“First they ignore you,” said Ghandi, “then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Research produced by CRC and InfluenceWatch continues to be noticed by the very top of the American policymaking totem pole. This has yielded coverage (sometimes skeptical) from the old regime media and even the lefty media. We’re not sure who said this, but it’s also relevant: “You know you’re over the target when you’re taking flak.”
This recap of our media attention since the start of this month begins with a lefty podcast from Truthout that paid us a backhanded compliment regarding the impact of our research:
Movement Memos—A Truthout Podcast: Holding the Line Through Tear Gas and Censorship
And it’s worth noting also that the Capital Research Center came out with a new report on September 17th, and that report focuses on George Soros, and mapping the network of groups that it says he funds or is connected to, and it calls them terrorist organizations. So these playbooks and these plans should remind us that the right has studied the left. They have strategically mapped out their tactics and their moves aren’t coming out of nowhere.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Philanthropy Leaders Decry Trump’s Order to Investigate Liberal Groups
Other foundation observers defended the plans for increased law enforcement targeting grant makers. Michael Hartmann — senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that, according to the New York Times report, fueled some of the Department of Justice’s rationale for targeting Open Society — said law breakers must be held accountable.
“Gruesome political violence is clearly on the uptick as of late, and the administration’s actions properly cast a wide legal net in terms of looking into how and why,” he wrote in an email “The government should do so respective of free-speech and all other rights, of course, and philanthropy should be expected to defend its rights.”
Politico: A small think tank’s crusade against Obamacare is making some Republicans nervous
The conservative activist orbit has responded favorably to Paragon’s work. According to tax records obtained by InfluenceWatch, Stand Together — a right-leaning organization connected to Charles Koch — donated $2 million in 2021; the 85 Fund, which has ties to the conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, gave $1 million in 2022.
Daily Wire: Evangelical Magazine Christianity Today Takes Over $1 Million From Abortion Funder
As dark money watchdog groups like Influence Watch have noted, since its founding in 1967, Hewlett has continuously supported Planned Parenthood, eventually becoming its second largest private funder in the United States. Between 2000 and 2023, Hewlett granted Planned Parenthood over $100 million. After the 2022 Dobbs decision ended the constitutional right to abortion, Hewlett announced it was redoubling its efforts to ensure access in states that were moving to restrict the procedure, revealing that its board had approved a 30% increase in its annual budget earmarked for “reproductive equity work.” In particular, this funding would “strengthen support for state and local organizations focused primarily on abortion care.”
The Patriot Post: Behind Christianity Today’s Leftist Drift
According to dark money watchdog group Influence Watch, the Hewlett Foundation has been supporting Planned Parenthood since its foundation back in 1967. Between 2000 and 2023, the Hewlett Foundation has given over $100 million to Planned Parenthood, and following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Hewlett announced it was doubling its efforts to support and promote abortion.
Newsbusters (Media Research Center): Obey Your Godfather: NPR Gives Soros Exec Platform to Dance Around Pro-Terrorism Funding
The Justice Department reportedly directed prosecutors to draft plans to investigate Soros’s empire after Capital Research Center investigative researcher Ryan Mauro revealed in an extensive, 90-page report that Soros had funneled at least $80 million into organizations “tied to terrorism or extremist violence” in the U.S. and abroad.
Inside Philanthropy: The Philanthropy-Backed Think Tank Behind Trump’s Soros Investigation
Last week, in yet another extraordinary move, President Donald Trump reportedly ordered the Justice Department to investigate George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. The purported investigation appears to have been informed, at least in part, by the Capital Research Center, a philanthropy-backed, 501c3 watchdog organization that calls itself “America’s investigative think tank.”
The Capital Research Center (CRC), which was established in 1984, focuses on the work of foundations, charities and nonprofits, examining how these organizations “spend money and get involved in politics and advocacy, often in ways that donors never intended and would find abhorrent,” according to its website. This is a nod to conservative philanthropy’s longstanding concern with donor intent. One wonders, however, what the conservative donors of yesteryear, so concerned with limiting government power, would think about how the Trump administration is using CRC’s research.
When it broke the story of the apparent investigation of OSF, the New York Times reported that a Justice Department official had pointed to a CRC report “as evidence for such investigations.” In a later article, the Times characterized the targeting of OSF as “part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to cripple the financial and organizational infrastructure supporting Democrat-aligned causes and candidates.”
Rolling Stone: ‘They Need to Suffer’: Inside Trump’s War on Dissent
According to The New York Times, a top Trump official at the Justice Department wants to base the investigation off of a sensationalist report from the conservative Capital Research Center, which claims that Soros’ network has “poured over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence.”
E&E News (Politico): Sunrise Movement fears Trump will target it
Sunrise is one of many progressive advocacy groups on edge over concerns that they’ll be targeted by the administration’s policies. Trump officials have pledged a sweeping crackdown on nonprofits and other organizations they say are fueling violent protests. The administration’s critics see the moves as an attempt to silence its opponents.
Fueling Sunrise’s concerns is recent New York Times reporting that the Trump administration directed U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic group funded by Democratic donor George Soros. The Times also reported that a Justice Department directive encouraging prosecutors to investigate the Soros-backed group cited a report by the conservative Capital Research Center.
The Intercept: Sunrise Movement, founded to fight climate change, pivots to fighting Trump
While the Sunrise Movement has received no official word that it is under investigation, the group has ample reason to believe that it may be targeted.
The Justice Department has directed local prosecutors to investigate billionaire financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which gave $2 million to Sunrise between 2019 and 2013, according to a grant database. In doing so, the Justice Department cited the right-wing Capital Research Center, which recently published a report claiming that the Sunrise Movement supports “Antifa-associated anarchist terrorists.”
The Federalist: This Well-Funded Legal Org Works To Protect Antifa Terrorist Cells From Prosecution
NLG also does business as the National Immigration Project, which had $2.9 million in net assets in 2023. NLG is closely tied to the International Association of Democratic Lawyers which was founded in Paris. Because it is not U.S. based, it does not provide financial data to the U.S. government. The groups are largely funded by well known philanthropists. National Immigration Project received $20,000 from the Tides Foundation in 2023. According to a report from Capital Research, National Lawyers Guild has received $25,000 from the Soros Family’s Open Society Foundation.
