Mackinac Center for Public Policy

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The Mackinac Center for Policy Research is the largest conservative state-level policy think tank in the nation. It was established by the state's leading conservative activists to promote conservative free market, pro-business policies. Reflected by its board of directors and those funding its operations, the Center works to advance its policy objectives primarily though its publications, but has an increasing physical presence throughout the state. The Mackinac Center has moved beyond Michigan by hosting think tank schools that have lead to the franchising of its operations in nearly every state and 37 other countries.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Establishment 2 Board of Directors 3 Funding 4 Staff Compensation 5 Summary 6 Contact Info 7 Articles and Resources 7.1 Sources 7.2 Related SourceWatch Articles

Establishment

Founded in 1987, the Mackinac Center was created with funding by the little-known Cornerstone Foundation.^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]} Fundraising activity was active from 1984 to 1991, with peak activity in 1987 when Cornerstone established the Mackinac Center.^[2] The insurance industry (primarily Citizen’s) provided initial funding, amounting to $306,382 during this period. Various officials of Dow Cornering and Dow Chemical paid $335,986.^{[citation needed]}

Its creation was driven by the insurance industry’s call for product liability reform, its interest in the Accident Fund, and by Dow Corning’s concern over silicone breast implant liability.^{[citation needed]}

According to documents filed by the Center with the federal government, its activities are tax exempt because it is:

Conducting policy research on matters affecting Michigan residents and proposing approaches to public policy issues consistent with the traditional American values of free-markets, limited government, and respect for private property... IRS Form 990 (2005), page 3.

In order to retain this tax exempt status, the Center states that it has not:

… attempted to influence national, state, or local legislation, including any attempt to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum. IRS Form 990 (2005), Schedule A, page 2.

The Mackinac Center is part of the State Policy Network (SPN)^{[citation needed]}, a network of state-based think tanks patterned after the Heritage Foundation. Mackinac Center President Lawrence Reed serves on the SPN Board of Directors.^{[citation needed]}

Board of Directors

Current Board members, as of July 2008, are ^[1]:

• Joseph Fitzsimmons
• Paul Gadola, Judge, Reagan Campaign Chair, Federalist Society
• Richard Haworth
• Kent Herrick, Tecumseh Engines founder’s great grandson
• Phil Jenkins
• Edward Levy, Treasurer
• Rodney Lockwood
• Joseph Maguire
• Richard McLellan, Secretary
• D. Joseph Olson, Chairman and Senior VP and General Counsel, Amerisure Companies
• Lawrence Reed, President
• John Riecker
• James Rodney
• Linda Rodney
• Mara Letica

Past board members are:

• Gail Torreano Chief of Staff to Sen. Engler
• Lawrence W. Reed Mackinac Center President
• Margaret Riecker Republican National Committee, Dow Foundation
• William Rosenberg, Bush Presidential Campaign, Reagan, Milliken and Engler administrations
  
• Robert Teeter, RNC Chairman, Pollster for Nixon, Ford, Bush campaign
  
• Philip Van Dam, US Attorney under Ford
  
• Gregory Kaza, Amway, Republican Candidate for Governor
  
• Dick DeVos, Hillsdale College
  
• Charles Van Eaton, Republican State Representative
• Peter Cook, Great Lakes Mazda, major Republican campaign donor
• Dick Antonini Foremost Insurance
• Todd Herrick, Tecumseh Engines founder’s grandson

Funding

The Mackinac Center has always refused to disclose who pays for its operations. 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…".^{[citation needed]}

In 2006 the Center’s revenues totaled $2,711,545.^[2] Its funding has grown substantially over the years, from just over $1.7 million in 1998.^{[citation needed]} In 2005 had a staff of 40 people.^{[citation needed]}



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:

Mackinac Center Foundation Funders 2002-2006

• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation $347,500
• Castle Rock Foundation $50,000
• Chase Foundation $44,150
• Daimler Chrysler Corporation Fund $150,000
• Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation $40,000
• Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation $55,000
• Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation $2,055,000
• Dunn's foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking $576,000
• Earhart Foundation $333,300
• ExxonMobil Foundation $10,000
• General Motors Foundation, $30,000
• Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, $70,000
• Hanover Insurance Group Foundation $5,500
• Robert and Marie Hansen Foundation $25,000
• Heritage Mark foundation $7,000
• Herrick Foundation $900,000
• Hickory Foundation $40,000
• Jacquelin Hume Foundation $375,000
• JM Foundation $45,000
• Kelly Services Inc. Foundation $2,500
• Charles G & K.S. Koch Charitable Foundation $10,000
• Orville D. and Ruth A Merillat Foundation $195,000
• Perrigo Company Charitable Foundation $36,000
• Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation, $525,000
• John William Pope Foundation $3,000
• Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation $125,000
• Rodney Fund $744,500
• Roe Foundation $150,000
• Sarah Scaife Foundation $50,000
• Schiavone Family Foundation $10,000
• Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation $20,000
• Walton Family Foundation $100,000

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. Refusing to release corporate financing sources prevents outsiders from drawing connections between the business of these corporations and the research conclusions and opinions the Center reaches. (See discussion of corporate financing at the end of ‘Expansion’, page 12, of this study.)

In Strategic Grantmaking, Foundations and the School Privatization Movement, Richard Cohen, The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, estimates that one-half to two-thirds of all corporate grantmaking is: “made through the CEO’s office or the marketing department, for which there is no public disclosure requirement.”^{[citation needed]}

Staff Compensation

Those working for the Mackinac Center are well compensated. The chart below lists the 2005 ^[3] and 2006^[4] total compensation for officers and highest paid five employees, including benefits contribution and expense accounts:

Name	Position	2005	2006
Lawrence Reed	President	$168, 452	$148,206
Joseph Lehman	Executive VP	$116,959	$129,554
Kendra Shrode	Assistant to VP		$65,251
Thomas W. Washburne	Director		$125,385
Thomas A. Schull	Senior Editor, (former Detroit News Editorial Board)	$100,959	$100,385
Patrick J. Wright	Senior Analyst		$100,385
Diane S. Katz	Director Science and Environment Policy (former Detroit News Editorial Board)	$101,316	$99,943
Russel Harding	Senior Environmental Analyst (former Engler DEW Director)	$94,851	$99,984
John E. Coonradt	VP Advancement (fundraising)	$104,380	$12,534'
Christopher Bachelder	Director Advancement	$87,059
Stephen Frick	Manager of Information Systems	$72,059

Summary

The Mackinac Center receives attention not because of its objective scholarship but because it showers the media and governmental officials at all levels with publications designed to promote a conservative agenda. It is undoubtedly a very effective conduit for the policy wishes of its sponsors. It has shown great resourcefulness in creating new ways to spread its message. Between its presence in the Michigan Legislature, its many publications, news releases, its web site and conferences it might seem to be spreading its message in every way possible, but it continues to find new outlets:

• 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.”^{[citation needed]}
• 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.”^{[citation needed]}
• It’s Freedom in Fiction Prize competition 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… ^[5]

Contact Info

140 West Main Street
P.O. Box 568
Midland, Michigan 48640
(989) 631-0900 Voice
(800) 22-IDEAS Voice
(989) 631-0964 Fax
Website: http://www.mackinac.org

Articles and Resources

Sources

1. ↑ Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Board of Directors", Mackinac Center for Public Policy website, accessed July 2008.
2. ↑ Mackinac Center for Public Policy, 2005 Annual Return, pages 17-18.
3. ↑ Mackinac Center for Public Policy, 2005 Annual Return, pages 17-18.
4. ↑ Mackinac Center for Public Policy, 2006 Annual Return, page 21.
5. ↑ www.mackinac.org/freedominfiction

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