Mackinac Center for Public Policy

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy describes itself as a nonprofit free-market research and educational organization and is located in Midland, Michigan in the United States. Writer and speaker Lawrence Reed has served as president since 1987. He will step down in September 2008.

It describes itself as "a nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to improving the quality of life for all Michigan citizens by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions." The "New York Times" and other newspapers describe the Center as "a conservative think tank." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/politics/17thinktank.html?ex=1321419600&en=3b6af3fbfa4ff01e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss Right-of-Center Guru Goes Wide With the Gospel of Small Government - New York Times ] ] "The Raleigh News and Observer" has reported that the Center is the largest state-wide conservative think tank in the country. [ [http://www.newsobserver.com/125/story/394092.html newsobserver.com | The knight of the right ] ]

Founding and organization

Founded in 1987, the Mackinac Center was created with funding by the little-known Cornerstone Foundation. Created by Dykema Gossett attorney Richard D. McLellan and located in the same building as the Dykema Gossett law firm, Cornerstone’s original board included McLellan, then-Senator John Engler, and D. Joseph Olson then-General Council for Amerisure Insurance. Fundraising activity was active from 1984 to 1991, with peak activity in 1987 when Cornerstone established the Mackinac Center. The insurance industry (primarily Citizen’s) provided initial funding, amounting to $306,382 during this period. Various officials of Dow Corning and Dow Chemical paid $335,986.

Funding

While the Mackinac Center does not disclose its financial backers, it receives money from a variety of individual donors, corporations, and foundations. The Earhart Foundation is the single largest foundation that gives to the Center. Some of this funding is specifically earmarked to provide money for the Center's divisions which focus on education and labor. [ [http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=197 mediatransparency.org] ] The Walton Family Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation have also contributed to the Center. [ [http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/04/08/FazilMihlarsMondaySermons/ Fazil Mihlar's Monday Morning Sermons :: Mediacheck :: thetyee.ca ] ] The Center also receives money from other foundations that is also earmarked for special uses, such as supporting the Labor and Education Resource Center or its Public Policy Science, Environment and Technology Initiative. [ [http://www.mediatransparency.org/conservativephilanthropy.php The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations ] ]

When asked by Detroit’s "Metro Times" in 1996, the Center’s President Lawrence Reed said: "Our funding sources are primarily foundations … with the rest coming from corporations and individuals," but that "… revealing our contributors would be a tremendous diversion…" [http://metrotimes.com/johnengler/002.html]

In that year, the Mackinac Center earned only $2,630 (“program sales”); the rest of its revenues came from tax-deductible contributions. Funding from non-profit foundations can be tracked by an examination of the IRS returns they file. From 2002 to 2006, the following conservative and corporate foundations funded the Center [ [Steimel, G (2008). "The Truth About the Mackinac Center", Michigan Education Association, 5.] ] :

These contributions total $7,198,700; the remaining revenue for this period (about $14.5 million) was contributed by entities that are not required to file statements with the federal government: individuals and corporations. [ [Steimel, G (2008). "The Truth About the Mackinac Center", Michigan Education Association, 5.] ]

In 2006 the Center’s revenues totaled $2,711,545. Its funding has grown substantially over the years, from just over $1.7 million in 1998. Its 2005 payroll reached $1,790,963, with a staff of 40 people.

taff Compensation

The chart below lists the 2005 and 2006 total compensation for officers and highest paid five employees, including benefits contribution and expense accounts [ [Mackinac Center IRS 990, 2005,2006] ] :

Publicity

Along with traditional conduits to publish its message, the Mackinac Center is innovative in expanding its audience:

*It recently sponsored a contest to reward a student essay that best “exposes a scientific fallacy in a book, movie, song or other pop culture medium.” It later awarded an entrant who established that the Disney movie "Little Mermaid" lacked scientific basis. [http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8870]
*A new program “Students for a Free Economy” will visit Michigan colleges and universities “taking policy ideas to students … who may be unfamiliar with the ways that markets affect their lives and the issues they care about.” [ [http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8959 Mackinac Center Launches University Campus Pr... [Mackinac Center for Public Policy ] ] The project has since been expanded to include a blog devoted to lessening both governmental regulation of business and union influence. [ [http://michigansfe.org/AboutSFE/tabid/70/Default.aspx About SFE ] ]
*It’s Freedom in Fiction Prize competition [ [http://www.mackinac.org/freedominfiction Freedom in Fiction Prize [Mackinac Center for Public Policy ] ] offers $10,000 to the new book author who creates:

:…characters that demonstrate an appreciation for liberty, free markets and/or explicitly or symbolically oppose government oppression or restraints on their freedom…

But the book must not:

:…advance themes or characters who promote government-sponsored solutions; vilify entrepreneurship; degrade personal initiative, self-reliance and responsibility, or regurgitate discredited myths and misconceptions about liberty and free enterprise…

In practice, the Center is libertarian in ideology, and the Center advocates against governmental regulation and many taxes. [ [http://www.mackinac.org/print.aspx?ID=1663 Is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy Liberal? Libertarian? Conservative? [Mackinac Center for Public Policy ] ]

The Mackinac Center is a 501(c)(3) organization, legally limited in the amount of money it can spend on legislative efforts. [ [http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=1668 mackinac.org/about] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.mackinac.org/ Mackinac Center for Public Policy]
* [http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=197 Foundation Grants to the Center]