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:

• Rising Tide Capital (RTC) is a New Jersey-based nonprofit that provides training and coaching services for small businesses. According to its website, RTC’s supporters include the NoVo Foundation, the Stand Together Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Other groups that have made grants to RTC include the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Grameen America, and the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation.
• Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) is a left-of-center advocacy organization whose work focuses on refugees and migrants from Southeast Asian countries. Its network of parters includes the Detention Watch Network, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. In 2022, SEARAC was one of more than 450 recipients that received a portion of over $3.8 billion worth of grants made to nonprofits by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.
• Cultivate KC is a Kansas City-based nonprofit that provides funding and other services designed to support local urban agriculture development. The group has received funding from the Health Forward Foundation, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, and Ford Philanthropy. In March 2025, it was one of several organizations represented by Earthjustice in a lawsuit against the Second Trump Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding a freeze of federal funding for the Rural Energy for America Program.
• Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) is a right-of-center Super PAC that supports the campaigns of Republican candidates running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the CLF had total receipts of $163.1 million between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. Major contributors included its sister nonprofit American Action Network, political donor Miriam Adelson, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, hedge fund manager Paul E. Singer, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, crypto platform Coinbase, energy corporation Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute.
• Center for Community Self-Help (Self-Help) is a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit which provides financial and development services for low-income communities. The group itself acts as an umbrella for the Self-Help nonprofit network in the state, which includes Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund, and the Center for Responsible Lending. The Center for Community Self-Help is a member of the Housing Partnership Network (HPN), whose other members include Capital Impact Partners, Catholic Charities Housing Services, and Partners for the Common Good.