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:

• Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) is a California-based advocacy group that promotes left-of-center environmentalist policies within the state. It is listed as a member organization of Regenerate California, a California Environmental Justice Alliance-led program whose other members include Communities for a Better Environment and Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. In 2023, CCAEJ’s funders included ImpactAssets, the Liberty Hill Foundation, and the Solutions Project.
• Team Rubicon is a disaster relief organization that operates both within the United States and abroad. In 2022, it received a $7 million grant from Yield Giving, the philanthropic project founded by MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos. According to its 2024 annual report, Team Rubicon’s sponsors contributing $1 million or more included the Ford Motor Company, Ford Philanthropy, Wells Fargo, the Home Depot Foundation, Under Armour, and USAA.
• Re:wild is a conservation and environmental advocacy group founded by actor and climate activist Leonardo DiCaprio. As of 2026, the group claims to have 500 partners in over 80 countries. Re:wild supports wildlife and plant restoration and preservation efforts, as well as left-of-center climate policies as they relate to conservation. Groups it has worked with include the Wild Foundation, One Earth, Earthjustice, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• Oakland REACH is a nonprofit organization that provides educational and tutoring services for minority communities in Oakland, California, while also seeking to “disrupt systematic education inequities in Oakland public schools.” In 2022, MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, donated $3 million to Oakland REACH through her Yield Giving Other groups that have made grants to Oakland REACH include the Walton Family Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Center for Education Reform, America Achieves, and the Greenlining Institute.
• Tennessee Alliance for Progress (TAP) is a Nashville-based advocacy group that promotes left-of-center environmentalist policies within the state. TAP is listed as a “convening organization” among Climate Nashville’s partners. Other partners include the Sierra Club‘s Beyond Coal Campaign and Middle TN Group, the Tennessee Environmental Council, and Nashville Home Energy Solutions. TAP director Grayce Gadson was previously an organizer and spokesperson for the Nashville chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM).