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:

• Tropical Audubon Society (TAS) is a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes environmentalist policies with the goal of preserving ecosystems in South Florida. It is a chapter of the National Audubon Society, and its listed partner organizations include the Everglades Foundation, the Miami Foundation, and the Everglades Law Center. The TAS has also worked with left-of-center groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the South Florida Wildlands Association.
• Freedom BLOC (Black Led Organizing Collective) is the 501(c)(4) lobbying arm of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Freedom ROC. Freedom BLOC works to develop “political infrastructure within Black communities” through civic engagement. It was listed as one of the endorsing organizations of the January 2024 March on Washington for Gaza, advocating for an end to the Israel-Hamas War. Freedom BLOC has previously received funding from the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Grove Action Fund, and America Votes.
• Georgia Alliance is a network of organizations that focus on developing civic-engagement projects to create what the group calls a “racially just democracy” within the state. Member groups of the Alliance’s network include the Georgia Alliance Education Fund, Georgia Engaged (which later became America Votes Georgia), Represent Georgia, Collective Renaissance Georgia, and Collective Renaissance Action. The Georgia Alliance’s executive director Quentin Mays previously worked for the National Democratic Training Committee, the Analyst Institute, State Voices Florida, and UNITE HERE.
• Project Legacy Minnesota (PLMN) is a nonprofit which provides financial, educational, and career assistance to minority groups within the state. According to its 2024 tax filings, it received $251,494 in government grants, amounting to 51 percent of its total revenue that year. PLMN has also received funding from Otto Bremer Trust, the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and the National Philanthropic Trust.
• Courage+, previously known as Courage MKE, is a Wisconsin-based advocacy group that provides housing, educational, and other services for members of the LGBT community within the state. In recent years, Courage+ has received grants from groups including the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin, the American Endowment Foundation, the American Online Giving Foundation, Network for Good, and the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund.