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:

• AZ Liberty Network is a right-of-center coalition of activist organizations that advocates for increased civic participation in the state through community outreach and leadership training. It operates several community outreach projects including the AZ Faith Alliance, the Grand Canyon Legal Center, and the Hispanic Liberty Alliance. According to its website, the AZ Liberty Network has 41 member organizations as of 2026, including the Goldwater Institute, Heritage Action for America, Turning Point Action, and the state/local affiliates of Moms for Liberty and Restoration of America.
• Free the Future is a project of the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS) that organizes teachers and students in opposition to the Second Trump Administration and actions taken by its Department of Education. AROS is a fiscally sponsored project of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and was initially founded through development support from the Annenberg Institute for School Reformand funding from the Ford Foundation. Free the Future’s partner groups include the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Popular Democracy, the Alliance for Educational Justice, and the National Education Association (NEA).
• CARE International is the global network of national Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) organizations, affiliates, and community-based partner organizations. CARE International supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 policy goals adopted by United Nations members in 2015 as a part of the UN’s “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” Its listed “multilateral funding partners” include the European Union (EU), the International Labour Organization, the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Conservative Reform Network (CRN) was an advocacy group that promoted right-of-center policies on economics, healthcare, energy, education, and welfare before ceasing operations in 2020. In 2015, the CRN received a $50,000 contribution for general support from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Tax filings from 2017 show that CRN made grants to the 60 Plus Association, Americans for Tax Reform, the Republican Professionals Network of Virginia, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.

• Town Creek Foundation was a private foundation that focused on environmental issues in Maryland, including the Chesapeake Bay. The foundation ceased operations in 2021 after spending down its endowment due to what it called “the urgency of the challenges” in transitioning Maryland to a “low carbon economy.” During its existence, the Town Creek Foundation made grants to numerous organizations including to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc., Food and Water Watch, the Center for Progressive Reform, Earthjustice, and the Environmental Integrity Project.