpeace, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Story of Stuff Project, Surfrider Foundation, Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, Ecology Center, Heal the Bay, and Pacific Environment. It has received support from the Plastic Solutions Fund, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and the Story of Stuff Project.
• Bucks County Concerned Citizens Against the Pipelines is a local environmentalist group that opposes the development of traditional energy infrastructure projects in Buck County, Pennsylvania. It is a local affiliate of the Better Path Coalition, a network of climate advocacy groups that opposes natural gas fracking and other conventional energy industries in Pennsylvania. Other members of the Better Path Coalition include 350 Philadelphia, Berks Gas Truth, the Bucks County chapter of the Sierra Club, the Pennsylvania chapter of Coalition for Peace Action, and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
• Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center (IPJC) is a network of religious groups that promotes “systemic change for social justice issues” through education and advocacy efforts. Sponsoring or affiliated organizations include the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of the Presentation, and the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Groups which have donated to IPJC include the Inatai Foundation, Save Our Wild Salmon, the National Philanthropic Trust, and the DAFgiving360.
• Bucks Environmental Action is a local advocacy group that promotes left-of-center environmentalist policies. It has signed onto the #ClimatePresident Action Plan, a proposed agenda supporting policies such as declaring a state of emergency over climate change, banning the sale of conventional fuel vehicles by 2030, and making Congressional appropriations to support other countries’ efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The plan was developed by a coalition which included the Climate Justice Alliance, the Labor Network for Sustainability, 350.org, Oil Change USA, the Democracy Collaborative, Earthworks, the Center for Climate Integrity, and ActionAid USA.