The Heartland Institute
One South Wacker Drive #2740, Chicago,, Illinois, United States

Founded: Heartland was founded in Chicago in 1984.

Mission: Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.

Staff: A full-time staff of 31, including 23 working in the Chicago office. Joseph Bast is President and CEO. Herbert Walberg is chairman of the board.

Policy Advisors: Approximately 235 academics and professional economists participate in its peer-review process, and more than 160 elected officials serve on its Legislative Forum.

Publications: Heartland sends four monthly public policy newspapers addressing the major domestic public policy issues to every national and state elected official in the U.S. and thousands of civic and business leaders. It also produces books, policy studies, and booklets.

Communications: We appeared in print and on television or radio at least 755 times in 2013. We host 16 Web site which generated more than 2.4 million page views. We published 234 podcasts on iTunes in 2013, which were downloaded or listened to a total of 737,386 times. Our Facebook page registers more than 63,000 fans and more than 20 million impressions in 2013.

Government Relations: Our government relations staff made more than 1.2 million contacts with elected officials in 2013. Of those contacts, 20,188 were one-on-one in person, by phone, or by one-to-one emails. These were virtually all educational contacts; The Heartland Institute only rarely lobbies for or against pending legislation.

Survey Results: A telephone survey conducted in 2014 found 77 percent of Republican state legislators and 72 percent of Democratic state legislators read one or more Heartland newspapers "sometimes" or "always." Two-thirds of state legislators (70 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Democrats) said they found Heartland's newspapers a "useful source of information." Thirty-nine percent of Republicans and 30 percent of Democrats reported a Heartland publication changed their opinion or led to a change in public policy. Approximately 160 elected officials -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- serve on Heartland's Board of Legislative Advisors.

Funding: Approximately 8,300 supporters contribute to an annual budget of $6 million. Heartland does not accept government funding. Contributions are tax-deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The mission of The Heartland Institute is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.

The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization based in Chicago. Founded in 1984, it is tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation.

Heartland has gained the endorsement of some of the top scholars, thinkers and politicians in the world – including Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus, Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist, radio talk show host and constitutional scholar Mark R. Levin, and conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).