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:

• Advocacy Action Fund (AAF) is a grantmaking organization founded through a donation from Atlantic Philanthropies, which provides funding to left-of-center organizations. Michael Kieschnick, the group’s president, is also listed as the president of the Carbon Advocacy Project and the Green Advocacy Project, and was previously the CEO of CREDO Mobile. During the 2024 election cycle, individuals and PACs affiliated with AAF donated over $8 million to organizations including the Progressive Turnout Project, the Worker Power PAC, the One for All Committee, Planned Parenthood Votes, and Future Forward USA Action.
• Immigration Hub is an advocacy group that provides training and educational programs to develop media strategies for organizations that oppose immigration policy reform. In December 2024, the group founded Catalyze/Citizens, a political advocacy group designed to oppose the immigration policy of the Second Trump Administration, as well as to support the campaigns of Democrat candidates running for office. According to OpenSecrets, in 2024 individuals associated with Immigration Hub donated to the campaigns of former Arizona state legislator Raquel Teran (D) and former vice president Kamala Harris (D).
• Nebraska Civic Engagement Table (NCET) is a voter mobilization group that advocates for increasing voting participation among the “rising electorate,” which it defines as including members of the LGBT community, minorities, young voters, and several other groups. NCET is the state branch of the left-of-center State Voices, which itself has received funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF). In 2024, NCET donated to the Protect Our Rights Initiative, a campaign that supported passage of Initiative 439 on the November 2024 ballot, which would have guaranteed the right to abortion in Nebraska.
• Action Now Initiative (ANI) is a grantmaking organization that has advocated for policy reform in areas such as education, criminal justice, elections, and healthcare. ANI was founded by financier John Arnold and his wife Laura Arnold, both of whom also founded the limited liability company Arnold Ventures as well as the nonprofit Laura and John Arnold Foundation. According to OpenSecrets, from 2019 through 2024, the Action Now Initiative spent between $240,000 and $710,000 annually on federal lobbying.
• National Health Law Program is a legal advocacy group operating in several states, which supports expanding Medicaid programs for low-income and disabled individuals. It is a member of Democracy 2025, a project of Democracy Forward (DF) comprised of over 280 member organizations that oppose the policies of the Second Trump Administration. The National Health Law Program has received funding from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, and the California Wellness Foundation.