Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking

Background

The Dunn Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking is a 501(c)(3) private foundation founded in 1994 by William A. Dunn, president of investment firm Dunn Capital Management.¹

According to its website, the Dunn Foundation’s mission is to “advance the understanding and practice of classical liberalism, market capitalism, free enterprise, individual political liberty and economic liberty principally through education and persuasion.”²

Thomas E. Beach, chairman of the Reason Foundation and former chairman of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), is a trustee of the Dunn Foundation.³ William A. Dunn is now a trustee emeritus, while his wife Rebecca W. Dunn remains on the board as a trustee. Beach is also a board member of funding vehicle DonorsTrust, a group described as the “dark money ATM” of the conservative movement in the United States.⁴

Stance on Climate Change

While The Dunn Foundation itself doesn’t appear to maintain an official statement on climate change, many of the groups it funds have consistently denied the existence of man-made climate change. For example, The Heartland Institute, one of the most notorious deniers of climate change, has received at least $1,330,000 from the Dunn Foundation. Other notable groups that received Dunn dollars include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Reason Foundation, Cato Institute, Property and Environment Research Center, National Center for Policy Analysis, and many others (see full funding list below).⁵

Funding

The Conservative Transparency (CT) project has tracked donations made by the Dunn Foundation. The following is based on CT data combined with data retrieved from publicly available 990 forms. Note that not all individual values have been verified by DeSmog.⁶

See the attached spreadsheet for a look at Dunn Foundation donations by year (.xlsx).

Recipient	Total
Reason Foundation	$10,368,000
Institute for Justice	$9,435,000
Cato Institute	$7,105,000
Competitive Enterprise Institute	$6,767,000
Pacific Legal Foundation	$4,788,000
Property and Environment Research Center	$4,056,500
Institute for Humane Studies	$2,718,700
Marijuana Policy Project	$2,600,000
Chapman University	$2,597,000
Landmark Legal Foundation	$2,340,000
Mackinac Center for Public Policy	$1,454,000
Heartland Institute	$1,430,000
James Madison Institute	$1,140,000
The Atlas Society	$1,003,000
Greater Houston Community Foundation	$1,000,000
Frontier Legal Foundation	$1,000,000
Americans for Limited Government	$900,000
FreedomWorks Foundation	$882,000
Future of Freedom Foundation	$774,000
Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies	$738,000
Benjamin Rush Foundation	$675,000
Foundation for Government Accountability	$650,000
Foundation for Economic Education	$638,000
Sam Adams Alliance	$455,000
International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics	$417,000
National Center for Public Policy Research	$409,000
George Mason University	$390,000
Center for Individual Rights	$385,000
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research	$341,400
U.S. Term Limits Foundation	$337,000
Free To Choose Network	$308,000
Atlas Economic Research Foundation	$305,000
Turning Point USA	$300,000
John Hancock Committee for The States	$300,000
American Majority	$297,000
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education	$288,000
Prometheus Institute (Cambridge MA)	$270,000
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation	$248,500
National Center for Policy Analysis	$247,000
Illinois Policy Institute	$240,000
Bill of Rights Institute	$225,000
National Tax Research Committee	$205,000
David Horowitz Freedom Center	$201,000
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition	$190,000
Students for Liberty	$188,000
Advocates for Self-Government	$171,000
Young Americans for Liberty	$166,900
Bluegrass Institute	$162,000
Center for Independent Thought	$155,000
Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity	$155,000
Project Veritas	$150,000
Moving Picture Institute	$137,500
Center for Competitive Politics	$130,000
NRA Freedom Action Foundation	$130,000
State Policy Network	$126,000
Liberty Magazine	$125,000
Foundation for Understanding Capitalist Knowledge and Unregulated Markets	$117,000
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow	$107,000
Law Enforcement Action Partnership	$100,000
Consumer Alert	$92,000
American Ireland Fund	$85,000
Citizens In Charge Foundation	$80,000
Political Economy Research Center	$75,000
The Independent Institute	$71,000
MA	$70,000
George C. Marshall Institute	$65,000
The Fund for Personal Liberty	$60,000
Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives	$50,000
EdChoice	$50,000
Hannah’s Home	$50,000
The NRA Foundation	$50,000
Foundation for Rational Economics and Education	$50,000
Objectivist Center	$50,000
For Our Grandchildren	$50,000
Judicial Watch	$45,000
Social Security Choice.org Foundation	$40,000
DonorsTrust	$35,000
Foundation for Teaching Economics	$35,000
Ludwig von Mises Institute	$32,000
Mountain States Legal Foundation	$30,000
National Constitution Center	$30,000
Montana Policy Institute	$30,000
Families Against Mandatory Minimums	$25,000
Community Youth Athletic Center	$25,000
University of Kansas School of Business	$25,000
Conscious Capitalism	$25,000
The Claremont Institute	$25,000
It Happened to Alexa Foundation	$25,000
Hurricane Island Outward Bound School	$25,000
Adam Smith Institute	$20,000
Leadership Institute	$19,900
American Civil Rights Institute	$19,500
Fully Informed Jury Association	$18,500
Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research	$17,000
Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative Foundation	$15,000
Tax Foundation	$10,000
National Taxpayers Union	$10,000
Goldwater Institute	$10,000
Citizens for Constitutional Property Rights	$10,000
Society of the Four Arts	$10,000
Jeffersonian Foundation	$10,000
Kings College	$10,000
Independence Institute	$5,000
E Pluribus Unum Films	$5,000
Institute for Energy Research	$5,000
Fund for American Studies	$5,000
National Association for Gun Rights	$3,100
American Spectator Foundation	$2,500
Americans for Tax Reform	$2,500
Eagle Research	$2,000
Campaign for Liberty	$2,000
United States Justice Foundation	$2,000
Gun Owners Foundation	$2,000
Media Research Center	$2,000
American Conservative Union	$1,000
The Heritage Foundation	$1,000
Safe Place	$1,000
Freedom’s Defense Fund	$300
The Jesse Helms Center Foundation	$100
Southeastern Legal Foundation	$100
The Conservative Caucus	$100
Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund	$100
Palmetto Policy Forum	$100
Grand Total	$75,160,300

990 Forms

Key People

The following is based on the Dunn Foundation’s website, and publicly available 990 tax forms:

Name	2010	2015	2016	2017^{⁷“Trustes,” The Dunn Foundation. Archived December 8, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/goGOJ}
David Dreyer		Y	Y	Y
Rebecca Walter Dunn		Y	Y	Y
Thomas E. Beach		Y	Y	Y
William A. Dunn	Y	Y	Y	Y