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:

• Appalshop is a left-of-center media production group based in Kentucky that produces films and other media focused on the Appalachian region. It has produced material on issues such as the region’s coal economy and what it calls “a legacy of environmental damage.” Appalshop has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the NoVo Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the MacArthur Foundation.
• SalmonState is an Alaska-based conservation group that advocates for the protection of the state’s fish populations and their habitats. It is a project of the New Venture Fund, a left-of-center nonprofit and one of several organizations managed by the philanthropic consulting firm Arabella Advisors. Organizations that have donated to the New Venture Fund for the purpose of supporting SalmonState include the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Wilburforce Foundation, the Campion Foundation, and the Environmental Defense Fund.
• Rivian Foundation is the corporate foundation of electric vehicle manufacturing company Rivian. A separate 501(c)(4) nonprofit called Forever by Rivian was created by the company in 2021 with the goal of using one percent of the company’s equity to fund environmental causes, but its assets were transferred to the Rivian Foundation in 2023. The Rivian Foundation has made grants to groups that have included the Surfrider Foundation, Trout Unlimited, and the Conservation Lands Foundation.
• ASPIRE PAC (or the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Rising and Empowering) is a political action committee (PAC) which claims to act as “the political arm of the Democratic Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Members of Congress.” Formed in 2011 by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), ASPIRE PAC endorsed several candidates during the 2024 election cycle including U.S. Rep. Derek Tran (D-CA), U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA), U.S. Rep. Dave Min (D-CA), and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ). During the 2024 election cycle, the PAC’s highest expenditure recipients were the Frost Group, Sapphire Strategies, NGP VAN, and Karis Consulting Group.
• Better Government Association (BGA) is a Chicago-based advocacy group that promotes left-of-center policies at the city and state levels. It manages the Illinois Answers Project, a media outlet formed in 2021 through a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and which is affiliated with the media network Institute for Nonprofit News. As of 2022, BGA has received funding from organizations that include the Chicago Community Trust, the Oppenheimer Family Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and Barnes & Thornburg LLP.