Carl Gershman Carl Gershman ( born July 20 , 1943 ) has been the President of the National Endowment for Democracy since its 1984 founding . He had served as the U . S . Representative to the U . N . ' s Committee on human rights during the first Reagan Administration . In a 2006 interview , Gershman said , " I have to confess that in my early youth I was a kind of a social democrat of sorts ; I ' m now really a democrat . I ' m non - partisan ; I try to bring Democrats and Republicans together in the United States . " Carl Gershman was the Executive Director of the Social Democrats , USA ( SDUSA ) from 1975 to 1980 , having previously been an officer of the Young People ' s Socialist League ( YPSL ) . From 1965 – 1967 , he served in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania with Volunteers in Service to America ( VISTA ) , which was a domestic version of the Peace Corps . He graduated from Horace Mann Preparatory School , from Yale University , and from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University . Schooling and VISTA . On July 20 , 1943 , Carl Gershman was born in New York City . In 1961 he graduated magna cum laude from Horace Mann Preparatory School of Riverdale in The Bronx . As an undergraduate at Yale University , he was active in the Yale Civil Rights Council , and volunteered in Mississippi and Alabama . In 1965 he graduated magna cum laude from Yale , with a Bachelor of Arts degree , and upon graduation was inducted into the honorary society Phi Beta Kappa . From 1965 – 1967 , he served in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania with Volunteers in Service to America ( VISTA ) , which was a domestic version of the Peace Corps . In 1968 he graduated with a Master of Education from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University . From 1969 – 1971 he was Research Director at the A . Philip Randolph Institute , where he assisted its director , Bayard Rustin . Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East . In 1968 , he worked in the research department of B ' nai B ' rith , and in 1972 he served on the Governing Council of the American Jewish Committee . From 1969 – 1974 , Gershman successively served as Director of Research , Co - Chairman , and Executive Director of the Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East , and edited its magazine " Crossroads " . In 1972 he and Irving Howe edited a collection , " Israel , the Arabs and the Middle East " . Gershman served on the Editorial Board of " Dissent " , which was edited by Howe . American social democracy : YPSL and SDUSA . In a 2006 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Gershman said , " I have to confess that , in my early youth , I was a kind of a social democrat of sorts ; I ' m now really a democrat ; I ' m non - partisan . " From 1970 – 1974 , Carl Gershman was a national leader of the Young People Socialist League ( YPSL ) , the youth section of the Socialist Party of America ; he served as Vice Chairman , Co - Chairman , and then Chairman of YPSL . Acting as YPSL ' s Vice Chairman at its 1972 December Conference , he wrote a thirteen - page , singly spaced , international - affairs document which called for the Cuba ' s Castro regime to stop funding guerrilla movements and also for its " loosening the bonds " of repression ; it was approved and an alternative document calling for the U . S . to recognize Cuba ' s government was defeated . YPSL criticized the " New Politics " led by George McGovern , which had lost 49 of 50 states to Richard Nixon in the 1972 election . At the Socialist Party Convention in December 1972 , he introduced the international program , which was approved by a two to one vote ; the losing alternative , proposed by Michael Harrington , called for an immediate withdrawal of U . S . forces from Vietnam , while the majority resolution called for a negotiated peace settlement . At this convention , the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats , USA ( SDUSA ) by a vote of 73 to 34 . Harrington resigned from SDUSA and founded the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee ( DSOC ) in 1973 . In 1975 Gershman published a monograph on the foreign policy of the American labor movement . Gershman became a leader of SDUSA . From 1975 to January 1980 , Gershman served as the Executive Director of SDUSA . In 1980 , he debated Michael Harrington on the topic of foreign policy . United Nations : Committee on Human Rights . Gershman served as the U . S . Representative to the U . N . ' s Committee on human rights during the first Reagan Administration . He and other members of Social Democrats , USA were called " State Department socialists " by , who wrote that the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was being run by Trotskyists , a claim that was called a " myth " by . National Endowment for Democracy . Carl Gershman has served as the President of the National Endowment for Democracy since 1984 . In a 2006 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Gershman said " I ' m non - partisan ; I try to bring Democrats and Republicans together in the United States , which is not that easy because we ' re very divided politically , today . And also , people from the business community and the trade union movement and intellectuals , and so forth , and try and bring people together around a common democratic faith and philosophy . " In a 1982 speech at the Palace of Westminster , President Ronald Reagan proposed an initiative " to foster the infrastructure of democracy - - the system of a free press , unions , political parties , universities . " The U . S . government , through USAID ( United States Agency for International Development ) , contracted The American Political Foundation to study democracy promotion , which became known as " The Democracy Program . " The Program recommended the creation of a bipartisan , private , non - profit corporation to be known as the National Endowment for Democracy ( NED ) . NED , though non - governmental , would be funded primarily through annual appropriations from the U . S . government and subject to congressional oversight . NED was established in 1983 by an act of Congress . The House Foreign Affairs Committee proposed legislation to provide initial funding of $ 31 . 3 million for NED as part of the State Department Authorization Act ( H . R . 2915 ) . Included in the legislation was $ 13 . 8 million for the Free Trade Union Institute , an affiliate of the AFL - CIO ( much of which went to support the Polish labor union , Solidarity ) , $ 2 . 5 million for an affiliate of the U . S . Chamber of Commerce , and $ 5 million each for two party institutes . The conference report on H . R . 2915 was adopted by the House on November 17 , 1983 and the Senate the following day . On November 18 , 1983 , articles of incorporation were filed in the District of Columbia to establish the National Endowment for Democracy as a nonprofit organization . NED is structured to act as a grant - making foundation , distributing funds to private non - governmental organizations for the purpose of promoting democracy abroad . Approximately half of NED ' s funding is allocated annually to four main U . S . organizations : the American Center for International Labor Solidarity ( ACILS ) , the Center for International Private Enterprise ( CIPE ) , the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs ( NDI ) , and the International Republican Institute ( IRI ) . The other half of NED ' s funding is awarded annually to hundreds of non - governmental organizations based abroad which apply for support . Awards . After the Polish people overthrew communism , their elected government awarded the Order of the Knight ' s Cross to him . He has awards from Romania and from the Chinese Education Democracy Foundation . He received the Light of Truth Award from the International Campaign for Tibet . He received the President ' s Award from George Washington University .