There are economies of scale in think tanks, and the number of ideologically motivated donors who care passionately about a single issue is rather small. At the state level, addressing a variety of issues is essential in order to appeal to the number of donors needed to sustain an organization. Competition for funding may be intense among beltway organizations, who rely on a small number of foundations for big gifts each year, but there is plenty of room to expand the pool of potential donors. Most potential donors I talk to have never contributed to a think tank and need to be introduced to the whole concept of influencing public policy through research and activism. I firmly believe that the more often someone knocks on the door, the more likely it is to open .
Competition helps, rather than hurts, because it legitimizes our efforts.
Changes in Media Coverage Network television and daily newspapers have dramatically reduced their attention to informed discussion of public policy. Talk radio, cable television, and niche publications pick up some of the slack, but they typically reach smaller audiences than did the network news programs they replace. Five years ago, it was not uncommon for three television crews and seven reporters to cover the release of a Heartland Policy Study . We appeared on the evening news and in the next morning's newspapers. Today, we often don't even hold news conferences because so few reporters show up.