The Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) is a libertarian-leaning private foundation located in Arlington, Virginia, that is funded and controlled by billionaire businessman and philanthropist Charles Koch. The organization was founded by Koch and has close ties to many right-leaning organizations that have received funding from Charles Koch and his late brother David. The foundation annually gives well over $100 million, with a focus on grants for right-leaning and free market-oriented programs at colleges and universities, while also contributing to right-leaning advocacy organizations and think tanks such as the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute. ¹

The organization shares a building at its Virginia headquarters with connected organizations such as the Charles Koch Institute and Americans for Prosperity. ²

Background

Charles Koch founded the Charles Koch Foundation as the principal vehicle for his charitable giving. The organization is a private foundation and makes grants to organizations across the United States, with a particular focus on funding right-leaning academic research centers and professorships at colleges and universities. The foundation also makes grants to many right-leaning nonprofits that are affiliated with the Koch network of organizations, as well as some left-leaning organizations to fund projects related to specific policy areas such as criminal justice, foreign policy, and poverty. ³

The Charles Koch Foundation also is closely affiliated with the Charles Koch Institute, an educational arm of Koch’s network of nonprofit advocacy groups that centers on providing educational programs that place right-leaning young professionals into mid- and entry-level roles in right-leaning advocacy organizations and think tanks. ⁴ Grants provided to organizations to defray salary costs of Koch Associate Program participants as well as stipends for Koch Internship Program participants are paid out by the Charles Koch Foundation. ⁵

Charles Koch serves as the chairman of the board for the Charles Koch Foundation, and his children Elizabeth and Chase serve on the board of the organization. The organization reports that it does not solicit outside funds, and that Charles Koch is the principal benefactor of the organization. ⁶

Academic Grants

The majority of the Charles Koch Foundation’s public-facing grantmaking involves providing grants to colleges and universities that fund free-market research centers and professorships at hundreds of schools across the United States. Funding for higher education has been a focus of Charles Koch’s giving for over 50 years since becoming the CEO of Koch Industries. ⁷ Grants from the organization to colleges range from $10,000 to as high as $1 million. ⁸ The foundation provides grants to public and private colleges of all size, including Ivy League schools such as Yale University, Dartmouth College, and Brown University, and state universities such as West Virginia University, Clemson University, and Louisiana State University. ⁹

Decades of academic grantmaking to colleges and universities led the foundation to draw criticism from left-leaning activist groups given the right-leaning and free market policies supported by the Charles Koch Foundation. This opposition led to the formation of UnKoch My Campus, a left-wing activist organization that organizes protests and public pressure campaigns against colleges and universities that accept grants from the Charles Koch Foundation. UnKoch My Campus is also affiliated with Koch Docs, a left-wing activist project that seeks to publicize leaked information from Koch Industries and related nonprofits. ¹⁰ UnKoch My Campus is a project of Essential Information, a left-leaning activist group that was founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader and operates several projects centered on opposition to businesses and corporate giving. ¹¹

In 2018, Charles Koch announced that the foundation would become more transparent with its academic grant making and would publish all major academic grant agreements online. Brian Hooks, the President and CEO of the foundation, stated that there had been mischaracterization in the past around the grants and that the organization wanted to show exactly how it interacted with colleges. ¹²

Recently, the foundation has begun to provide funding and scholarships related to apprenticeships and skilled labor. The foundation has partnered with television show host Mike Rowe to provide over $200,000 in annual scholarships for trade school students through the mikeroweWORKS foundation. The foundation also provides scholarships to pursue careers in skilled trades through SkillsUSA. ¹³

Other Grantmaking Activity

In addition to funding many academic programs, the organization also provides millions in annual grants to right-leaning organizations. Organizations supported by the foundation include the Hudson institute, the Foundation for Constitutional Government, the Property and Environment Research Center, the Moving Picture Institute, the Bill of Rights Institute, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. ¹⁴

The Charles Koch Foundation has also worked in partnerships with left-leaning groups and individuals such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Van Jones, the Center for American Progress, and Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) to advance a shared criminal justice agenda,¹⁵ as well as with left-leaning foreign policy groups to fund the Project on Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft at M.I.T. and Harvard to promote noninterventionist foreign policy. ¹⁶

In 2019, the Koch Foundation joined with liberal mega-donor George Soros and liberal foundations including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Arca Foundation, and Ploughshares Fund to support the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an advocacy group supporting non-interventionist foreign policies.¹⁷

People

Charles G. Koch is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Charles Koch Foundation. The foundation, as well as affiliated organizations such as the Charles Koch Institute and Stand Together, operate according to Koch’s “Market-Based Management” philosophy, which he chronicles in books he wrote titled Good Profit and The Science of Success. Koch has served as chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries since 1967, during which time the company grew from being worth $21 million to having revenues as high as $100 billion and over 100,000 employees, making it currently the second largest privately held company in the United States. Charles Koch is known, along with his late brother David, for founding and providing funding for dozens of right-leaning and libertarian-leaning organizations including Institute for Humane Studies, the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the Bill of Rights Institute¹⁸, all of which are organizations that continue to regularly receive grants from the Charles Koch Foundation. ¹⁹

Brian Hooks has served as President and CEO of the Charles Koch Foundation since 2014. He simultaneously serves as the President and CEO of Stand Together and the Charles Koch Institute. Prior to joining CKI and the Koch network, he was the executive director and COO of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. ²⁰

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2. “IRS Form 990”. Charles Koch Foundation. 2018. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/480918408/01_2020_prefixes_47-51%2F480918408_201812_990PF_2020012117047703
3. Elliot, Philip. “Charles Koch Is Known for Conservative Advocacy. A New Report Highlights His Charitable Giving.” Time. October 3, 2018. Accessed April 9, 2021.  https://time.com/5413786/charles-koch-charitable-giving/
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10. “Mission.” UnKoch My Campus. Accessed April 9, 2021.  http://www.unkochmycampus.org/mission-4
11. “Home.” Essential Information. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.essentialinformation.org/#
12. Korn, Melissa. “Charles Koch Foundation to Publish Future University Grant Agreements.” The Wall Street Journal. July 24, 2018. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.wsj.com/articles/charles-koch-foundation-to-publish-future-university-grant-agreements-1532453992?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
13. “Finding Fulfillment in Work: The Charles Koch Foundation and mikeroweWORKS Foundation.” Charles Koch Foundation.” Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.charleskochfoundation.org/news/finding-fulfillment-work-charles-koch-foundation-mikeroweworks-foundation/
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15. Hulse, Carl. “Unlikely Cause Unites the Left and the Right: Justice Reform.” New York Times. February 18, 2015. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/us/politics/unlikely-cause-unites-the-left-and-the-right-justice-reform.html
16. Gage, Beverly. “The Koch Foundation Is Trying to Reshape Foreign Policy. With Liberal Allies.” New York Times Magazine. September 10, 2019. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/10/magazine/charles-koch-foundation-education.html
17. Bender, Bryan. “George Soros and Charles Koch Take on the ‘Endless Wars’.” POLITICO. POLITICO, December 2, 2019. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/george-soros-and-charles-koch-take-on-the-endless-wars-074737.
18. “Charles G. Koch.” Charles Koch Institute. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/about-us/charles-g-koch/
19. “IRS Form 990”. Charles Koch Foundation. 2018. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/480918408/01_2020_prefixes_47-51%2F480918408_201812_990PF_2020012117047703
20. “Brian Hooks.” Linkedin Profile. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-hooks/