{"id":16087,"date":"2012-06-21T10:20:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T09:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=16087"},"modified":"2012-06-21T10:33:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T09:33:41","slug":"who-are-the-worst-think-tanks-at-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/06\/21\/who-are-the-worst-think-tanks-at-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the worst think tanks at transparency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received the following\u00a0press\u00a0release today. I think it's worth noting in full:<\/p>\n

A new website launches today calling for think tanks and public policy campaigns to publish their\u00a0annual income and name their major funders.<\/div>\n
For its pilot project, Who Funds You? -\u00a0http:\/\/WhoFundsYou.org<\/a>\u00a0- asked 20 leading UK-based think tanks and political\u00a0campaigns to disclose their major funders and rated them on the depth of their responses.<\/div>\n
The website awarded six organisations its top \u201cA\u201d rating (Compass, IPPR, New Economics Foundation, Progress,\u00a0Resolution Foundation, Social Market Foundation), while three received its lowest \u201cE\u201d rating (Adam Smith Institute,\u00a0ResPublica, TaxPayers\u2019 Alliance).<\/div>\n
The full results are:<\/div>\n
A \u2014 Compass, IPPR, NEF, Progress, Resolution Foundation, Social Market Foundation<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8B \u2014 Demos, Fabian Society,\u00a0Policy Network, Reform<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8C \u2014 Centre Forum, Civitas, Smith Institute<\/div>\n
D \u2014 Centre for Policy Studies, Centre for Social\u00a0Justice, Institute of Economic Affairs, Policy Exchange<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8E \u2014 Adam Smith Institute, ResPublica, TaxPayers\u2019 Alliance<\/div>\n
Who Funds You? is now inviting other think tanks and political campaigns with a strong public policy or research\u00a0focus to disclose funders who give \u00a35,000 or more in a single year. It will give a funding transparency award to those\u00a0that do, and encourages funders to favour such organisations.<\/div>\n
As think tanks increasingly take an important role in formulating government policy, it is important for a strong\u00a0democracy that they are open about their own agenda and where their funding comes from. This is particularly the\u00a0case in light of increased scrutiny of political party funding.<\/div>\n
Who Funds You? co-founder Clifford Singer said:<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s refreshing to see an increasing number of think tanks and campaigns taking funding \u00e2\u20ac\u00a8transparency seriously. We\u00a0are really pleased that four of the 20 organisations we rated have placed funding information on their own websites\u00a0since we first approached them [NEF, Progress, Social Market Foundation and the Fabian Society], while a fifth\u00a0[IPPR] had already added details several months before.<\/em><\/div>\n

\n\u201cBut seven of the organisations we approached are languishing in our D and E streams. Those who received a D\u00a0rating revealed nothing beyond the size of their annual income, while those rated E won\u2019t even disclose that.\u00a0However, these ratings are not set in stone. Our aim is to encourage think tanks and campaigns to be more open,\u00a0and we will review methodology and scoring regularly based upon changes they make. We are pleased that one of\u00a0our trailing organisations, ResPublica, has already pledged to improve transparency, and hope that others will\u00a0follow suit.<\/em><\/div>\n

\n\u201cAt their best, think tanks and public policy campaigns make a valuable contribution to political life, generating new\u00a0ideas and producing important research. At their worst, they can provide a neutral front while actually working on\u00a0behalf of vested interests.\u00a0<\/em>As organisations that exert influence on public life, it is right\u00a0that we call think tanks to account and ask for this basic level of transparency.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
I disclose all my major funders here.\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My full accounts - much fuller than required by law are on line at Companies House.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What a shame that the right wing can't live\u00a0up\u00a0to such ethical standards.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received the following\u00a0press\u00a0release today. I think it’s worth noting in full: A new website launches today calling for think tanks and public policy campaigns
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accounting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}