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 Houston Local Information Initiative, or Houston Landing, is a left-of-center digital media platform located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2022, it has previously published articles claiming that Texas laws opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies are “wrecking havoc” in the state. Major donors to the group include Arnold Ventures, the Knight Foundation, and the American Journalism Project (AJP).
• Kavod Boston is a community group that claims to offer a “spiritual and political home” for young local members of the Jewish faith. A project of the left-of-center nonprofit Social Good Fund, the group advocates for ending what it claims to be Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They also claim that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel is not “inherently antisemitic.”
• The International Policy Network, which does business as the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), is a research center that promotes the use of legal and economic methodologies to inform public policy debates. As of March 2024, ICLE has published articles on topics including the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine mandates’ impact on vaccine hesitancy, as well as Department of Labor rules that limit independent contractors. Its donors include the Charles Koch Institute and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.
• Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network is a pro-Palestinian think tank that produces material critical of Israel. The group’s scholars include Salem Barahmeh, a former employee of the Palestinian mission to the U.S and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In February 2024, Al-Shabaka claimed that the Israeli-Hamas war was a “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
• We Are All America is an immigration advocacy campaign founded by the pro-refugee nonprofit National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA). The project’s main program, a National Refugee and Immigrant Table network of activist groups, is led by an executive board with members from aligned organizations including the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. Groups that have endorsed the Table include USA Hello, the International Rescue Committee, and the Community Sponsorship Hub.