The Dunn Foundation (formerly Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking) is a family foundation based in Delaware that makes grants to right-of-center organizations that advance libertarian principles of free enterprise, smaller government, deregulation, private property rights, and individual liberty. ¹ It also supports organizations that fight government overreach and corruption. ²

The name of the foundation was changed from Dunn’s Foundation for The Advancement of Right Thinking to The Dunn Foundation in 2016. ³ The Foundation was founded by investor William Dunn, a free-market advocate who sits on the boards of a number of libertarian organizations⁴; his wife Rebecca, also a free-market activist, is a trustee of the Dunn Foundation. ⁵

Overview

The Dunn Foundation (formerly known as Dunn’s Foundation for The Advancement of Right Thinking) was founded in the early 1990s in Florida by William A. Dunn to provide grants to organizations that promote classical liberal values of individual liberty, small government, and free enterprise. ⁶

Grants are focused in the United States yet some grantees work globally to disseminate the organization’s principles abroad. Research on economic policy and the dissemination of the findings in furtherance of the organization’s principles, legal challenges to onerous government policies, fighting against government corruption, and the education of the nation’s youth are key areas supported by Dunn Foundation grants.

The Dunn Foundation supports a number of free-market policy and advocacy organizations such as Students for Liberty, Political Economy Research Center, Institute for Justice, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Pacific Legal Foundation, Foundation for Government Accountability, Foundation for Equal Rights in Education, Cato Institute, and Atlas Economic Research Foundation. ⁷

Trustees

William A. “Bill” Dunn, co-founder and Trustee Emeritus, holds a Ph.D. in Physics and made his fortune by founding DUNN Capital Management in 1974. DUNN holds in excess of $1 billion in assets under its management. ⁸ Dunn has written that he was motivated to engage in free-market advocacy after reading works by the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. ⁹ He holds or has held board positions at Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, Property and Environment Research Center, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. ¹⁰

Trustee Rebecca Walter Dunn is a board member of Cato Institute, the James Madison Institute, and, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. With her husband Bill she established the Dunn Libertarian Leadership Project at Cato. She has been a community volunteer for over 40 years and has been in public policy for the past 20 years. ¹¹

Thomas E. Beach founded Beach Investment Counsel and serves as chairman of the Reason Foundation and on the board of Commonwealth Foundation, DonorsTrust, and Pennsylvania Lumberman’s Mutual Insurance Company. He has served as Chairman of the Property and Environment Research Center and as trustee of Eisenhower Fellowships, and, The Haverford School. ¹²

David E Dreyer, a trustee, is general counsel at DUNN Capital Management. ¹³

Funding

The Foundation is funded by William A. and Rebecca Dunn and the sale of the foundation’s own assets; the foundation holds $87, 955,839 in assets as of 2018. ¹⁴ Via the sale of assets that yielded $25,821,003¹⁵ it declared a loss of $21,994,003¹⁶ which resulted in a reduction of assets from $107,367,239 at the start of the year. ¹⁷ It distributed $4,501,000 in grants in 2018¹⁸ with operating and administrative expenses of $549,892 ¹⁹ and paid $353,785 in taxes on various financial transactions. ²⁰ It pays no salaries but did pay $182,856 for outside professional help for financial management and administrative support. ²¹

1. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Page 1
2. Rojc, Philip. “Rightward, Ho! Ten Top Funders Behind the Surging Libertarian Movement.” Inside Philanthropy. Inside Philanthropy, July 27, 2016. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2016/7/27/rightward-ho-ten-top-funders-behind-the-surging-libertarian.html.
3. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2015 and 2016 Page 1
4. Rojc, Philip. “Rightward, Ho! Ten Top Funders Behind the Surging Libertarian Movement.” Inside Philanthropy. Inside Philanthropy, July 27, 2016. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2016/7/27/rightward-ho-ten-top-funders-behind-the-surging-libertarian.html.
5. “Trustees.” Dunn Foundation. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.dunnfoundation.org/about.htm.
6. “Dunn’s Foundation for Advancement/Right Thinking: Grant Recipients.” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed September 23, 2019. https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/nonprof_contrib.php?id=650415977.
7. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Attachment 10
8. “About.” Dunn Capital. Accessed September 23, 2019. https://dunncapital.com/about/.
9. Dunn Foundation. Accessed September 23, 2019. http://dunnfoundation.org/about.htm.
10. “About.” Dunn Capital. Accessed September 23, 2019. https://dunncapital.com/about/.
11. “Rebecca Dunn Joins Cato Institute Board of Directors.” Cato Institute, October 10, 2018. https://www.cato.org/news-releases/2017/10/27/rebecca-dunn-joins-cato-institute-board-directors.
12. Dunn Foundation. Accessed September 23, 2019. http://dunnfoundation.org/trustees.htm.
13. “About.” Dunn Capital. Accessed September 23, 2019. https://dunncapital.com/about/.
14. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Line I
15. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part I Line 6b
16. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part I Line 6a
17. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part II Line 16
18. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part I Line 25.
19. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part I Line 24
20. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part I Line 18
21. The Dunn Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-PF) 2018 Part VIII Attachment 9