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:

• El Puente is a Brooklyn-based advocacy group that promotes “environmental justice” initiatives. In 2024, the group received a $3.1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote “community leadership in environmental justice processes and projects.” It has also received grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as from several nonprofit organizations including the New York Foundation, the MacMillan Family Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
• Arizona for Abortion Access PAC (AAAPAC) is a political action committee (PAC) formed to support the passage of Arizona Proposition 139 in 2024, to amend the state constitution to ensure the right to an abortion. The proposition passed in November of that year with 61.6% of the vote. Organizations that endorsed AAAPAC included the American Association of University Women, Living United for Change in Arizona, Amnesty International USA, and Stand Indivisible Arizona. Donors to the organization in 2023 included the Fairness Project, the Arabella Advisors-managed Sixteen Thirty Fund, George Soros’ Open Society Action Fund, and the Tides Foundation project Movement Voter Fund.
• The Clean Energy Fund of Texas is a self-described “green bank” that provides loans and other financial services to promote weather-dependent energy. In April 2024, the Biden Administration announced that the organization would receive a grant of over $156 million through Solar For All, a federal grant program established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide solar panels to low-income communities. Solar For All is part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
• Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (PSC-CUNY) is a teachers union representing faculty and staff within the City University of New York (CUNY) system, and which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the New York State United Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, and the AFL-CIO. In December 2023, following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks against Israel, the union was one of 78 to endorse a statement calling for “the restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas, and for President Biden to call for a ceasefire.” Other unions that endorsed the statement included Rutgers University AFT-AAUP, the Boston Teachers Union, the Chicago Teachers Union, and the United Auto Workers.
• The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an advocacy group that promotes policies it alleges will protect election integrity. As of February 2025 the IFES website listed several of the group’s “public sector” donors,” which included the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian Government, and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2022 the IFES received a grant of over $49 million from the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, while that same year IFES provided grants for “technical electoral assistance and education” programs to the American Bar Association, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.