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→1) Franchising and Networking State Think Tanks: edit header & "ring-fenced"
Below are some details of SPN's efforts to franchise new think tanks, network information, change state laws, train legislative candidates, advance a partisan legislative agenda, create political cover for right-wing candidates, provide public relations plans and assistance, and create litigation centers:
===1) Franchising and Networking State Think Tanksand Building the Echo Chamber===
Like a fast food restaurant, SPN has worked hard to grow and franchise state-based think tanks, expanding that number from 12 in 1992 to 59 in 2012, with some states having multiple groups. And they continued to develop new and existing think tanks in 2011, receiving several ring-fenced directed, start-up grants from funders for groups in Florida and Arkansas.<ref name="2011 990">State Policy Network, [http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/570/952/2011-570952531-088062bc-9.pdf IRS Form 990], organizational tax filing, March 29, 2012.</ref> SPN facilitates networking and information sharing. One requirement of SPN member think tanks, according to the ''National Review'', is that they share their publications with each other. "We trade information all the time and borrow ideas from each other," according to the [[Alabama Policy Institute]]’s Gary Palmer.<ref name="NR">John J. Miller, [http://www.heymiller.com/2009/09/fifty-flowers-bloom/ Fifty Flowers Bloom: Conservative think tanks — mini--Heritage Foundations — at the state level], ''National Review'', November 19, 2007.</ref>
Sometimes this sharing looks like cookie cutter academics frosted with different think tanks' logos. According to the ''New York Times'', Lawrence Reed of the [[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]] "has a standard speech he calls the 'Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy.' [Christopher J.] Derry [of the [[Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions]]] added the words 'for Kentucky' and took it on the fund-raising trail. The [[Evergreen Freedom Foundation]], in Olympia, Wash., is known for its guide to paring state budgets. Mr. Derry distributed it under the Bluegrass name. A Maryland paper on excessive lawsuits, republished in North Carolina, gained a third life as 'Preparing for Tort Reform in Kentucky.'"<ref name="NYT">Jason Deparle, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/politics/17thinktank.html Right-of-Center Guru Goes Wide with the Gospel of Small Government], ''New York Times'', November 17, 2006.</ref> The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' notes that the [[Arkansas Policy Foundation]] expected in 1995, just after its founding, "to release a report containing charts, graphics and statistics describing life in Arkansas. The state's Index of Leading Cultural Indicators will mirror a national report with the same name released in 1993 by former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett and the Heritage Foundation."<ref name="ARDG"/>
