The Heritage Foundation

Innovation amidst the Preservation of Principles

The formation of the Heritage Foundation in 1973 forever changed the landscape of not only the right-wing conservative movement but also of the actual conception and creation of United States federal policy. Founded on the vision of an America “where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish,” the Heritage Foundation set out to achieve its conservative goals using revolutionary tactics on many a front. Such areas in which these newly developed strategies for impacting congressional agendas and decision-making proved most beneficial to the success of the Heritage Foundation include the marketing campaigns, fund-raising efforts, and the actual information and research dissemination procedures used by the foundation. The end-result of the foundation’s innovative techniques and dedication to conservative thought development and diffusion has been felt not only in congressional procedure but in the office of the federal executive as well. Thus the influence of the Heritage Foundation runs deep in its quest to “formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense,” as states the foundation’s mission statement. In considering how these principles are reflected in the beliefs and processes promoted by the Heritage Foundation, one can argue that the think tank’s devotion to its own founding principles mirrors the over-arching philosophical agenda of the foundation to conserve the original principles set forth by the founding fathers of the United States as reflected in the United States Constitution.

The Heritage Foundation was “formally incorporated” into Washington D.C. on February 16, 1973.- The original board of trustees included Marvin H. Edwards, John Perrino, and J. Frederic Rench, and was later expanded to include Edwin J. Feulner, Jack Wilson, and Forrest Rettgers. Rettgers was elected chairman of the board and Paul M. Weyerich, president. The establishment of the foundation owes much of its occurrence to businessman Joseph Coors of the Adolph Coors Company, with Coors as an investor in Heritage precursors the Analysis and Research Association (ARA) and the Schuchman Foundation. History has it that Coors, fed up with having dictated for him the capabilities of his contributions, announced that he, along with Weyrich, Wilson, and Feulner, would be vacating their posts on the board of Schuchman. One can argue that this mythology prompts current functioning of the Heritage Foundation to be especially sensitive to the desires of its conservative benefactors, and thus it continuously draws monetary, tax-exempt support from wide-ranging and expansive conservative donors. In addition to Joe Coors, however, the genesis of the Heritage Foundation, most commonly attributed to have been founded by Weyrich, would not have been possible without the additional support of Richard Scaife, of the Sarah Scaife Foundation- which remains today the largest individual contributor to Heritage. However, in accordance with the prior consideration that the foundation is, at its roots, fundamentally sensitive to its large contributors, so did the donation to Heritage by the Scaife Foundation reiterate this possibility. This contribution is said to be what initially “forced Heritage to abandon its antagonism to New Right cultural conservatism, which emphasizes patriotism, family, and other traditional values” to the extent that such concerns are indeed even reflected in the foundation’s most basic mission statement. The foundation did even go so far as to hire a director of the Scaife Foundation to head a Heritage program studying culture.