To what extent do the political ties of private foundations influence their granting?

To what extent does financial support to charities from private foundations enable political, expressive activities? Sub-questions to be answered include: Do specific political connections influence which charities a foundation gives to? Do foundations with shared political connections give to the same charities? And, are any shared charities politically expressive in nature or do they represent other identities that may co-vary with politics such as age, class, or geography? The idea is to test whether a shared, underlying political identity is a better predictor of financial flows from private foundations to charities than other factors like cause and geographic proximity would on their own. The literature indicates that board directors in private foundations have direct influence
over granting, that private foundations may use their granting or convening powers to achieve policy goals, and that the involvement of board directors in politics influences the ways and extent to which a charity is politically active.