Funding the war of ideas - conservative foundations - Column

Christian Century, July 19, 1995 by Leon Howell

In any kind of battle," said Paul Weyrich, "communication is number one." Weyrich happened to be speaking about National Empowerment Television, the new conservative network based in Washington, D.C., but he might well have been articulating a general strategy for the war of ideas. Conservative and neoconservative thinkers have been especially successful in communicating their views and rallying their followers through books, magazines and op-ed pieces. They have been helped along by conservative-leaning foundations that have been willing to put their money into journals and think tanks in order to win the battle for hearts and minds. Given recent political developments, they may well conclude that the money is being well spent.

Four conservative foundations - Bradley, Olin, Smith Richardson and Scaife - stand out as the most active players in the culture wars. Sometimes called the "four sisters" because they tend to act in concert, the four foundations together made grants of $57 million in 1993. That is by no means a large figure in the world of philanthropic foundations. The assets and grant totals of the four sisters don't even put them on the list of the top 50 foundations. Heading that list are Ford, Kellogg, MacArthur, Johnson and Rockefeller, along with the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Lilly Endowment. (Pew and Lilly together made grants of about $290 million in 1993.) But those foundations, unlike the four sisters, on the whole do not funnel money directly to the front lines of the intellectual battle-grounds.

In 1993 the four sisters gave:

* $3.7 million to the Heritage Foundation, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., which has pushed a conservative political agenda for years. In December it directed the orientation, program for new members of Congress. Richard Allen, William Bennett, Jack Kemp and Edwin Meese are among the fellows of the Heritage Foundation.

* $3.4 million to the American Enterprise Institute, which supports such thinkers as Robert Bork, Dick and Lynn Cheney, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Irving Kristol, Michael Novak and Charles Murray.

* $895,000 to Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation, the parent organization for National Empowerment Television (more than half of FCFs $8.3 million budget in 1993 came from conservative foundations).

* $515,000 to the Manhattan Institute, which promotes sharp cuts in government as a way to attack urban problems.

* $360,00 to the American Spectator, the journal edited by R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. which relentlessly and sometimes outrageously assaults the Clintons and assorted liberal causes.

* $315,00 (from Olin and Scaife) to the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, which sponsors 70 conservative papers on 66 college campuses.

A significant portion of the four sisters' grants goes to organizations with a religious emphasis:

* The Institute on Religion and Democracy, well known for its persistent attacks on the National and World Councils of Churches and, more recently, for criticisms of the leadership of the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), received $260,000 in 1993 from three of the sisters - the bulk of of IRD's total grant receipts of $382,000 and total revenues of $483,000. After the IRD was started in 1980, foundations - overwhelmingly three of the four sisters (Bradley was not then a player) - provided 89 percent of the organization's financial resources for the first 25 months. In 1993, foundations were supplying 79 percent of IRD funding.

* The Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., headed by George Weigel, received from the four sisters $670,000 of its $1 million in grants and total income of $1.1 million in 1993. EPPC, whose purpose is "to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues," produces several books each year, mails three newsletters and organizes a variety of seminars.

* The Institute on Religion and Public Life, headed by Richard John Neuhaus and located in Manhattan, in '93 received from the four sisters $690,000 out of a total of $896,000 in grants and $1.2 million in total income. The institute's primary energy goes into the monthly journal First Things, which marked its fifth anniversary his past spring.

Who's behind these four foundations? The John M. Olin Foundation was created in 1953 by the Olin Corporation, which produces, among other things, Winchester rifles. Olin became a more aggressive player in public affairs in 1977 when William Simon became president and Michael Joyce was named executive director. The intellectual movement on the right is a very serious movement," commented George Gillespie, secretary-treasurer of the foundation, in 1983. "We support some of its best thinkers at some of the country is best institutions."

The Smith Richardson Foundation stems from the Vicks and Smith Brothers cough drops fortune. After many years of doing civic good works, such as helping restore the Moravian village of Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, it moved to the right 30 years ago. Interestingly, Heather Richardson Higgins, a granddaughter of the original owner, now heads a spinoff organization, the Randolph Foundation. Randolph contributes to Weyrich's FCF and to Newt Gingrich's Progress and Freedom Foundation, and Higgins cohosts Gingrich's NET show, Progress Report.