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:

• Study of Law and Political Economy at Yale (LPE Yale) is an academic center within Yale University that promotes left-of-center economic and social policies by hosting events and conferences. In 2023, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave a $600,000 grant to LPE Yale for the purpose of developing the center, “…into a wide-ranging shift that will change the way law is studied and taught, the public discussion of legal and political institutions and power, and law’s role in policymaking and political mobilization.” In 2025, LPE Yale deputy director Helyeh Doutaghi was banned from the Yale Campus for her alleged affiliation with Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government as a “sham charity” and a “front organization” for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group.
• Animal Wellness Action (AWA) is an animal rights activist group that supports policies, legislation, and candidates it considers to be pro-animal. During the 2024 election cycle, AWA supported the campaigns of several candidates running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, including U.S. Reps. Adam Gray(D-CA), David Valadao (R-CA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Derek Tran (D-CA), John Mannion (D-NY), and Don Davis (D-NC). In 2023, AWA received $1,000,000 in grants from the Berger Action Fund, a left-of-center lobbying nonprofit and the advocacy arm of the Wyss Foundation, the grantmaking foundation funded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss.
• Town Branch Foundation is a grantmaking organization founded by Jim Walton, the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Jim previously served as a board member for Walmart until 2016 when he passed the position to his son Steuart. Jim’s daughter Annie Proietti is the chair of the Walton Family Foundation. The Town Branch Foundation has provided grants to organizations that include the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Cato Institute, Exodus.Life, Heartland Forward, the Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Nature Conservancy, and the Watershed Conservation Resource Center.
• Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund) is a nonprofit that provides financial literacy and education services to low-income individuals. It was founded in 2008 as a New York City pilot program called the Financial Empowerment Center, led by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. CFE Fund has received grants from organizations that include the K. Kellogg Foundation, the Skillman Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
• Robin and Sandy Stuart Foundation is a private family foundation formed by Alexander D. “Sandy” Stuart, the president of North Star Investments, and his wife, Ann Peake “Robin” Stuart, a photographer. They are members of the family of Elbridge Stuart, the founder of Carnation Co., which was sold to food conglomerate Nestle in 1985 for $3 billion. The foundation has provided grants to organizations that include the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, the Nature Conservancy of South Carolina, Yellowstone Forever, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Planned Parenthood of the Rockies.