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:

• On Being Project is a faith-based organization that produces podcasts discussing topics such as “religion, faith and human existence.” In 2014, then-President Barack Obama presented the group’s founder Krista Tippett with the National Humanities Medal for “thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence.” The group has received funding from left-of-center foundations, including the Henry Luce Foundation, the Kalliopeia Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
• Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) is a humanitarian and hunger relief nonprofit. In 2021, it was one of hundreds of organizations to co-sign a letter to the Biden Administration requesting that then-President Joe Biden “end the fossil fuel era” and “phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.” BGR has provided grants to other humanitarian organizations including Feeding America, Oxfam America, UNICEF USA, and UNRWA USA.
• Communities Advancing Prosperity for Immigrants (CAPI) is an aid and advocacy group that provides assistance and services to immigrant and refugee communities in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. CAPI is a member of several national groups including APIAVote, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, and the National Partnership for New Americans. CAPI’s donors include APIAVote, the McKnight Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Asian American Foundation, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
• Greater Greater Washington (GGW) is local activist group that promotes left-of-center transportation and housing policies within the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. GGW emphasizes “racial, economic, and environmental justice in land use, transportation, and housing” within the region. It has received funding from left-of-center organizations such as Arnold Ventures, Open Philanthropy, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
• Greater Good Science Center is an academic institution affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley that conducts research on “compassion, happiness, and altruism.” It also provides consulting services to corporations such as LG, Facebook, Pixar, and Disney. According to its 2024 annual report, the Center has received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Meta, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and many other organizations.