Inter-American Dialogue (IAD)

Finances

According to its 2023 tax return, Inter-American Dialogue reported $3,888,499 in revenue, $4,094,022 in expenses, and ended the year with $6,133,327 in net assets. ³

As of January 2025, IAD reported its largest donors (which gave over $250,000) as the Development Bank of Latin America, the Ford Foundation, the United Nations Office for Project Services, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The next tier of donors (which gave $100,000 through  $249,999) included the Open Society Foundations, the International Republican Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Bernard van Leer Foundation. ⁴

According to its 2022 tax return, the organization reported a revenue of $3,331,803, expenses of $4,143,357, and total assets of $10,554,014. ⁵

IAD has received contributions from the Inter-American Development Bank and several left-of-center grantmaking foundations, including the Henry Luce Foundation, Ford Foundation, Richard Blum Family Foundation, Due Process of Law Foundation, The Brillembourg Ochoa Family Foundation, and the Inter-American Foundation. IAD also accepted donations from several businesses including the BMW Group, Chevron, Google, ExxonMobil, Apple, BP, Facebook (Meta), Microsoft, Twitter, PepsiCo, Conoco Philips, Shell, and Oracle. IAD runs a “Corporate Program” for corporate donors on its website, allegedly offering preferential access to IAD events in exchange for a membership fee. ^{6 4 7}

According to the Think Tank Funding Tracker, a project of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, from 2019 to 2024, IAD received the tenth-most U.S. government funding ($356,000) of any U.S-based think tank within that period of time. ⁸ IAD’s U.S. government funders include USAID, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Open Source Enterprise (under the Central Intelligence Agency). IAD has received funding from foreign governments including Singapore and Denmark. ⁴

In 2017, IAD received $4,638,099 in contributions ⁹ and possessed $6,408,727 in assets after accounting for all liabilities. ⁹

Advocacy

Climate

Inter-American Dialogue has advocated for greater development of weather-dependent energy within the United States while phasing out traditional sources including oil and gas through a “just transition.” IAD has previously supported the climate policy goals set by the United Nations’ Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. ¹⁰

With funding from the World Bank, the IAD has hosted several meetings and conferences to plan strategies on increasing the funding towards environmental and weather-dependent energy usage in the Caribbean and Latin America. The organization also claimed that “decades of progress on poverty alleviation” were reversed by temporary fiscal programs created during the COVID-19 pandemic. ¹¹

Gender

Inter-American Dialogue (IAD) has claimed to support efforts in advancing “gender equity” within the finance, education, health care, and political-work fields while advocating polices meant to reduce violence against women. ¹²

President Donald Trump

Inter-American Dialogue (IAD) criticized President Donald Trump during his first Administration, specifically alleged policy regarding Latin America. In June 2017, the IAD released an article which criticized the Trump administration for allegedly failing to attend hearings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. ¹³ In 2018, the IAD released another article where then-President Trump was compared to the late former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez claiming a “disdain for democratic institutions and penchant for cults of personality and confrontational stances of ‘us vs. them.’” ¹⁴

A May 2020 article by the IAD criticized then-President Trump and his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It claimed his actions were “incoherent and contradictory,” and accused the administration of reacting too slowly to the pandemic. ¹⁵

Education

Inter-American Dialogue uses funding provided by the United States government and private contributions to increase the quality of learning and skills development across Latin America. ¹⁶

Inter-American Dialogue issues policy reports in English and Spanish that provide guidance to improve teacher education, school leadership, and information on which Latin American countries have successfully implemented minimum GPA requirements, aptitude tests, and interview schemes to qualify for employment in the education field. ¹⁷

Energy and Mining Policy

Inter-American Dialogue supports the development of fossil fuel and mineral resources in Latin America¹⁸ and has criticized Mexico for increasing government control over the country’s power sector, citing concerns relating to electricity prices and jobs in the energy industry. ¹⁹

Migration, Remittances, and Development

Inter-American Dialogue supports increased migration from Latin America to the United States and migration across Latin America. The organization focuses on increasing knowledge and accessibility to remittance services—financial services provided by banks and money transfer companies—through programs that track regulatory developments in the remittance industry and other data and insights into the status of the industry. ²⁰

Inter-American Dialogue accepts contributions from a variety of businesses that are active in the remittance industry, including Wells Fargo, MoneyGram International, Western Union, and Dollex Dollar Express. ²¹

Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program

The Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program provides analysis on the state of corruption, transparency, and standard of living across Latin America. The program has advocated that the United States move towards a “humanitarian truce” with Venezuelan de facto dictator Nicholas Maduro in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, Inter-American Dialogue advocates for the United States to lift sanctions on Venezuela’s regime and allow organizations such as the IMF and World Bank to loan money to Venezuela. Inter-American Dialogue has also floated direct support from the United States through the Inter-American Development Bank as an alternative solution. ²²

Leadership

Rebecca Bell Chaves is the president of Inter-American Dialogue (IAD). Prior to this, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the Obama administration. As of January 2025, Bell Chaves sits on the advisory council of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, as an advisory board member of Foreign Policy for America, and on the steering committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. She previously sat on the board of the Truman Center for National Policy. Earlier, Bell Chavez was a tenured professor of political science at the United States Naval Academy. ²³

Manuel Orozco has worked as the director of Inter-American Dialogue since November 2021. From August 2020 to November 2021, Orozco was a director at Creative Associates International, a think tank that supports migrants. From 2007 to 2020, Orozco served as a
member of the advisory committee on economic inclusion at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. From 2000 to 2020, Orozco worked in several positions with IAD, including as a director. ²⁴