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SECTORSInternal LinksProfiles:
OTHER LINKSMarkeplace Under The InfluenceThink Tanks and the money that funds them Think tanks have become a growth industry. A handful existed a few decades ago. Now there are hundreds of these non-profit institutions. The marriage of multi-millions in private money and once-unorthodox ideas packs a powerful punch. President Bush has adopted domestic policies nurtured in think tanks from private social security accounts to fundamental tax reform. Marketplace explores what donors believe they get for their money, how ideas are bankrolled and promoted, and the thin line between think tank educational efforts and outright lobbying, as well as new efforts to reform the system. |
CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPYNational Think Tanks and Advocacy GroupsFrom a report by NCRPNo set of institutions has done more to set the national policy agenda than some of the heavily-funded think tanks and advocacy groups listed here. All are focused on national budget and policy priorities and are especially well funded. Over the 1992-1994 period, the foundations profiled in this report poured close to $80 million into these organizations, $64 million of which was invested in multi-issue policy institutions with a major focus on shaping national domestic policy and $15.2 million of which was granted to policy research and advocacy organizations focused on national security and foreign policy issues. Much of this grant money was concentrated in just a handful of institutions. The five top grantee institutions, for example, received $28.7 million to finance a range of activities. They are the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, the Cato Institute, and Citizens for a Sound Economy.Other major grantees receiving multiple grant awards in excess of $2 million included the Hudson Institute, the Hoover Institution, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Manhattan Institute and the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Numerous other examples exist that illustrate how this dense, growing and well-funded infrastructure of conservative policy organizations, most of whom refer to themselves as think tanks or research institutes, have worked assiduously and often in concert to push a deeply conservative policy agenda at the national, state and local levels. As one investigative journalist stated years ago in a pioneering investigation of the conservative philanthropy of Richard Scaife, "layer upon layer of seminars, studies, conferences, and interviews [can] do much to push along if not create, the issues, which then become the national agenda of debate.... By multiplying the authorities to whom the media are prepared to give a friendly hearing, [conservative donations] have helped to create an illusion of diversity where none exists. The result could be an increasing number of one-sided debates in which the challengers are far outnumbered, if indeed they are heard from at all."
Michael Dolny Study Finds First Drop in Think Tank CitesProgressive groups see biggest declineThe latest survey of think tank citations—which is based on appearances in major newspapers and TV and radio transcripts that appear in the Nexis database—found that 40 percent of such citations in 2005 were to conservative or center-right groups, 47 percent were to centrist groups and only 13 percent were to center-left or progressive groups.
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OTHER LINKSMarketing Policy
Media & Communications Efforts
Sponsoring Conservative Minorities
Top recipients
Heritage Foundation
American Enterprise Institute
Free Congress Foundation
Cato Institute
Citizens for a Sound Economy
Hudson Institute
Hoover Institution
National Bureau of Economic Research
Manhattan Institute
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Institute for Contemporary Studies
George C. Marshall Institute
Reason Foundation
Claremont Institute
National Center for Policy Analysis
Competitive Enterprise Institute
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