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:

• Whitman-Walker Institute is a research organization based in Washington D.C. that provides health policy recommendations and conducts clinical trials and investigations. The Institute is listed as a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a left-of-center network of over 240 organizations that advocates and lobbies on civil rights legislation and presidential appointments. The Institute has previously received grants from George Washington University, the Ford Foundation, the Gill Foundation, and the Greater Washington Community Foundation.
• Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation whose grantees include left-of-center organizations promoting environmentalist and abortion access policies. As of 2025, the Foundation was listed as a signatory of “Meet the Moment,” a pledge for increased grantmaking in response to federal government cuts organized by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, the National Center for Family Philanthropy, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. The Foundation’s grant recipients have included the Hopewell Fund, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Clean Energy Fund of Texas.
• Allstate Foundation is a private foundation affiliated with the insurance company Allstate whose grantees include left-of-center activist organizations. In 2024, the Foundation’s “Racial Equity” grant program provided funding to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Prosperity Now, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. Additional funding that year went to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, PolicyLink, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, and UnidosUS.
• Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is a research and advocacy organization that focuses on state policy issues such as child welfare, race, the economy, and immigration. Its 2024 funders included the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Arkansas Community Foundation, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Its donors have also included Community Catalyst, the Economic Policy Institute, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
• Community Organizing and Family Issues is a Chicago-based organization that provides training to low-income residents on influencing public policy. In 2022, the organization received a $2 million grant from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, which was reportedly the largest single donation it had received in its history at the time. It has also received funding from the Chicago Community Trust, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the K. Kellogg Foundation, the New Venture Fund, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.