RELATED LINKS
Internal Links
 Recipients of Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation grants, in descending order
Grants to:
 Recipients of Claude R. Lambe Foundation
Recipients of David H. Koch Charitable Foundation
Aggregate grants from Koch Foundations
Aggregated grants to George Mason University
Profiles:
Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
David H. Koch Charitable Foundation
John M. Olin Foundation
Sarah Scaife Foundation
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 Clint Bolick
 American Legislative Exchange Council
Cato Institute
Citizens for a Sound Economy
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment
Heritage Foundation
Hudson Institute
Institute for Justice
Landmark Legal Center
Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
Reason Foundation
Related stories:
 Dudley Do-Wrong of George Mason University - White House appears set to name Susan Dudley of GMU's anti-regulatory Mercatus Center to a key post at the OMB
Patron saints of right wing think tanks acquire Georgia Pacific Corp
External Links
Buying a Movement from People for the American Way Charles G. Koch bio at Koch Industries website Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation at Guidestar Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation website Koch Industries website
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FUNDER PROFILE
ein: 48-0918408
Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
and Koch Family Foundations
This page encompasses all Koch Family Foundations: the David H. Koch Foundation, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Foundation [From Axis of Ideology, NCRP, 2004]David and Charles Koch, sons of the ultraconservative founder of Koch Industries, Fred Koch, direct the three Koch family foundations: the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. David and Charles control Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company and the largest privately owned energy company in the nation; they have a combined net worth of approximately $4 billion, placing them among the top 50 wealthiest individuals in the country and among the top 100 wealthiest individuals in the world in 2003, according to Forbes.170 David and Charles Koch, sons of the ultraconservative founder of Koch Industries, Fred Koch, direct the three Koch family foundations: the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. David and Charles control Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company and the largest privately owned energy company in the nation; they have a combined net worth of approximately $4 billion, placing them among the top 50 wealthiest individuals in the country and among the top 100 wealthiest individuals in the world in 2003, according to Forbes.170 Following in the footsteps of their father, a member of the John Birch Society, the Kochs clearly have a conservative bent. Charles Koch founded the Cato Institute, and David Koch co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) [now FreedomWorks], where he serves as chairman of the board of directors. David also serves on the board of the Cato Institute. The Koch foundations make substantial annual contributions to these organizations (more than $12 million to each between 1985 and 2002) as well as to other influential conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, media organizations, academic institutes and legal organizations, thus participating in every level of the policy process. Their total conservative policy giving exceeded $20 million between 1999 and 2001. As reflected in their creation and funding of Cato and CSE, most of their contributions go to support organizations and groups advancing libertarian theory, privatization, entrepreneurship and free enterprise. David Koch even ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1980. In describing his foundation's contributions, he states, "My overall concept is to minimize the role of government and to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms."171 The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has a threefold mission: It "primarily supports research and education into free societies, in particular how they advance the well-being of mankind"; "fosters the partnership of scientists and practitioners in order to integrate theory and practice"; and "strives to develop market-based tools that enable individuals, institutions and societies to survive and prosper." Charles' biography on the Koch Industries Web site states that "he has continuously supported academic and public policy research for 40 years, with a special focus on developing voluntary market-based solutions to social problems." Furthermore, Richard Fink, president of the foundation, has served on the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board and on the President's Commission on Privatization and is editor of Supply Side Economics: A Critical Appraisal.172 The brothers' libertarian and free-market orientation comes as no surprise, given their ownership of Koch Industries, an oil and gas corporation: Curtis Moore argues that "Koch money funds industry-friendly messages that fill our airwaves and editorial pages, and influences outcomes in the halls of Congress and courtrooms across the country."173 CSE produces numerous policy papers that reach every congressional office as well as hundreds of newsletters and op-ed pieces. Representatives of the organization may be seen on a number of radio and television shows. Cato's influence also extends to policymakers and the public. In touting limited government and free markets, these organizations doubt the dangers of various chemicals, environmental pollutants and global warming, as well as challenge research efforts documenting these hazards. One CSE paper argued that "environmental conservation requires a commonsense approach that limits the scope of government."174 In writing these papers and making these appearances, individuals associated with these organizations often conveniently decline to acknowledge the substantial funding they receive from Koch and other corporations from the oil, coal, auto and other industries. By withholding such information, they are able to front as unbiased the public-minded associations promoting rigorous scientific research and economic autonomy, when, in fact, the individuals are mere mouthpieces for industries like that of the Koch brothers. These organizations influence not only public opinion and policy but also judicial outlook. For example, in 1999 CSE subsidized the creation of amici briefs providing reasons to proclaim the Clear Air Act unconstitutional. CSE received $600,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation that year.175 The foundation also provided substantial funding to the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE), which holds seminars for federal judges at its ranch near Big Sky, Montana. Many influential judges attend these seminars, including those who heard arguments made by legal representatives receiving funding from CSE. It makes sense that the Kochs would fund such anti-environment organizations, given their seedy past of environmental violations and lawsuits. Most significantly, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Koch Industries with 97 counts of defying federal hazardous waste and clean air-acts when it knowingly emitted benzene fumes and then lied about its actions when questioned. In 2001, Koch Industries agreed to a $20 million settlement, a drastically smaller sum than it would have paid if convicted.176 Other significant grantees in the domain of research and advocacy include the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Reason Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. David Koch serves on the board of directors of the Reason Foundation. The foundations also provide substantial funding to the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI), whose mission is "to champion freedom, opportunity and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions."177 The organization espouses entrepreneurship, privatization and individual liberty, three of the Koch brothers' main areas of interest. PRI publishes articles and papers, sponsors events, testifies before policymakers and provides commentary for a variety of media sources, reaching more than 141 million people in 2001 through these means. The organization supports transferring power from the government to private organizations and individuals, especially in terms of education, the environment and health care. It believes that government taxes and regulations "stifle" the nation's "entrepreneurial spirit" and lead to problems in each of these domains. Thus, the organization promotes vouchers, increased standards and accountability, and "teacher quality" in education; free-market competition in health care; and the elimination of federal social welfare programs, claiming that they result in reliance on the state and undue control of the government over individual lives. The organization gives an annual privatization award to individuals and private organizations that provide important community services, such as charter schools and sources of private scholarships. In addition to funding think tanks and advocacy institutes, the Koch foundations also provide substantial sums to academic institutes and universities to further conservative ideology and recruit youth to the crusade. Their main grantee is George Mason University (GMU). The three Koch foundations contributed $23,030,497 between 1985 and 2002 to the university, its foundation and its Institute for Human Studies.178 Richard Fink, the president of the Charles G. Koch Foundation, serves on the Board of Directors of GMU, where he taught until 1984. After serving as president and chief executive officer of CSE for several years, he returned to GMU, where he serves on the board of trustees of the Center for the Study of Public Choice and the Center for Market Processes and as a member of the board of the Progressive Policy Institute.179 Charles is chairman of GMU's Institute for Humane Studies, which hosts the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program. The mission of the center is "to support the achievement of a free society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented, productive students, scholars and other intellectuals who share a commitment to liberty and who demonstrate the potential to change significantly the current climate of opinion to one more congenial to the principles and practices of freedom."180 The institute sponsors free summer seminars for students interested in learning about "free market economics and networking." The two most significant contributions to the university came in the form of a $3 million grant in 1997, which helped to launch the Mercatus Center, and a $10 million grant in 1998, which helped to create the James M.Buchanan Center for the Study of Political Economy. Charles Koch is a board member at the Mercatus Center, which describes itself as a "research and education center [that] generates knowledge and understanding of how institutions affect the freedom to prosper and holds organizations accountable for their impact on that freedom."181 The center promotes free markets and "Western" values and customs. The director of its regulatory studies program, Wendy Lee Gramm, was named "villain of the month" by the Clean Air Trust in January 2002 for her work in opposition to federal regulations aimed at protecting health and the environment. The nonprofit trust charges that through his considerable donations, "Koch basically rents the university's name to give a patina of credibility to Wendy Gramm's anti-environmental agenda."182 The James M. Buchanan Center for the Study of Political Economy encompasses the Center for Study of Public Choice and the Center for Market Processes and is associated with the Institute for Humane Studies. Of the Buchanan Center's grant, the president of GMU remarked, "We believe this support will help us become a national center of excellence of study of the relationship between the polity and the economy."183 Another $3 million grant in 2001 from the Charles G. Koch Foundation allowed the university to establish the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) with its seven prestigious professors of experimental economics at GMU.184 GMU also directed some of the Koch foundation funding to its Law and Economics Center (LEC) at its School of Law. Flipside.org reports that the LEC's mission is to "teach federal judges that the goal of the law should be to maximize the wealth of society by promoting the efficient use of scarce resources." To do so, the center sponsors annual eight-week training conferences at resort locations for federal and state judges. Nearly 800 judges, including two U.S. Supreme Court justices, have participated in the program since it began in 1976. The LEC also holds "economic institutes for law professors and law institutes for economists" (e.g., the Economics of Private Law institute), so that the two disciplines may become more intertwined.185 In addition to its donations to the LEC and FREE, the Koch family foundations also provide significant contributions to other conservative legal organizations. Clint Bolick, a rigid opponent of affirmative action at the Landmark Center for Civil Rights, and William Mellor, former president of PRI, asked the Koch family for financial backing for a libertarian public-interest law firm to advocate for school vouchers, faith-based social service programs and property rights and to oppose affirmative action. The organization became the conservative Institute for Justice in 1991, and it continues to receive substantial funding from the Koch family foundations.186 The Federalist Society also receives a great deal of funding from the Koch family.
[From Buying A Movement (PFAW)] David and Charles Koch own virtually all of Koch Industries, an oil, natural gas, and land management firm and the second largest privately owned company in America. The brothers have a strong interest in libertarian theory; the three family foundations operated by the Kochs (the Charles G. Koch, David H. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations) made possible the libertarian Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy ($6.5 million and $4.8 million contributed between 1986 and 1990, respectively). Unlike the Bradley, Scaife and Olin Foundations, the Kochs focus exclusively on free-market philosophy. "My overall concept," said David Koch, "is to minimize the role of government and to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms." However, the Kochs do share with these foundations the conviction that the advancement of their philosophy is contingent upon investment in academia. In addition to their interest in influencing current public policy, they channel funds into fellowships, grants and scholarships to conservative university programs such as the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University to develop future proponents of their cause. Said John Blundell, former president of the institute (which received $2 million from Koch between 1986 and 1990, and is also supported by the Bradley and Olin foundations), the Institute "looks for good young people who are going to become academics and journalists and writers and novelists and clergymen and other dealers in ideas, who have shown some interest in the ideas that interest us." The Koch family also donates substantial sums to other libertarian and free-market groups. When Clint Bolick, former director of the anti-affirmative action Landmark Center for Civil Rights, and William Mellor, former president of the conservative, pro-voucher, free-market advocacy Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, decided to form a public-interest law firm to defend property rights and school vouchers, they went to the Koch family. The Institute for Justice was then formed with hundreds of thousands from the various Koch foundations, along with a commitment for future support. Also recipients of Koch largesse are the Reason Foundation (publisher of the libertarian Reason magazine), the Illinois-based libertarian think tank Heartland Institute and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. Footnotes [Axis report]170. http://www.forbes.com/richlist2003/rich400land.html. 171. W. John Moore, "Wichita Pipeline," National Journal, 5/16/92, p. 1171, as quoted in PFAW - Koch Family Foundations. 172. "James Buchanan Center Funded with $10 Million Gift." Mason Gazette. March 1998. 173. "Rethinking think tanks: How industry-funded 'experts' twist the environmental debate." Sierra Magazine. July/August 2002. 174. As quoted in Ibid. 175. Ibid. 176. Eggen, Dan. "Oil company agrees to pay $20 million in fines; Koch allegedly hid releases of benzene." The Washington Post. April 10, 2001. A03. 177. http://www.pacificresearch.org/. 178. http://mediatransparency.org/. 179. Mason Gazette, 1998. 180. As quoted in http://www.mediatransparency.org/ search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?l69. 181. http://www.mercatus.org/category.php/1 .html. 182. "Trust names Wendy Lee Gramm the Clean Air 'Villain of the Month.'" Clean Air Trust. January 2002. 183. Mason Gazette, 1998. 184. "$3 million helps recruit team of scholars." Benefactor. George Mason University. Fall 2002. 185. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/law/lawecon. 186. "Koch Family Foundations." Buying a movement: Right-wing foundations and American politics. Washington, D.C.: People for the American Wav. 1996.
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OTHER LINKS
Pete Maiden
Rolling Stone
March 13, 2007 Bobi Miller needs only to open the door of her home in Corpus Christi, Texas, to see the effects of toxic waste from the Koch West oil refinery. Miller's back yard and car is covered in a thick black sludge, and across the street is the school where she used to teach before a lawsuit revealed that the Koch refinery had released ninety tons of benzene, a highly toxic chemical. Miller and other teachers were often forced to implement a safety procedure called "shelter in place," keeping students inside with the air conditioner off on days when Koch was pumping waste into the air. Today the school's playground is completely deserted: The company bought the property, and children no longer play in the yard.
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Dave Johnson
Seeing the Forest
January 26, 2007 Koch Supply and Trading get contract to supply oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve David H Koch is one of the prime funders of the whole right-wing movement. ... Koch played a role in founding the Cato Institute, which pumps out anti-government Libertarian propaganda. The Koch family had given Cato $21 million as of 1999. He was also involved in founding Citizens for a Sound Economy, another anti-government propaganda outlet. Contributions, again as of 1999, totaled $10 million. Koch also is a major funder of the Reason Foundation, yet another outlet for right-wing anti-government propaganda.
... This isn't just a quid pro quo. This government money will be pumped straight back into the Republican machine.
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Gretchen Morgenson
NY Times
August 26, 2006 Investors who bought in that period realized a 40 percent gain in three days ...Merger talks [between Koch and GP ] continued through October and into November. Both sides conducted corporate analyses — known as due diligence — from Nov. 8-11. Koch Industries’ board voted to approve a bid on Nov. 10.
That day, volume in Georgia-Pacific shares jumped 37 percent...and the number of trades in the stock rose significantly as well...On Friday, Nov. 11, volume increased yet 66 percent more from the previous day’s high level. Georgia-Pacific shares rose 5.5 percent over the period. The company made no announcements either day...
On Sunday, Nov. 13, Koch Industries announced that it would pay $21 billion for Georgia-Pacific, or $48 a share, a 39 percent premium to the closing price the previous Friday. Anyone who bought Georgia-Pacific shares on either Nov. 10 or Nov. 11 stood to gain 40 percent in just a few days.
A spokeswoman for Koch Industries did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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Max Blumenthal
January 30, 2006 The GOP is addicted to the oil industry's money. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the GOP has accepted 73% of the whopping $67 million the oil industry made in political contributions between 2000 and 2004. Bush himself is the oil industry's largest recipient, having taking over $1.7 million from the oil industry from 1998-2004. The wheels of the conservative movement, meanwhile, are lubricated by Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the US. The anti-government think tank, the Cato Institute, was created by the Koch brothers, who remain its largest funders.
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ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
New York Times
November 13, 2005 Georgia-Pacific, the paper giant that makes Dixie cups and Brawny paper towels, agreed to be sold yesterday for $13.2 billion to Koch Industries, a family-controlled conglomerate that will become the nation's largest privately held company.
The deal may transform Koch, which owns dozens of companies with few recognizable brands, into a consumer and retail powerhouse...Koch, based in Wichita, Kan., brings in more than $60 billion in sales each year from a diverse range of businesses including petroleum and chemicals, ranching, commodities, financial services and paper. With the addition of Georgia-Pacific, which will become a unit of Koch, the company's revenue will exceed $80 billion, and it will have more than 80,000 employees around the world.
...The company is owned by Charles and David Koch, two of four Koch brothers, as well as other family members and associates. The largest private company in terms of sales had been Cargill, the agricultural conglomerate, which had revenue of $62 billion last year.
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Max Blumenthal
The Nation
June 19, 2005 In June 1996...Triad Management Services, a shady, for-profit corporation run by a veteran Republican fundraiser...funneled cash to Brownback's campaign through its scores of clients...Triad's finance director even accompanied Brownback to Republican headquarters to dial for dollars. Under federal election law, corporations are not allowed to make direct contributions or provide free services (like fundraising help) to politicians...Triad steered $410,000 to a front group, Citizens for the Republic Education Fund, that ran a single attack ad against Docking [Brownback's opponent] repeatedly throughout a two-week period, propelling Brownback to victory. Democratic Senate investigators believe this money came almost entirely from the Wichita-based Koch Industries, America's largest privately owned energy company, which had already contributed more than $30,000 to Brownback's campaign.
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David Sirota
Sirotablog
May 11, 2005 Federal Judge A. Raymond Randolph yesterday ruled in favor of Vice President Dick Cheney in Cheney's efforts to keep his energy task force records secret. Cheney has already been cited by the GAO for allowing energy companies to write much of the task force's documents. So why would the judge make this ruling? Could it have anything to do with a sympathy for energy companies brought on by his close proximity to some of America's biggest oil companies?
Check out the details. Randolph serves on the Judicial Advisory board of George Mason's Law & Economics Center (he has apparently served there for at least a few years, and may still currently). This is the same Law & Economics Center famous for taking judges on training junkets and for being financed with huge amounts of cash from oil industry giants like Exxon. Randolph is also an adjunct law professor at George Mason University, a place that has taken millions from Koch Industries - another major oil company (for more on Koch's multi-million dollar ties to George Mason, see Media Transparency's special site).
For more, see this original post at Citizens for Legitimate Government.
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WaterTechOnline
March 2, 2000 Koch Petroleum Group LP was fined $6 million at a formal sentencing after pleading guilty to violating the Oil Pollution Act and the Clean Water Act by negligently discharging oil and wastewater at its Rosemount [MN] refiner Also, The Koch Pipeline Co., LP, another subsidiary of Koch Industries, had agreed to pay some $35 million in fines and penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act, as part of a settlement agreement with the US Justice Department and the Texas Attorney General's Office. The civil penalty is the largest ever assessed against a single company under the provisions of the act.
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Center for Public Integrity
July 14, 2004 Private oil company does both business and politics with the shades drawn Koch Industries could be the biggest oil company you have never heard of -- unless, that is, you hang around the halls of government in Washington
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Marc Morano
CNSNews.com
September 22, 2002 The U.S. Department of Energy's selection of Koch Supply & Trading, LP, to supply oil to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), is drawing fire from groups who accuse the administration of rewarding one of the Republican Party's largest donors with a plum government contract.
Koch Industries and one of the company's senior officers have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions since 1999 and before, with federal election records showing the bulk of those contributions going to Republicans.
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Russell Mokhiber
Ari & I
May 2, 2001 May 3, 2001: Ari, yesterday, I asked you about Koch Industries, which last month pled guilty to a felony environmental crime...
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