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:

• Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) is a right-of-center public interest law firm that engages in litigation and advocacy on Constitutional rights, regulatory issues, and what it considers to be the abuse of class actions. HLLI was founded in 2019 as a successor of the Center for Class Action Fairness, which was established in 2009 by future HLLI co-founder Ted Frank. HLLI’s funders include DonorsTrust, the Searle Freedom Trust, and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program.
• United Way New York City (UWNYC) is a grantmaking organization and a local branch of the United Way Worldwide. UWNYC has received funding from groups that include the Education Trust, Network for Good, the Robin Hood Foundation, the American Endowment Foundation, the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund, and the Tides Foundation. UWNYC has made grants to numerous recipients, including the Center for Justice Innovation, the Legal Aid Society, and the Fortune Society Inc.
• David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) is a Canadian environmentalist group that opposes oil and gas energy projects and supports land conservation. Founded by climate activist David Suzuki and his wife Tara Cullis, the DSF has previously partnered with the World Wildlife Fund’s Canadian branch as well as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. DSF has received funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as well as the Bullitt Foundation.
• Pharos Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding to education advocacy groups as well as other right-of-center policy institutes. It was originally founded as the Pike and Susan Sullivan Foundation, with funding from the estate of Wall Street executive Pike Sullivan and his wife Susan. Notable grantees have included the City Fund, the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, the Opportunity Trust, the Arizona Community Foundation, and the Center for Education Reform.
• United Parent Leaders Action Network (UPLAN) is a left-of-center network of advocacy groups involved in childcare policy and other issues. Founded in 2016 by several education advocacy groups including Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), its policy platform also deals with economic, housing, community safety, food and nutrition, and immigration matters. UPLAN’s funders have included the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the CARE Fund, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Zero to Three.