Foundation for American Innovation

It is a partner organization of the State Policy Network, a coalition of right-leaning state-level policy organizations. ²

Introduction

The Foundation for American Innovation, formerly the Lincoln Network, was founded and led in 2015 ³ by Garret Johnson. ⁴ Johnson was a foreign policy staff member to former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) from 2009-2011. ⁵ Following this role, Johnson founded SendHub, an “out-of-the-box” SMS messaging platform for businesses and non-profits. ⁵

Work Areas

The foundation has three major work categories: policy, labs, and fellowships: ¹

Policy

The Foundation for American Innovation focuses on four policy areas: technology and innovation, national security, governance, and education. ⁶

In 2024, as part of the technology policy mission of the foundation, the organization submitted comments to the Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services urging the committee to further fund the Federal Communications Commission’s  (FCC) “Supply Chain Reimbursement Program.” ⁷ This is a taxpayer funded program that allows businesses with 10 million or fewer customers to replace Chinese manufactured technology products identified as national security threats, such as  Huawei and ZTE, with other products free of charge. ⁷ Congress allocated $1.9 billion to this effort, which the FCC has determined to be insufficient. ⁷ The foundation, in step with recommendations from the FCC, has urged the committee to appropriate an additional $3.08 billion in funding for the program. ⁷

In a policy article on anti-trust law, the foundation praised the Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general for filing a complaint alleging that the live event company, Live Nation, and its ticketing arm Ticket Master, have monopolized the live concert market. ⁸ However, the policy article stopped short of recommending that Live Nation be broken up into smaller companies and suggested that other less drastic remedies be pursued. ⁸

The Foundation for American Innovation has been associated with elements of the emerging “abundance” movement, a cross-partisan initiative that promotes regulatory reform, streamlined governance, and increased economic development through reduced bureaucratic barriers. Some of the movements proponents claim that the structure of labor unions inhibit economic development. ⁹

Labs

The Foundation for American Innovation’s labs division seeks to produce software applications that provide solutions to policy problems. Currently, the foundation has three products listed on its website: Schoolahoop, Project Nickel, and BIPBOUNTY. ¹⁰

Schoolahoop is a software application that provides parents with centralized access to information about accessible K-12 schools, including private and public charter schools; resources on how to find educational assistance and scholarships; and a centralized means of sending e-mails to schools. ¹¹

Fellowships

The Foundation for American Innovation’s fellowship program, referred to as Innovation Fellowships, is designed for early and mid-career individuals who seek to develop their careers as “market-oriented policy entrepreneurs.” ¹²

Finances

In 2022, the Foundation for American Innovation reported $3,643,953 in contributions, ¹³ $3,932,822 in total revenue, ¹⁴ $4,347,192 in expenditures, ¹⁵ and held $1,851,302 in net assets. ¹⁶

The Lincoln Network is funded by donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. The organization identifies “major supporters” as including the Miles Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust. ¹

Leadership

Zach Graves is the executive director of the Foundation for American Innovation. ¹⁷ Prior to leading the foundation, Graves was head of policy at the organization, ¹⁷ and prior to that he was the director of the R Street Institute‘s technology and innovation policy program. ¹⁷ Graves received a bachelor of arts in philosophy from the University of California-Davis and a master’s degree in aesthetics and politics from the California Institute of the Arts. ¹⁷

Garret Johnson, the co-founder of Foundation for American Innovation, is the organization’s chairman. ⁴

Grace Meyer is chief operating officer at the Foundation for American Innovation. Meyer previously worked at the Cato Institute on their development team. ¹⁸

James Wallner is the vice president for polciy at FAI. Wallner previously served as senior fellow at the R Street Institute and the Group Vice President for Research at the Heritage Foundation. ¹⁹

Max Bodach is the executive vice president at FAI. ²⁰

Sophia Brown-Heidenreich is the director of policy programs at FAI. Brown-Heidenreich previously worked at FP21. Earlier, she interned at the Atlantic Council and the Hudson Institute. ²¹