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:

• The Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) is an environmental advocacy group based in Michigan that promotes ecological projects aimed at combating climate change. According to its 2024 Financial Report, it received $4,066,717 in total support, 64% of which was from public federal, state, and local sources. CRA has also received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Frey Foundation, the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation, the Brookby Foundation, and the Walters Family Foundation.
• The Clean Air Fund is a London-based charity that advocates for reducing air pollution through funding clean air projects as well as through government and transnational action. It was founded in 2018 by Jane Burston with $50 million in seed funding. The Clean Air Fund’s funders include the IKEA Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Oak Foundation, the Quadrature Climate Foundation, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and the Sequoia Climate Foundation.
• The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is a professional association of teacher-training colleges. In 2022, the AACTE reported nearly 700 members within the United States, including Columbia University, Yale University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The AACTE primarily earns its revenue through membership dues but has also received grants from nonprofit funders such as the Ford Foundation.
• The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is a professional academic association of geographers, founded in 1904 by William Morris Davis, who was known as the “father of American geography.” It organized smaller local groups including chapters of the American Geographical Society and the National Geographic Society. The AAG has supported left-of-center principals such as endorsing “justice, equity, diversity and inclusion” (JEDI) and switching to more “carbon-conscious” meetings by aiming to reduce carbon emissions from those meetings 45% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
• The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2018 to provide financial services for Hispanic-American communities. In 2024, it partnered with Capital One bank, NeighborWorks America, the Opportunity Finance Network, and the Woodstock Institute as part of a pledge to extend $286 billion in loans to low-income American communities. The NALCAB has received funding from nonprofit organizations including the Truist Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.