Research Guides: U.S. Politics and Policy: Interest Groups and Lobbying

Lobbying

Political Advocacy Groups
A directory of interest groups that lobby Congress.
Open Secrets Lobbying Database
Find campaign contribution and spending amounts by industries, issues and more. The filters on the left hand side are helpful to narrow your search. Dollar amounts and top spending industries can be useful if you're following a money trail in your research.
FollowTheMoney Lobbyist Register
Locate names of state registered lobbyists here. Find search tools mid-way down the page for federal, state and local elections. Further down are ways to locate data by year, and news reports are after that.
House of Representatives Lobbying Disclosure
U.S government requirements, forms and report details for lobbyists.
Senate Lobbying Disclosure Reports

Think Tanks

Think tanks are institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity.

Think Tank Search Engine
Try this custom think tank Google search below to limit your results
Think Tanks Index
Provides lists of the largest and most influential think tanks around the world.

Example Think Tanks

Annenberg Public Policy Center
Covers adolescent health and political communication, among others.
Rand Corporation
Focuses on such issues as health, education, national security, international affairs, law and business, the environment, and more.
The Urban Institute
Crime, nutrition, income and more are studied using independent research methods.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research.
Brookings Institute
Conducts in-depth research for national and international social change.

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

NGOs, or Non-Governmental Organizations, are non-profit organizations working on humanitarian, human rights, and sustainable development issues worldwide.

Non-governmental Organization Search
Use this search engine to limit your results to just NGOs.
Worldwide NGO Directory
Generate lists of NGOs by region and filter by areas of activity.
Eldis
Selected summarized content from over 7,500 economic and social NGOs. Use the "Advanced search" or "Topics" tab.

Example NGOs

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development publications

Human Rights Watch
One of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights.
Amnesty International
Environmental Defense Fund
An organization of scientists, economists, and policy experts working to address today's most urgent environmental challenges.

Lobbying, Interest Groups, and PACs

Lobbying - Direct contact made by a lobbyist in order to persuade government officials to support the policies their interest group favors.
Interest groups - A group of people with common goals who organize to influence the government.
Political Action Committee (PAC) - An organization formed to provide financial support for political candidates. A PAC is local or state based. For example, the Dallas Police Officer's Political Action Committee(DPOPAC) provides financial support for and endorses state and local candidates.

Evaluating Organizations

Being non-profit or even being humanitarian does not mean that an organization does not have a bias in favor or against a certain subject, industry or policy. Just because an organization has a bias does not mean that you would not use information from them.

Check the "About" page to understand the mission of the interest group.
Do some searching on Google to see what more you can find out.
Check to make sure that any research conducted was well done.
Look for other groups that may have different positions.
Find out who funds the organization. Be aware that some think tanks are run by corporations as a way to generate positive public relations.

Transparify
Rates the financial transparency of major think tanks.
SourceWatch
"Well-documented information about corporate public relations (PR) campaigns, including corporate front groups, people who "front" corporate campaigns, and PR operations."