Aspen Institute is a left-leaning, Washington, D.C.-headquartered think tank that focuses on convening senior-level professionals, hosting events, and driving dialogue across the business, communications, education, environment, health, criminal justice, philanthropy, and national security affairs sectors. ¹ Aspen Institute supports the critical race theory-influenced concept of racial equity ² and has hosted events with activist professor Ibram X. Kendi to discuss the far-left concept of anti-racism. ³

In 2021, Aspen Institute launched the left-of-center Commission on Information Disorder with funding from the left-of-center Craig Newmark Foundation to counter what it considers “malicious” actors attempting to “undermine trust and sowing discord in civil society” by spreading what the Aspen Institute considers false information. ^{4 5} Aspen Institute also operates the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Economic Strategy Group, which are populated by senior business executives and former senior-level government officials from Democratic and Republican Party presidential administrations. ^{6 7}

Aspen Institute has received $7,620,337 from the left-of-center John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation between 1981 and 2023. ⁸

History

Aspen Institute was founded by Chicago businessman Walter Paepcke in 1949. ⁹ The organization was launched with a 20-day celebration of the 200th birthday of German poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Later that year, Paepcke launched the Aspen Music Festival to showcase classical musicians and the International Design Conference with prominent architect Herbert Mayer and oil tycoon Robert O. Anderson. Paepcke and Anderson then created the Aspen Executive Seminar, which targeted business leaders. ^{10 11 12}

In 1951, Aspen Institute received tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). That same year, Aspen Institute sponsored a national photography contest conference attended by left-leaning environmentalist photographer Ansel Adams and left-wing artist Ben Shahn. ¹¹ Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Aspen Institute hosted conferences on topics including philosophy, the environment, race, business, and foreign affairs. During this time, the Aspen Strategy Group and the Aspen Center for Physics were founded. ⁹

In 2013, Aspen Institute joined with left-of-center magazine The Atlantic and Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop the annual Aspen Ideas Festival. ⁹

Leadership

Daniel R. Porterfield is Aspen Institute’s CEO. Porterfield joined Aspen Institute in 2017 while working as president of Pennsylvania-based Franklin and Marshall College. Prior to his presidency at Franklin and Marshall, Porterfield was a senior vice president at Georgetown University. Previously, he worked as a senior aide for Clinton administration Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala. ¹³ Aspen Institute is governed by a board of trustees that consists of high-level members from the public and private sectors. ¹⁴

Walter Isaacson was Aspen Institute CEO from 2003 to 2017. Prior to joining Aspen Institute, Isaacson was the CEO of cable news channel CNN from 2001 to 2003, where he was criticized for trying to make the network more open to Republican and conservative viewpoints. From 1978 to 1996, he worked at Time magazine in various roles, including managing editor. ^{15 16 17 18}

Activities and Programming

Aspen Institute is a left-leaning, Washington, D.C.-headquartered think tank that focuses on convening senior-level professionals, hosting events, and driving dialogue across the business, communications, education, environment, health, criminal justice, philanthropy, and national security affairs sectors. ¹ Aspen Institute also hosts Aspen Music Festival and co-hosts Aspen Ideas Festival along with the left-of-center publication The Atlantic. ¹⁹

The Atlantic and Bloomberg Philanthropies also sponsor Aspen Institute’s CityLab project, which focuses on ideas to address concerns surrounding urbanization. ⁹

In 2022, Aspen Institute spent $95,042,121 on public policy programs addressing issues including economic distress, educational opportunity, environmentalism, and the left-wing concept of racial justice. That same year, the organization spent $19,361,690 on campus activities and $15,274,949 on public programming including the Aspen Ideas Festival, Spotlight Health, and the Aspen Security Forum. ²⁰

Commission on Information Disorder

In 2021, Aspen Institute launched the Commission on Information Disorder with funding from the Craig Newmark Foundation to counter what it considers “malicious” actors attempting to “undermine trust and sowing discord in civil society” by spreading what Aspen Institute considers false information. ⁴ The Commission is co-chaired by former journalist Katie Couric; Chris Krebs, the founding director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA); and far-left “racial equity leader” Rashad Robinson of Color of Change. ^{21 22}

The commission has been criticized for its left-of-center political bias, criticism of conservatives and former President Donald Trump, and receiving support from leading liberals. Some of the commission’s liberal advisors have been accused of censoring news critical of the Democratic Party and left-wing interests. ⁵ For example, it was revealed in November 2021 that former Twitter head of security and commission technical advisor Yoel Roth blocked access to a New York Post article documenting emails from then-candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s laptop. Critics allege this could have damaged nominee Joe Biden’s credibility with voters. ⁵

In November 2021, the commission released an 80-page “Final Report” documenting its findings and offering policy suggestions. In the report, the commission said it wanted to do more than counter misinformation and disinformation, and claimed it wants to establish a better information environment. The commission made 15 recommendations to create this new information environment including: protections for journalists who violate terms of service; disclosure of private information to academic researchers; requirements for social media platforms to disclose information about content moderation policies; requirements for digital ad transparency; endorsements of efforts focused on power and equity; development of health communication tools; increased workforce diversity; investment in local media; accountability and professional consequences for violation of public trust; increased U.S. election security; federal approaches to “countering disinformation and the spread of misinformation;” accountability for “super spreaders of mis- and disinformation;” and amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. ²³

As of November 2023, Commission on Information Disorder’s commissioners include Marla Blow of the Skoll Foundation, Katie Couric, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D), Yasmin Green of Jigsaw, United Kingdom Prince Harry of Archewell, former U.S. Representative Will Hurd (R-TX), Jameel Jaffer of Columbia University, Chris Krebs of CISA, Kathryn Murdoch of Quadrivium Foundation, Safiya Noble of UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, Rashad Robinson of the left-of-center Color of Change, Deb Roy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) founder Alex Stamos, Kate Starbird, and Amanda Zamora of 19th News. ²⁴

Technical researchers involved with the commission include individuals from Microsoft Research, SIO, Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Mozilla Foundation, Partnership for Countering Influence Operations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Facebook, and Google. ²²

Racial Activism

Aspen Institute supports the far-left concept of racial equity, ² the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism programs, and the far-left Black Lives Matter movement. ²⁵

In 2020, the organization stood up a Task Force on Equity and Inclusion and announced its intentions to make its work more “anti-racist and inclusive.” As a result, Aspen Institute centered the far-left concept of equity in its program design and worked to address the critical race theory-influenced concept of structural racism. ²⁵

Aspen Institute’s programmatic work also expanded to include racial justice-related events. The organization hosted radical-left activist professor Ibram X. Kendi to discuss the far-left concept of anti-racism; ³ hosted Georgia Democratic Party politician Stacey Abrams to discuss voting; ²⁶ Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Alicia Garza to discuss BLM activism; and held events on other topics including systemic racism, ²⁷ police violence, and the COVID-19 pandemic. ²⁵

Aspen Strategy Group

The Aspen Strategy Group (ASG) is a project of the Aspen Institute. ASG was formally established in 1984 by Clinton administration Secretary of the Department of Defense Bill Perry, George H.W. Bush administration and Ford administration National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and Clinton administration official Joe Nye to discuss conventional foreign policy in Washington. ²⁸

Biden administration Ambassador to China R. Nicholas Burns was the director of the Aspen Strategy Group from 2009 to December 2021. Burns was an advisor to the 2020 presidential campaign of Joe Biden (D) and an informal advisor to the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (D). ²⁹

ASG members include George W. Bush administration Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush administration and Obama administration Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Clinton administration Secretary of the Treasury Larry W. Summers, and other former senior-level officials from the Clinton administration, George W. Bush administration, Obama administration, Trump administration, and Biden administration. Other ASG members include U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Jack Reed (D-RI); former U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Sam Nunn (D-GA); and representatives from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), BlackRock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Hoover Institution, New York Times, and others. ⁶

Aspen Economic Strategy Group

Aspen Institute also hosts the Aspen Economic Strategy Group to shape economic policy in the United States. The group is co-chaired by George W. Bush administration Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Obama administration Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. Members of the group include Biden administration Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, Biden administration Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R), former U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI), and Microsoft CEO Brad Smith. Other members include representatives from the Business Roundtable, Stanford University, MIT, Harvard University, CFR, BlackRock, American Action Forum, Columbia University Business School, Wall Street Journal, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Google, and American Enterprise Institute. ³⁰

The Aspen Economic Strategy Group is funded by Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Dalio Philanthropies, General Dynamics, General Motors, Google, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, and others. ⁷

Other Programming

Aspen Institute operates other policy-specific programming including Ascend at the Aspen Institute, Aspen Digital, Aspen Global Innovators Network, Aspen Global Leadership Network, Aspen Ministers Forum, Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship, the Bezos Family Foundation-funded Bezos Scholar Program, Business and Society Program, left-of-center Center for Native American Youth, Omidyar Network-funded Citizenship and American Identity Program, ³¹ Criminal Justice Reform Initiative, Forum on Women and Girls, NextGen Network, Tech Accountability Coalition, UpSkill America and others. ^{32 25}

Controversies

In 2020, Aspen Institute obtained more than $8 million in federal small-business loans despite having an endowment worth more than $115 million. Aspen Institute qualified for participation in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) designed for providing loans to small businesses to keep workers on its payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic due to having fewer than 500 employees. ^{33 34}

According to reports, the decision to accept PPP loans created division among Aspen Institute fellows and program managers, since many other organizations returned PPP grants. In response, Aspen Institute claimed that 80 percent of its funds that were a part of its then-$115 million endowment were restricted and could not be used for the institution’s operations. ³³

Grantmaking

In 2022, Aspen Institute made $17,469,399 of grants. ³⁵ These grants included $854,355 to the Criterion Institute, $816,170 to Soliya, $785,664 to Pacific Community Ventures, $483,950 to Equal Measure, $397,618 to International Research and Exchanges Board, $388,5000 to the Alliance for Children’s Rights, $380,674 to Institute of International Education, $334,000 to Teachers College of Columbia University, $288,000 to the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries, $249,683 to the Kind Foundation, $175,000 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, $127,812 to the Denver World Affairs Council, $100,000 to Beloved Community, $100,000 to Inner City Advisors, $75,000 to the New Venture Fund, $64,817 to American Muslim Fund, $63,000 to Jobs for the Future, $60,000 to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, $25,000 to Stony Brook Foundation, $20,000 to liberal Center for American Progress, $5,200 to left-of-center New America Foundation, and others. ³⁶

Funding

Aspen Institute receives funding from individual contributions, ³⁷ grants, program service revenue, and investment income. Aspen Institute reported revenue of $189,761,926 and expenses of $192,935,305 in 2022. In 2021, the organization reported revenue of $171,246,686 and expenses of $143,773,765. ³⁸

Aspen Institute has received $7,620,337 from the left-of-center John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation between 1981 and 2023. In 2023, Aspen Institute received $450,000 from the MacArthur Foundation to support the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ADNE) program and Aspen institute work in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ⁸

The Aspen Institute received $100,000 from left-leaning Arnold Ventures in 2022 to support its Congressional Program ³⁹ and $750,000 from the same group to support changes to the criminal justice system. ⁴⁰ The organization also received $51,000 from the Chicago Community Trust in 2019. ⁴¹

Aspen Institute received $120,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation in 2017. ⁴²

According to a list of its 2023 contributors, the Aspen Institute received donations of at least $1 million from 38 groups that included the Walmart Foundation, Google LLC, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. ^{43 44}

Federal Funding

The Aspen Institute has received funding from the U.S Government, with roughly $6,235,000 being donated from several government agencies between 2020 and 2022 including the U.S. Department of the Treasury ($210,000), the U.S. Department of State ($3,000,000), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ($3,000,000), and the Fish and Wildlife Service bureau of the U.S. Department of Interior ($25,000). In addition, the organization received $1,125,000 in funding from several Pentagon contractors between 2020 and 2022. These included Merck ($225,000), McKinsey & Company ($200,000), IBM ($125,000), Deloitte ($100,000), General Dynamics ($100,000), RTX ($100,000), Accenture ($50,000), Boston Consulting Group ($50,000), General Electric ($50,000), Peraton ($50,000), and Batelle ($25,000). ^{45 46}

According to a Washington Free Beacon article published in February 2025, it was reported that the Aspen Institute had received up to $32.6 million in federal funding between 2021 and 2025 from the U.S Department of State, the U.S Department of Defense, and USAID. ⁴³ These included a five-year “agreement” of $9 million from USAID to “promote investment in Guatemalan entrepreneurs and innovators” ⁴³ as well as a $6 million contract from the State Department in September 2024 to fund an online exchange program for teaching students from North Africa and the Middle East about “”civic engagement,” “climate change and sustainability.”” ⁴³

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