• How to Start and Grow a Think Tank
  • Prologue
  • Planning
    • Guiding Principles for State Think Tanks
    • Principles, Specialization, and Free-Market Think Tanks
    • SPN Professional Peer Mentoring Program
    • Do's and Don'ts for Lobbying Group: Charity Activity in an Election Year
    • Holding Think Tanks to High Standards
    • A Think Tank's Bottom Line
    • Measure Success, Not Just Output
    • Waging the War of Ideas: Measuring Success, Maximizing Impact
    • Sample Business Plan
  • Legal Documents
  • Staff
  • Board
  • Sample Board Job Descriptions
  • Infrastructure
  • Fundraising
  • Events
  • Networking and Outreach
  • PR and Marketing
  • General Management
  • Resources
• Grassroots Leadership Guide to K-12 Education Reform
• Taking Donors Seriously
• Fundraising Fundamentals

Jump to another manual

• 
• 
• 

Guiding Principles for State Think Tanks

Jeff Judson, Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Lawrence W. Reed, Mackinac Center for Public Policy

A few years ago, former Texas Public Policy Foundation president Jeff Judson and Mackinac Center for Public Policy (MI) president Lawrence W. Reed compiled the guiding principles below and shared them with others at an SPN Annual Meeting.

The drafting of these principles was spurred by the creation of pseudo-think tanks by public relations firms and industry to promote single issues.

At the time, it was feared that these pseudo-think tanks would be exposed and sully the name of legitimate, independent think tanks. 

That fear is now a reality.

Though the principles themselves are timeless, they are a timely topic given recent accounts of pay-to-play analysts (see lead article, cover page).

Boards of directors and executives should consider their adoption or adapting them to fit their respective organizations.

• (Name of organization) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational entity, supported by charitable gifts from individuals, foundations and businesses.  As such, we have met the Internal Revenue Service "public support" test which evidences a broad and diverse funding base.
  
• (Name of organization) does not accept contributions intended to "purchase" a predetermined research outcome or in any way compromise the intellectual integrity of our work.
  
• (Name of organization) seeks to advance the principles of liberty, limited government, free enterprise and civil society and to foster public policy that solves real problems within the context of those principles.
  
• (Name of organization) implements a research and advocacy agenda that encompasses not one or a few, but many public policy issues.  That agenda is neither dictated nor compromised by outside financial sources.  We are never a "front group" for any donor or industry; our work stands on its own merit, through the scholarly integrity of our authors, rigorous documentation of findings, and a peer review process suitable to ensure quality.
  
• (Name of organization) is nonpartisan.  Our work is made available to the public without regard to political party affiliation.  We do not endorse candidates or parties.  We offer praise or criticism in accordance with our findings and principles, and without regard to political affiliation.  We reject ad hominem attacks and unsubstantiated charges intended to discredit our work, ignore its findings, or further the interests of any ideology, candidate or party.  We are committed to the free flow of information and a spirited debate that focuses on ideas, not personalities.
  

Jeff Judson is the former president of Texas Public Policy Foundation. Larry Reed is president of Mackinac Center for Public Policy.