Washington, D.C. — The Congressional Integrity Project today launched WhoFundsCRC.org, a new public database documenting the funders behind Capital Research Center, a right-wing organization whose work has been used to fuel the White House and Congressional Republicans’ attacks on progressive donors and nonprofits, along with civil society organizations.
Capital Research Center presents itself as a “nonpartisan watchdog.” The public record tells a different story. According to IRS Form 990 filings compiled in the new database, almost 200 funders have directed at least $16 million to CRC between 2017 and 2025. The largest documented funders include DonorsTrust, widely described as the conservative movement’s dark money ATM, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.
CRC’s work doesn’t stop with their “research.” Its reports have been cited by Republican congressional investigators and amplified across right-wing media, helping build the case for partisan targeting of organizations that represent the mainstream of American civic life.
WhoFundsCRC.org allows reporters, researchers, and the public to search the full donor database, trace the network of influence, and read the receipts documenting CRC’s record.
Some examples include:
- $3.2 million from Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund that is a notable recipient of contributions from the Koch family, and is known as “the dark-money ATM of the right.” Other Donors Trust grantees include climate change denial initiatives, SPLC-designated hate groups, nonprofits closely associated with Donald Trump, and even groups linked to white supremacy.
- $2.4 million from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, one of the nation’s largest foundations funding “the development of conservative thought” including climate change denial in the US and internationally.
- $1.8 million from Fidelity Charitable, the nation’s largest grantmaker. Fidelity Charitable’s contributors have used the fund to funnel money to anti-Muslim, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, and white supremacist groups.
- $1.4 million from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, “one of the most powerful philanthropic forces behind America’s conservative movement” that is particularly known for funding media outlets that align with its leadership’s policy priorities. Co-founder Harry Bradley was also a founding member of the far-right, conspiracy-minded John Birch Society.
- $1.2 million from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, which is led by affiliates of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.
- $615,000 from the Fred A Lennon Charitable Trust and the Lozick Family Foundation, two closely-related foundations established by the estate of a secretive Republican donor who was the nation’s top political contributor for several years in the 1990s.
- $445,000 from the Lloyd and Vivian Noble Foundation and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, two closely related foundations. Virginia Noble Heckman, president of the former foundation and board member of the latter, is a Heritage Foundation trustee.
- $325,000 from the Searle Freedom Trust, which has contributed “more money to conservative non-profits than nearly any other private foundation in recent years,” including funding climate change denial.
- $225,000 from the JP Humphreys Foundation, whose Vice President currently leads the SEC after being appointed to the position by Donald Trump.
- $200,000 from the John William Pope Foundation, whose leader is known for donations that “have shifted the political culture of North Carolina to the right” in collaboration with the Heritage Foundation.
Congressional Integrity Project Spokesperson Jeremy J. Funk released the following statement:
“Capital Research Center has made a business out of demanding transparency from everyone else while hiding behind a wall of foundations, dark money conduits, and donor-advised funds that keep its own backers off the public record. That ends today. We followed the money — more than $16 million from nearly 200 funders — and we are putting it all in one place for every reporter, lawmaker, and citizen who wants to know who is bankrolling the machine that fuels these baseless, partisan attacks on civil society. CRC wants to talk about transparency. Let’s start with theirs. No entity should go to the Capital Research Center for information – they are nothing but a discredited, partisan outfit.”
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