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:

• Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a group that promotes left-of-center environmental policies in a healthcare context. Practice Greenhealth, a membership and networking nonprofit created to share information among hospital systems, was created through a collaboration of HCWH, the American Hospital Association, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the American Nurses Association. HCWH has received funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund.
• Fairness for Iowa is a coalition of advocacy groups and labor unions that advocates for left-of-center policies in the state. Members include state chapters of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the AFL-CIO, as well as Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN), Health Care for America Now (HCAN), and Lower Drug Prices Now Iowa. The coalition opposed the federal Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, which would have repealed certain environmental tax credits, including those for electric vehicles, as well as expanded work requirements for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). The legislation did not become law.
• The Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED) is an environmental advocacy group that promotes a transition to a “just and equitable climate, energy, and environmental policy” through research and education. CEED previously worked with the Center for American Progress and the Natural Resources Defense Council to develop an Equitable and Just National Climate Platform, advocating for a “national climate action that confronts racial, economic, and environmental injustice.” Donors to CEED include Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Windward Fund, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Energy Foundation.
• The Sundance Institute is an organization founded by the late actor Robert Redford that supports independent filmmakers and their films. The Institute operates an “Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program” to support audiences and filmmakers “across ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and geographic regions.” Funders of the Sundance Institute include the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the John Templeton Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
• CenterLink is a coalition of LGBT community centers. It promotes leadership development, networking, and advocacy for the LGBT community. National CenterLink partners include the Equality Federation, GLAAD, PFLAG, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Donors to CenterLink have included the Trevor Project, the National LGBTQ Task Force, Panorama Global, the Pride Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and ImpactAssets Inc.