Searle Freedom Trust

The Searle Freedom Trust is a 501(c)(3) grant-making foundation, located in the U.S., associated with campaigns to: cut pay to state government employees  |  oppose public sector collective bargaining  |  reduce public sector services in education and healthcare  |  promote school vouchers  |  oppose efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions  |  reduce or eliminate income and sales taxes  |  block grant reform to Medicare.

Anti-affirmative action.  The Searle Freedom Trust granted $1.75 million between 2005-2015 to Donors Trust to fund the Project on Fair Representation, a Washington, D.C.-based legal defense fund that recruited plaintiffs in lawsuits to challenge affirmative action in college admissions policies.

Climate change denial.  A 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article listed the Searle Freedom Trust as among the largest contributors to the climate change denial movement from 2003 to 2010, and Inside Philanthropy reported on grants to "compile research questioning the scientific consensus on climate change."

The Searle Freedom Trust is a 501(c)(3) grant-making foundation located in the United States. The Searle Freedom Trust was established by business executive Daniel C. Searle in 1998. As of 2017, the trust had an endowment of $141 million.

Grantees

Grantees of the Searle Freedom Trust have included conservative and libertarian public policy organizations. Daniel Searle was one of the largest donors to the American Enterprise Institute, and the largest donor to the American Enterprise Institute in his last two decades of life.

The Searle Freedom Trust has also donated to the following organizations.

• Cato Institute,
• Heritage Foundation,
• Manhattan Institute for Policy Research,
• Pacific Research Institute,
• Reason Foundation,
• State Policy Network,
• Federalist Society,
• Philanthropy Roundtable,
• Institute for Humane Studies,
• Collegiate Network,
• Political Theory Project at Brown University, and
• Donors Trust (the Searle Freedom Trust funds the Dean Searle Fellowship in Economics at Donors Trust).

The Searle Freedom Trust has donated to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), giving $735,000 to the organization between 2000 and 2013.

According to a 2013 analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, the Searle Freedom Trust was among the most frequent sponsors of the attendance of federal judges to judicial educational seminars.

In 2013, the member organizations in the State Policy Network sought funding from the Searle Freedom Trust. In December 2013, The Guardian, in collaboration with The Texas Observer and the Portland Press Herald, obtained, published and analyzed 40 of the grant proposals. According to The Guardian, the proposals documented a coordinated strategy across 34 states, "a blueprint for the conservative agenda in 2014."

The reports described the grant proposals in six states as proposing campaigns to:

• cut pay to state government employees;
• oppose public sector collective bargaining;
• reduce public sector services in education and healthcare;
• promote school vouchers;
• oppose efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions;
• reduce or eliminate income and sales taxes; and
• study a proposed block grant reform to Medicare.

The Searle Freedom Trust granted, via Donors Trust, $597,500 between 2005 and 2010, $650,000 in 2013, and $500,000 in 2015, to fund the Project on Fair Representation, a Washington, D.C.-based legal defense fund that recruited plaintiffs in lawsuits to challenge affirmative action in college admissions policies, including the United States Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas, and at Harvard University.

A 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article listed the Searle Freedom Trust as among the largest contributors to the climate change denial movement from 2003 to 2010, and Inside Philanthropy reported on grants to "compile research questioning the scientific consensus on climate change."

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