This brief provides a detailed analysis of a first-of-its-kind, publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding — www.thinktankfundingtracker.org. The repository tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. It serves as a vital research guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the funding sources of prominent U.S. think tanks.  

BY Ben Freeman and Nick Cleveland-Stout

The repository gives a five-point transparency score to each of the top 50 think tanks in the U.S., a scale created by the authors based on five binary questions. Based on this criteria, nine of the top 50 think tanks (18 percent) are fully transparent, while 23 think tanks (46 percent) are partially transparent. Most concerning, the remaining 18 think tanks (36 percent) are “dark money” think tanks, entirely opaque in their funding without revealing donors.

In the past five years, foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities donated more than $110 million to the top 50 think tanks in the United States. The most generous donor countries were the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Qatar, which contributed $16.7 million, $15.5 million, and $9.1 million to U.S. think tanks, respectively. The Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, and German Marshall Fund received the most money from foreign governments since 2019: $20.8 million, $17.1 million, and $16.1 million, respectively. 

In that same period, the top 100 defense companies have contributed more than $34.7 million to the top 50 think tanks. The top donors include Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Mitsubishi, which provided $5.6 million, $2.6 million, and $2.1 million, respectively, to the tracked think tanks between 2019 and 2023. The Atlantic Council, Center for a New American Security, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies were the top recipients of Pentagon contractor money: $10.2 million, $6.6 million, and $4.1 million, respectively.

The U.S. government has directly given at least $1.49 billion to American think tanks since 2019. However, the vast majority of this funding — $1.4 billion — goes to the Rand Corporation, which works directly for the U.S. government.

While think tanks exist to produce independent analysis, the prevalence of special interest funding raises questions of intellectual freedom, self-censorship, and perspective filtering. This is compounded by instances in which individual researchers simultaneously hold positions at a think tank and a given foreign government or corporation, a clear potential conflict of interest.  

Moving forward, this brief contains a set of recommendations for various actors:

For media: Adopt a professional standard to report any conflicts of interest with sources discussing U.S. foreign policy. 

For Congress: Pass legislation requiring all nonprofit organizations that seek to influence public policy to publicly disclose all of their corporate, U.S. government, and foreign government donors above $10,000, and improve the conflict of interest disclosure requirements for congressional witnesses.

For the Department of Justice: Provide clearer guidelines surrounding what think tanks not registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act can do on behalf of their foreign donors.

For think tanks: End pay-to-play research and proactively move toward identifying conflicts of interest.

Think tanks play an enormous role in influencing U.S. public opinion and public policy. Think tank scholars are often the subject matter experts you see on television, hear on the radio, and see quoted in the nation’s top print media outlets. Largely outside of public view, they advise Congress and the executive branch on pending legislation, write questions for congressional hearings, testify at those hearings, and even help draft legislation. While think tank scholars can play an important role as independent researchers, some think tank work more closely resembles public relations and lobbying than research.

Think tanks are increasingly reliant on special interests and governments — both the U.S. and foreign governments — for funding. A growing body of evidence suggests that funding often comes with strings attached, leading to censorship, perspective filtering and, in rare cases, even outright pay-for-research arrangements with donors. Donors are often aware of these benefits. As one internal report from a foreign government noted: “Funding powerful think tanks is one way to gain such access, and some think tanks in Washington are openly conveying that they can service only those foreign governments that provide funding.”, May 2012, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1284105-1-aaa-general-doc-viewer_new.html#document/p5/a176108." href="https://quincyinst.org/research/big-ideas-and-big-money-think-tank-funding-in-america/#fn1-21758" rel="footnote">1

Yet, despite this link between funding sources and sympathetic policy recommendations, think tanks are not required to disclose their funding publicly. Even relatively transparent think tanks can obfuscate funding sources by allowing anonymous donations, reporting overly broad funding ranges, or simply burying financial information. 

This has contributed to a crisis of public confidence in think tanks. Less than half (48 percent) of respondents to a 2022 U.S. public opinion survey believe “think tankers and public policy experts” are “valuable” to society.Cast from Clay, September 29, 2022, https://castfromclay.co.uk/insights/experts-age-of-instinct-usa/." href="https://quincyinst.org/research/big-ideas-and-big-money-think-tank-funding-in-america/#fn2-21758" rel="footnote">2To put that in perspective, medical doctors (82 percent), scientists and engineers (79 percent), and even much-maligned lawyers (60 percent) were seen as more valuable than think tankers. Why is the public so skeptical of think tanks and policy experts? According to the survey, “suspecting the expert may have a hidden agenda” was the No. 1 reason respondents cited, followed closely by a “lack of transparency around who is funding the expert.”Cast from Clay." href="https://quincyinst.org/research/big-ideas-and-big-money-think-tank-funding-in-america/#fn3-21758" rel="footnote">3

Nonetheless, journalists, policymakers, and think tank experts themselves have largely ignored the public’s concerns. When interviewing a think tank analyst, it is not yet common practice for journalists or news anchors to mention potential conflicts of interest. Nor is it common practice for think tank representatives to disclose potential conflicts of interest in funding when testifying in front of Congress, leaving out relevant context for policymakers. In short, we know that think tank funding matters immensely in its possible impacts on think tanks and the public’s trust in them, yet there is extraordinarily little publicly available information about think tank funding.

For all these reasons, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, QI, is launching the Think Tank Funding Tracker — the first publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding. This new website and database — publicly available at www.thinktankfundingtracker.org — tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top think tanks in the United States over the past five years.

The Think Tank Funding Tracker will serve as a resource for journalists, academics, policymakers, and everyday Americans who want more information about the funding of think tanks. Acknowledging funding sources or potential conflicts of interest does not impugn the intellectual independence of the 50 think tanks listed in this publicly available database. Instead, it offers relevant information for individuals to make fully informed judgments.

This report proceeds in four parts:

1. What is (and is not) in the Think Tank Funding Tracker.

2. What we found: Think tank funding by the numbers.

3. Why think tank funding matters.

4. Recommendations to rebuild trust in the think tank sector.

READ MORE:

https://quincyinst.org/research/big-ideas-and-big-money-think-tank-funding-in-america/#foreign-government-funding

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1luRfpAgXA

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