A Heartland Report to Donors

This issue of The Heartlander is going to 3,422 members, donors, allies, and friends of The Heartland Institute. The growth of the newsletter’s circulation tracks Heartland’s growth as an organization, and I’m happy to report that growth accelerated in 2007.

Publications

Since 2006, Heartland has published six periodicals: Budget & Tax News, Environment & Climate News, Health Care News, Info Tech and Telecom News, Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly, and School Reform News. In 2007, the combined monthly circulation of these publications averaged 183,317, up 21 percent from 2006.

We also published more books and booklets in 2007 than ever before. Three titles addressed environmental issues: Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, Scientific Consensus on Global Warming, and Energy Policy for America. Two booklets addressed health care issues: Ten Principles of Health Care Policy and More Choices, Better Health. We also published the proceedings of our 2006 Emerging Issues Forum and the presentations delivered by Fr. Robert Sirico and Prof. Richard Epstein at our 2006 anniversary benefit dinner.

Heartland was actively involved with the editing and distribution of two books published by other organizations, Unstoppable Global Warming – Every 1,500 Years, by S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery, and School Choice: The Findings, by Heartland chairman Herbert Walberg.

Great Events

Heartland hosted 10 events in 2007, attracting a total of 1,237 guests. Notable speakers at receptions held in Chicago included Michael Tanner, author of Leviathan on the Right, and John Lott, author of Freedomnomics.

Our fourth annual Emerging Issues Forum drew a record 135 attendees, most of them elected officials, and featured speakers from the Hudson Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council, American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, American Council on Science and Health, and National Center for Policy Analysis.

Our 23rd anniversary benefit dinner, held in October, drew 537 guests to hear Tom DiLorenzo and Joseph Morris debate whether Abraham Lincoln was a friend or foe of freedom. The reaction to the debate format has been so positive that we’re considering making this a regular feature of this annual event. (Let me know if you have thoughts on this.)

Heartland Online

We post all of our publications online at www.heartland.org or www.globalwarmingheartland.org before the print editions are even put in the mail, and we actively solicit free online subscriptions to all of our publications. We increasingly post videos and audio files on the site and use email to “push market” our ideas.

During 2007, our Web sites registered 18.2 million page views by 6.5 million visitors. That’s nearly 50,000 page views and 18,000 visitors per day!

The number of documents posted on our Web sites at the end of 2007 stood at 21,987, and the number available through PolicyBot, our online database and search engine, exceeded 20,000 in January of this year.

The impact of this accomplishment is difficult to exaggerate: Imagine busy elected officials, their staff, and reporters being able to find the best free-market research and commentary on almost any topic, quickly and for free, on a single Web site. That’s what PolicyBot makes possible, and it’s one reason our impact on legislators and journalists is disproportional to our size.

Public Relations

Heartland public policy experts appeared in print or online more than 900 times in 2007, nearly doubling 2006’s numbers. Total print circulation was nearly 74 million.

Heartland’s team of senior fellows and managing editors spoke at events hosted by other organizations or before elected officials 71 times in 2007, reaching 11,020 audience members. James M. Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News, and Dr. Jay Lehr, Heartland’s science director, were absolutely tireless in their journeys across the country speaking on global warming and other environmental topics.

Real Impact

Measuring the impact of a “think tank” can be difficult, especially when the think tank doesn’t engage in lobbying. Most of the numbers reported here measure “inputs” rather than “outputs.” How can we tell if all these publications, events, Web “hits,” and media exposure really are making a difference?

As part of our effort to answer this question, Heartland became the only nonprofit think tank, to our knowledge, to commission an annual telephone survey of randomly selected state and local elected officials. We ask them whether they actually read the publications we send them, if our publications have changed their minds or led to a change in public policies, and how we compare to other organizations in terms of credibility and the usefulness of our publications.

Last year’s survey, completed in December, found 85 percent of state elected officials surveyed said they read at least one Heartland publication “sometimes” or “always,” a remarkably high number. Eighty percent of Democrats and 89 percent of Republicans reported reading our publications. When asked if one or more of our publications influenced their opinion or led to a change in public policy, 35 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Republicans said yes.

Local elected officials have been receiving Heartland publications for a shorter period of time than state legislators, so their survey numbers are lower but still impressive. Sixty-three percent of local officials surveyed said they read at least one Heartland publication, and 31 percent said a Heartland publication changed their mind or led to a change in public policy.

Making It All Possible

A program as large as what I’ve just described requires the help and involvement of thousands of people. It starts with 2,700 donors and subscribers to Heartland’s publications, a diverse group of individuals, corporations, and foundations that pays the bills and provides direction to our efforts.

In 2007, 71 percent of Heartland’s total revenues of $5.2 million came from foundations, 16 percent came from corporations, and 11 percent came from individuals. About 1 percent came from interest and sales.

Heartland’s donors support a full-time staff of 35 men and women, 25 of whom work in our office in downtown Chicago and 10 of whom telecommute. They, in turn, work closely with 117 policy advisors – academics, scientists, and professional economists who write for us and conduct peer review of our studies – and nearly 500 elected officials who serve on our board of legislative advisors.

During 2007, 5 percent of our spending was devoted to fundraising, 7 percent to administration, and 88 percent to programs. We don’t have an endowment, and in fact it has proven difficult for us to keep enough cash on hand to cover more than a month or two of spending at a time. (If you’re in a position to help me solve that problem, I hope you’ll let me know!)

Conclusion

Last year was a great one for The Heartland Institute. We kicked everything we do “up a notch,” improving and expanding the circulation of our publications, increasing our online presence, attracting more elected officials to our events, and expanding our staff, network of advisors, and number of donors.

If you are a donor or member of Heartland, please accept my sincere thanks for your support. If you are not yet a donor or member, or haven’t renewed your support yet in 2008, please sign up today. You can use the reply envelope stapled in the center of this The Heartlander.

We need your help to continue fighting for your ideas. Together, we’ve shown that good ideas, properly presented, can genuinely change the world.

Joseph L. Bast (jbast@heartland.org) is president of The Heartland Institute.