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 Directors Guild of America (DGA) is a professional association of film and television directors in the United States that aims to promote and protect the interests of directors and the entertainment industry at large. influencewatch.org/labor-uni…

CHISPA (short for Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association, Inc.) is a left-of-center nonprofit housing developer based in Salinas, California that constructs and manages rental apartments and single-family homes for low- and moderate-income residents of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties. 1 It described itself as the largest private nonprofit housing developer in Monterey County as of 2026. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Breitbart News Network, also known as just Breitbart News, is a right-of-center news and opinion media outlet. Journalist, technology entrepreneur, and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart founded the outlet in 2007 with Larry Solov and led it until his death in 2012. influencewatch.org/for-profi…

Black Men United (BMU) is a left-of-center anti-violence organization that works in low-income Black communities, offering workforce development programs, food and supply drives, peace rallies, youth development programs, and low-income housing opportunities. BMU is funded almost entirely by government grants and grants from the nonprofit groups Givenkind and the Weitz Family Foundation. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Sunlight Foundation was a government transparency advocacy group founded in 2006 that pushed for largely left-of-center government transparency measures. Following the foundation’s closure in 2020, many of its former projects were absorbed by other nonprofits including ProPublica, the Center for Responsive Politics, the Marshall Project, and Results for America. Throughout its operation, Sunlight Foundation suffered from frequent leadership turnover issues and fundraising problems, according to Nonprofit Quarterly. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Arizona Freedom Foundation (AFF) is a right-of-center organization that promotes independent journalism to provide the public with news and politics about Arizona that may not be covered by the mainstream media. It operates the Arizona-focused political and opinion news site AZ Free News. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

Noel Candelaria is a labor union official who has been the secretary-treasurer of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, since September 2020. He was previously the president of the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA), the NEA’s Texas affiliate, from 2014 to 2020. Throughout his tenure at both organizations, Candelaria has promoted left-of-center education policy positions, opposing charter school expansion, performance-based teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, and the reopening of Texas public schools during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration appointed him to a federal advisory commission on Hispanic education in 2022. influencewatch.org/person/no…

IllumiNative was a left-of-center Native American advocacy organization that operated as a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit managed under an administrative agreement with the for-profit consulting firm Arabella Advisors (now Sunflower Services). The organization was founded in 2018 by Crystal Echo Hawk, an activist and enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, following completion of the two-year, $3.3 million Reclaiming Native Truth research project, which was funded in part by a $2.5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2016. IllumiNative pursued voter mobilization campaigns, narrative-change initiatives in entertainment media, and opposition to the use of Native American imagery by sports teams. The organization ceased operations at the end of 2025, citing shifts in the philanthropic and political landscape. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

SiX Action is the political advocacy wing of the left-of-center State Innovation Exchange (SiX) state government policy coordination group that is generally considered to be a left-of-center analogue to the right-of-center American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) is a human rights organization based in Hungary. It works on various human rights issues and provides free legal assistance and other help to refugees, detainees, what it characterizes as “victims of law enforcement violence,” and victims of discrimination. The organization has received funding from the Open Society Foundations, a private grantmaking foundation created and funded by billionaire left-of-center financier and philanthropist George Soros. influencewatch.org/organizat…

Free the Future is a left-of-center advocacy campaign and a project of the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS). The campaign claims to organize educators and community members to protest against the Second Trump administration and its Department of Education over planned budget cuts to public schools. influencewatch.org/other/fre…

The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is a left-of-center labor advocacy group affiliated with the AFL-CIO that lobbies, organizes, and conducts voter mobilization in support of left-of-center positions on immigration, labor law, and social policy. Headquartered at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., the organization claims to represent the interests of more than two million Latino union members in the United States and Puerto Rico. The LCLAA is one of seven official constituency groups within the AFL-CIO and was previously also tied to the Change to Win federation, a labor coalition that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005. The group operates a separate political arm, the LCLAA Sí Podemos Fund, which engages more directly in electoral activities. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Children’s Campaign Fund (CCF) is a left-of-center political advocacy organization based in Seattle, Washington that works to elect and lobby state legislators who support increased government spending on child care, public education, behavioral health, and juvenile rehabilitation programs, among other initiatives. Founded in 1990 in the aftermath of a failed ballot initiative, the CCF has described itself as the nation’s oldest statewide PAC dedicated to so-called children’s issues and one of only a handful of such committees in the country. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a left-of-center grantmaking and fiscal sponsorship organization that works in the areas of “racial healing,” gender issues, environmentalism, and left-of-center economic policy in that state. In 2023, it announced a series of $42,000 scholarships for “students of color and LGBTQIA students pursuing post-secondary education in the arts.” influencewatch.org/non-profi…

The Center for Artistic Activism (C4AA) is a left-of-center nonprofit organization that promotes what it calls “artistic activism,” or the use of creative and cultural strategies to advance left-of-center advocacy campaigns. Founded in 2009 and based in Leeds, New York, the C4AA has trained and advised activists, advocacy organizations, and grantmakers across the United States and internationally, offering workshops, talks, trainings, research initiatives, and strategic consulting designed to make left-of-center advocacy and political campaigns more emotionally resonant and politically effective. influencewatch.org/organizat…

CARE International is the global network of national Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) organizations, affiliates, and community-based partner organizations. The original organization, known as CARE USA as of 2026, was created in 1945 at the end of World War II. The plan to form an umbrella organization to coordinate the national CARE organizations began in 1979, leading to CARE International’s establishment in 1982. influencewatch.org/other/car…

The Conservative Reform Network (CRN, formerly the YG Network) was an advocacy organization that promoted right-of-center policies focused on economic reforms and expanding “the middle class” as well as policy towards healthcare, energy, education, and welfare. The group ceased operations in 2020. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

Town Creek Foundation (TCF) was a private foundation that that focused on environmental issues in Maryland, including the Chesapeake Bay. The foundation spent its endowment and ceased operations in 2021. influencewatch.org/non-profi…

Uplifting Journey LLC was an Oregon-based behavioral-health company founded in November 2023 and co-owned by Julius Maximo and Espoir Ntezeyombi. Between April 2024 and March 2025, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) paid Uplifting Journey $2,317,496.20 in Medicaid reimbursements for substance-abuse treatment through the Oregon Health Plan. The company’s Lake Oswego residential facility became the subject of state and federal scrutiny after two of its residents were charged in connection with a kidnapping, torture, and attempted murder in Washington State, and federal authorities identified the men as members of the Venezuelan organized criminal syndicate Tren de Aragua. influencewatch.org/other/upl…

Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ) is a left-of-center criminal justice advocacy organization that provides free legal representation and community programs for incarcerated people in New York state and their families. It advocates for improved prison conditions on behalf of incarcerated persons and for removing laws prohibiting felons from voting, arguing that they are racist policies and “a vestige of Jim Crow laws.” influencewatch.org/non-profi…