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Non-profit

Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity

Website:

freopp.org%20
Location:

Austin, TX
Tax ID:

81-2699310
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2018):

Revenue: $388,644
Expenses: $716,369
Assets: $232,549
Formation:

2016
Type:

Non-profit
President:

Avik Roy
President's Salary:

$01

References

  1. The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2019, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a.

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The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) is a non-partisan, public policy think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity for those with incomes or wealth below the U.S. median. To achieve this, FREOPP advocates for equal opportunity through public policies that use the principles of individual liberty, free enterprise, technological innovation, and pluralism. 1

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a coalition of free-market state-level policy organizations. 2 While FREOPP is non-partisan, members of its staff and board have affiliations with both the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Activity

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity is a non-partisan, public policy think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity for those with incomes or wealth below the U.S. median. To achieve this, FREOPP advocates for equal opportunity through public policies that use the principles of individual liberty, free enterprise, technological innovation, and pluralism. 3

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity advocates for reforming healthcare by using the Medicare Advantage model to establish Medicare Advantage for All. Medicare Advantage for All (not to be mistaken for Medicare for All) would establish a market system that allows individuals to choose healthcare from a variety of private insurance plans. FREOPP believes its Medicare Advantage for All initiative would advance what it has identified as the three core principles of creating affordable healthcare: personalized insurance, fairness to taxpayers, and innovation and competition. 4

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity supports school choice. FREOPP points to academic research that suggests school choice contributes to positive long-term outcomes for students, whether students attend technical schools for career preparation or private schools for college preparation. This research also claims that school choice costs the government less per student than traditional public schools. 5

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity claims that college is too expensive and that free college could make it even more expensive. 6 Instead FREOPP claims that establishing free market competition among schools could eliminate cost inefficiencies and drive prices down. FREOPP believes that public policy should address the problem of unchecked tuition growth, which would include reforming the federal financial aid program, overhauling the current accreditation system, and increasing price transparency in order to create competition between schools. 7

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity claims that policies mandating renewable energy, restricting the use of natural gas, and subsidizing electric vehicles in order to decrease carbon emissions can negatively impact low- and middle-income Americans. FREOPP calls the price increase of electricity in certain places, along with restrictions on the use of natural gas, regressive taxation. 8 FREOPP also claims that nuclear power, not renewable energies like solar and wind, is a solution to reducing carbon emissions. FREOPP claims that the amount of energy produced by renewables in order to replace crude oil is unattainable due to cost, storage, scale, and land use. 9

Funding

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity is funded by donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. While FREOPP does not disclose its donors, tax filings show donations from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation ($7,500 in 2018) 10 and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula Marin, and Sonoma ($15,000 in 2018). 11

People

Avik Roy is the president and co-founder of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and the policy editor at Forbes. Roy is a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and formerly worked as a policy advisor to several Republican presidential candidates, including Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney. Roy is a senior advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center, serves on the advisory boards of the National Institute for Health Care Management and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream at the Milken Institute. 12 While Roy does not receive a salary from FREOPP, in 2019, Roy received $240,000 in reportable compensation from a related organization. 13

Ames Brown is a co-founder and the former chair of FREOPP. Brown formerly served as chair of the Yale Political Union’s Independent Party. 14

Kara Jones is the vice president of FREOPP. Jones is the former deputy director of research and operations at the American Health Policy Institute, a former policy advisor at the Galen Institute, and formerly served as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. 15

Scholars

Visiting fellow Jonathan Blanks is a contributing editor to the Clause 40 Foundation and a former research associate at the Cato Institute. 16

Visiting fellow Robert Bryce is a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. 17

Research fellow Preston Cooper fellow is a former research analyst at the American Enterprise Institute a former fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. 18

Gregg Girvan is a health care research fellow at FREOPP. Girvan formerly worked in health care policy roles at the Utah Office of Consumer Health Services, the Heritage Foundation, the Congressional Research Service, and the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. 19

Visiting fellow Jon Hartley is a research associate at the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation. Hartley is a former senior policy advisor to the U.S. Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. 20

Visiting fellow Dan Lips is the vice president for national security and government oversight at the Lincoln Network. Lips formerly worked as the policy director of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the vice president for policy at the Goldwater Institute, and a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. 21

While at Penn, visiting fellow Mark Dornauer interned at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and gained a fellowship — and, later, a full-time job — in the Obama administration, at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 22

Visiting fellow Jeffrey Flier is the former dean of Harvard Medical School. 23

Board of Advisors

Evan Baehr serves on the board of the Adam Smith Society at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. 24

Lanhee Chen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Chen formerly served as policy advisor to George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, as policy director and senior strategist to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, and senior advisor to Marco Rubio’s presidential bid. Chen formerly served on the Social Security Advisory Board. 25

Emily Ekins is the vice president and director of polling at the Cato Institute and the former polling director at the Reason Foundation. Ekins has also worked as a research assistant at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy and the American Enterprise Institute. 26

Daniel Garza is the executive director of the LIBRE Initiative and formerly worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the George W. Bush Administration. 27

Aaron Ginn is the co-founder and president of the Lincoln Network. Ginn is a former associate delegate representative for the California Republican Party. 28

Juleanna Glover is the formerly worked in the White House as the deputy assistant to the vice president and press secretary during the George W. Bush Administration. Glover has worked as a policy advisor for Steve Forbes, Rudy Giuliani, John Ashcroft, and John McCain and is the former legislative director of Project for the Republican Future. 29

Zachary Karabell is a visiting fellow and serves on the board of FREOPP. Karabell is the founder of the Progress Network. 30

Bob Kocher is a senior fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Healthcare Policy and a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Kocher is a former special assistant to the president for healthcare and economic policy during the Obama administration. 31

Kristina Ribali is the former COO of FREOPP, the former director of new media at FreedomWorks, and the former senior coalitions director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. 32

Scott Winship is a resident scholar and director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Winship is the former executive director of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, former research manager at Pew Charitable Trusts, and former senior policy advisor at Third Way. Winship has served as a fellow at FREOPP, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and the Brookings Institution. 33

References

  1. “Our Mission.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://freopp.org/our-mission-3b16e8e8c656.
  2. “The Network: Texas.” State Policy Network, 2021. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://spn.org/directory/#TX.
  3. “Our Mission.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://freopp.org/our-mission-3b16e8e8c656.
  4. Roy, Avik. “Medicare Advantage for All.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, April 21, 2019. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/affordable-health-care-for-every-generation-d92961a0bf8f.
  5. Lips, Dan. “School Choice Equals Better Outcomes.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, August 19, 2019. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/how-school-choice-and-career-and-technical-education-options-can-benefit-students-e460ea5c5b2d.
  6. “Education Postsecondary.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/college/home.
  7. Cooper, Preston. “Why College Is Too Expensive — And How Competition Can Fix It.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, March 5, 2021. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/why-college-is-too-expensive-and-how-competition-can-fix-it-cb2eb901521b.
  8. Bryce, Robert. “Energy Policy Should Unite, Not Divide, America.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, October 14, 2020. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/add-energy-policy-to-the-many-divides-that-are-splitting-america-54e234942625.
  9. Bryce, Robert. “Why Nuclear Power, Not Renewables, is the Path to Low-Carbon Energy: Part 1.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, November 22, 2020. Accessed June 7, 2021. https://freopp.org/why-nuclear-power-not-renewables-is-the-path-to-low-carbon-energy-part-1-c0b66d4b9570.
  10. Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2018, Schedule I, Part II.
  11. Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2018, Schedule I, Part II.
  12. “Avik Roy.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/avik-roy/.
  13. The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2019, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a.
  14. “New Think Tank to Focus on Free Market Solutions to Poverty, Inequality.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, September 13, 2016. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://freopp.org/new-think-tank-to-focus-on-free-market-solutions-to-poverty-inequality-b0a02ecb3311.
  15. “Kara Jones.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/karalynnejones/.
  16. “Jonathan Blanks.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanblanks/.
  17. “Robert Brynce.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bryce-3b5a5b4/.
  18. “Preston Cooper.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/preston-cooper-479331a4/.
  19. “The FREOPP Scholar: Gregg Girvan.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, March 26, 2020. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://freopp.org/the-freopp-brain-trust-gregg-girvan-a22fdd01b314.
  20. “Jon Hartley.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-hartley-18599414/.
  21. “Dan Lips.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-lips-48652570/.
  22. https://freopp.org/the-freopp-scholar-mark-dornauer-823412d79df2.
  23. “Jeffrey Flier.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-flier-94010a1a/.
  24. “Evan Baehr.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanbaehr/.
  25. “FREOPP Leadership: Lanhee Chen.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, September 12, 2016. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://freopp.org/the-freopp-brain-trust-lanhee-chen-5b1c39fbb8d3.
  26. “Emily (McClintock) Ekins, Ph.D.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyekins/.
  27. https://freopp.org/the-freopp-brain-trust-daniel-garza-6da48fa0825a.
  28. “Aaron Ginn.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aginn/.
  29. “Juleanna Glover.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/juleanna-glover-6b86555/.
  30. “The FREOPP Scholar: Zachary Karabell.” Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, July 15, 2020. Accessed June 4, 2021. https://freopp.org/the-freopp-brain-trust-zachary-karabell-461650eeb5e9.
  31. “Bob Kocher.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-kocher-2177232/.
  32. “Kristina Ribali.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-ribali-fic-69b7828a/.
  33. “Scott Winship.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/swinship/.
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: September 1, 2016

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2018 Dec Form 990 $388,644 $716,369 $232,549 $76,769 N $388,541 $0 $103 $331,375 PDF
    2017 Dec Form 990 $743,010 $382,325 $487,396 $3,891 N $742,914 $0 $96 $72,088 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity

    201 W 5TH ST STE 1100
    Austin, TX 78701-0060