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:

• Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans is a left-of-center labor union-aligned advocacy group focused on social and economic issues. As of 2023, organizations affiliated with the group included the American Federation of Government Employees, the Arizona AFL-CIO, and the Arizona Education Association. The group’s executive director, Dora Vasquez, previously worked as the director of the Governor’s Office of Boards and Commissions under former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano (D) and was also a board member for the Kino Border Initiative.
• Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a legal advocacy group that pushes for “racial equity and economic opportunity for all” and for ending what it calls “deeply entrenched systems of discrimination, racism, and economic oppression.” From 2021 through 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the group approximately $2.25 million in grants for Fair Housing Act-related enforcement. The group has also received grants from the Joyce Foundation, the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, and the Reva and David Logan Foundation.
• CALSTART is a business advocacy group that promotes zero-emission designs and infrastructure incentive programs for vehicles and other equipment. The group has previously been awarded government grants, including $10.9 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation from 2022 to 2024. Other federal grants have come from the U.S. Department of Energy. Foundations and other nonprofits that donated to CALSTART in 2023 include the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, the ClimateWorks Foundation, and the United States Energy Foundation.
• California Trout, or CalTrout, is an environmental advocacy group that supports policies and research designed to protect wild fish populations in the state. CalTrout’s executive director Curtis Knight previously worked as a project ecologist for the Nature Conservancy. From 2022 to 2023, CalTrout received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund (GSPF).
• Paragon Health Institute is a health policy advocacy organization whose work includes “evaluating government programs, developing policies, and working within government to implement reforms.” Brian Blase, president of the Institute, was previously a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, and a special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House’s National Economic Council from 2017-2019. He also previously worked for the Mercatus Center and the Heritage Foundation. Paragon Health Institute has received funding from other nonprofits and foundations including Stand Together, the 85 Fund, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.