Reason Foundation
The Reason Foundation is an American libertarian think tank that was founded in 1978. The foundation publishes the magazine Reason. Based in Los Angeles, California, it is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. According to its website, the foundation is committed to advancing "the values of individual freedom and choice, limited government, and market-friendly policies." In the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, the foundation was number 41 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".
Reason Foundation's policy research areas include: air traffic control, American domestic monetary policy, school choice, eminent domain, government reform, housing, land use, immigration, privatization, public–private partnerships, urban traffic and congestion, transportation, industrial hemp, medical marijuana, police raids and militarization, free trade, globalization, and telecommunications. Affiliated projects include Drew Carey's Reason TV video website. Reason Foundation staff also regularly contribute to the Out of Control Policy Blog.
Reason Foundation cofounder Robert Poole is an MIT-trained engineer and the author of Cutting Back City Hall. The book provided the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. Poole remains at Reason serving as an officer on the organization's board of trustees and director of transportation. In 1970 he, along with Manny Klausner and Tibor Machan, purchased Reason magazine, which had been founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander.
Background
Robert Poole founded Reason Foundation and served as its president from 1978 to 2001. Patricia Lynn Scarlett took over as president in 2001, but soon resigned to join the George W. Bush administration as assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget at the Department of the Interior. David Nott, a Stanford University graduate, has served as Reason Foundation's president since 2001.The foundation is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a U.S. national network of free-market-oriented think tanks.
Funding and partners
As a 501 nonprofit organization, Reason Foundation is supported by donations and sale of its publications. According to 2012 disclosures, its largest donors were the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.In 2020, the independent rating group Charity Navigator rated Reason with four out of four stars. As of 2024, the foundation's Charity Navigator score is 97 percent.
Publications
''Annual Privatization Report'', ''Privatization Watch'', and ''Innovators in Action''
Reason Foundation publishes the Annual Privatization Report, which reports on news and trends in U.S. outsourcing, privatization, and public-private partnerships. Privatization Watch is another of the Foundation's privatization publications published quarterly. Innovators in Action is an annual publication that advocates shrinking the size and scope of government, usually through privatization. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens wrote columns for this publication in 2007.''Annual Highway Report''
Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report ranks each state's transportation system on cost-effectiveness and efficiency. In 2021, the report ranked North Dakota, Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, and North Carolina as having the most cost-effective highway systems, with New Jersey, Rhode Island, Alaska, Hawaii, and New York having "the worst combination of highway performance and cost-effectiveness."''Reason'' magazine
Reason Foundation's primary publication is the magazine, Reason, which was first published in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander, and was originally an infrequently published mimeographed magazine. In 1970, Robert Poole purchased Reason with Manuel S. Klausner and Tibor R. Machan, who set the magazine on a more regular publication schedule. The magazine covers politics, culture, and ideas through a mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. It also conducts podcast interviews.Reason and Reason Online are editorially independent publications of the foundation. Reason magazine won three Los Angeles Press Club awards in 2008. In May 2025, Reason was nominated for 17 Southern California Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Policy areas
Privatization
Reason Foundation co-founder Robert Poole "is credited as the first person to use the term 'privatization' to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first-ever book on municipal privatization, Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980." The book was very influential, notably, by providing the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom. Thatcher wrote in the foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2006, "State control is fundamentally bad because it denies people the power to choose and the opportunity to bear responsibility for their own actions. Conversely, privatisation shrinks the power of the state and free enterprise enlarges the power of the people."The Reason Foundation supports the privatization of almost all government functions. Leonard Gilroy, Reason Foundation's director of government reform, describes privatization as "a strategy to lower the costs of government and achieve higher performance and better outcomes for tax dollars spent." Gilroy also notes that "If badly executed, privatization like any other policy can fail. Taxpayers are no better off, and may be worse off, if a service is moved from a government agency to an incompetent or inefficient private business."
Transportation
In 2005, Reason was engaged in several transportation policy endeavors. Poole served as the director of transportation policy. According to the New York Times, "or 17 years, Mr. Poole has been the chief theorist for private solutions to gridlock. His ideas are now embraced by officials from Sacramento to Washington."Education
Reason Foundation advocates for education reform through expanded school choice initiatives. Reason's director of education and child welfare, Lisa Snell, authored a study in 2009 entitled Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2009, which examined school districts using student-based "backpack funding." Snell is also: "an advisory board member to the National Quality Improvement Center for the Children's Bureau; on the charter school accreditation team for the American Academy for Liberal Education; and serves as a board member for the California Virtual Academy."Municipal broadband
In 2006, Reason Foundation issued a report criticizing a municipal Wi-Fi project iProvo in Provo, Utah as financially unstable and ineffective at lowering Internet costs or raising broadband use. iProvo proponents responded vigorously with a white paper rebutting Reason's conclusions.In 2008, Reason issued a follow-up report entitled, iProvo Revisited: Another Year and Still Struggling. According to Reason, the predictions in its first report had proven true: "iProvo's total losses are likely to exceed $10 million by the end of this fiscal year – and that figure doesn't include the $39.5 million borrowed to launch the project, most of which still needs to be paid back." Reason called for the city to "cut its losses" and sell the network to a private company. Shortly after the 2008 report was issued, the mayor of Provo, Lewis Billings, who had been highly critical of the Reason reports, announced that iProvo would in fact be sold to a private enterprise, Broadweave, for $40 million.
Climate change
In 2005, Reason magazine's science writer Ronald Bailey wrote a column declaring that climate change is both real and anthropogenic. He wrote, "Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up. All data sets – satellite, surface, and balloon – have been pointing to rising global temperatures."In 2006, Bailey wrote an article entitled "Confessions of an Alleged ExxonMobil Whore: Actually no one paid me to be wrong about global warming. Or anything else." In the article Bailey explains how increasing public rebuff changed his mind on climate change.
According to DeSmog, Reason is skeptical of the negative impact of climate change.