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 Center for American Liberty (CAL) is a right-of-center organization that engages in public advocacy and litigation on cases related to freedom of speech, religious freedoms, parental rights, and claims of discrimination. It has received funding from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, and the National Christian Charitable Foundation. As of 2026 CAL’s founder, Harmeet Dhillon, is the U.S. Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice‘s Civil Rights Division for the Second Trump Administration.
• The VF Foundation is the private grantmaking foundation of the VF Corporation, a publicly-traded outdoor apparel and footwear company. According to its website, the foundation’s program areas include “Thriving Outside, Protecting Our Planet, Powering Potential and Humanitarian Relief.” Organizations that have received funding from the VF Foundation include the Trust for Public Land, the United Nations Foundation, the National Forest Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Biomimicry Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund.
• Textron Inc. is a conglomerate known for aviation, defense, and industrial products. Its reported revenue in 2025 was approximately $14.8 billion. Between 2008 and 2025, the company was awarded over 62,000 contracts from U.S. government agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Justice.
• The International Wilderness Leadership Foundation, also known as the WILD Foundation or WILD, is a conservation group that advocates for left-of-center environmental policies. Its listed partner organizations include the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Parks Canada, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas in Mexico, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. Its 2024 donors included the Hillman Family Foundations, ImpactAssets Inc, the Chicago Community Trust, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation.
• The Giniw Collective is a left-of-center activist group that advocates for “land defense, decolonization, and carrying our words into action.” In 2024, it was one of over 400 groups to sign a letter calling on energy company Energy Transfer to drop its lawsuit against Greenpeace over its role in helping to fund and organize the Dakota Access Pipeline protests between 2016 and 2017. The Giniw Collective has received funding through its parent organization Unkitawa, including from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the Common Counsel Foundation, and ImpactAssets.