If your first thought when you hear the word think tank is a room full of silent scholars sitting thoughtfully in your thoughts, you`re actually not too far away. As the name suggests, the main focus of think tanks is education and research. Founded in 1951, the Bow Group is the oldest centre-right think tank, and many of its members went on to be members of the European Parliament. Previous leaders included Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, Margaret Thatcher`s most senior minister, Geoffrey Howe, Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont and former British Telecom chairman Christopher Bland. Before the 1950s, the term “think tank” did not refer to organizations. They are run by state-appointed personnel and accept seed capital from their regulators. They also receive a steady stream of administratively approved funds as fees for regular research tasks assigned by their supervisor. So the results of your policies are somehow shaped by government directives. » + You can make sure you raise enough money in a variety of ways. Some think tank directors recommend starting with contacts you and your team already have (e.g., from a university, donors you already knew from previous positions), applying to international tenders, and most importantly, being open to combining different funding sources.
Below are some strategies based on the experience of STIPRO, a think tank in Tanzania that received core funding for almost a decade and then had to find new sustainable sources of funding + Based on six sustainable think tank funding strategies by Sulamba Shaban (2019). Read more: Promoting social change and advocating for the common good does not automatically confer non-profit status on an organization. If a think tank wants to take advantage of non-profit status, it must demonstrate that it qualifies as much as any non-profit organization. Overall, most think tanks are nonprofit and are classified as 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organizations. The very local space is also undeserved. In the PODER Awards given to the best Peruvian think tanks, we found a significant difference between national politics and local politics: the former is much better served by think tanks than the latter. In countries such as Indonesia, India and Argentina, there are local think tanks serving subnational policy communities. Think tanks are composed of experts in their field. Lawyers, doctors, ethicists, political scientists, and professors are some of the most common professions you`ll find for think tanks. After 1945, the number of political institutes increased and many small new institutes were formed to express various political themes and agendas.
Until the 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During World War II, think tanks were often referred to as “brain boxes.” [13] The role of a board of directors can have three aspects: legal, functional and symbolic. + As mentioned above, these organizations are usually legally mandated to ensure their organization`s accountability and ensure their fiscal integrity (as think tanks typically receive legal benefits such as tax breaks like other nonprofits). Their functional aspect can be very different, as we will see later: they can evaluate the performance of the center, appoint the executive director and conduct fundraising activities, but they can also be involved in more direct management activities. After all, its symbolic aspect aims to ensure the prestige and image of the think tank in the eyes of the public. It is a question of who, and partly of how, because you would have to decide who will govern the organization and how the big decisions will be made. Is the Think Tank led by a Management Board, a General Assembly or directly by the Executive Director? The answer to these questions depends on your business model and the type of organization you want to start.
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