New America (organization)
American think tank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American liberal think tank founded in 1999.[3][4][5] It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California.[6] Anne-Marie Slaughter is the think tank's chief executive officer.[7]
- Ted Halstead
- Sherle Schwenninger
- Michael Lind
- Walter Russell Mead
 | |
| Formation | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Founders |
|
| Type | Think tank |
| 52-2096845 | |
| Headquarters | 740 15th Street NW, Ste 900 |
| Location | |
Chair | Sally R. Osberg[1] |
CEO | Anne-Marie Slaughter |
| Revenue | $37,233,867[2] (2024) |
| Expenses | $41,339,553[2] (2024) |
| Website | newamerica |
Formerly called | New America Foundation |
History
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New America was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind, and Walter Russell Mead as the New America Foundation[8] Bill Moyers, Norman Lear, and members of the Rockefeller family were early financial backers.[9] The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C.[10] In 2001, Halstead and Lind published The Radical Center, a book that argued the United States was ripe for a realignment around centrist political policies. The New York Times has claimed that the book is "in effect the foundation’s mission statement."[11] Over New America's first two years, its budget tripled from approximately $1 million to $3 million.[9]
Ted Halstead served as New America's founding president and CEO starting in 1999.[9] Steve Coll, a former managing editor at the Washington Post, took over for Halstead in 2007.[12] Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton professor and former State Department official, succeeded Coll as CEO in 2013.[13]
In the 2000s, New America's Len Nichols and Jacob Hacker advocated for healthcare reform built around a public option, a health insurance mandate, and an increase in taxes to provide subsidies for Americans who could not afford insurance.[14][15][16]
In September 2011, Maya MacGuineas, who had previously worked for the Brookings Institution as well as on Wall Street, formed Fix the Debt, a campaign for tax reform and deficit reduction that included businesspeople and politicians such as Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson, and Mark Warner. MacGuineas ran the campaign out of New America's offices.[17]
The foundation's Economic Growth Program, directed by New America co-founders Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind, aimed to take a policy look at America and the world's economic problems. In 2011, the program commissioned a paper "The Way Forward: Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness".[18]
On June 27, 2017, Barry C. Lynn, the director of the anti-monopoly Open Markets program at New America, issued a statement, criticizing Google, one of the organization's main sponsors. On August 30, 2017, it became known that Lynn was fired, and the Open Markets program was closed.[19][20] According to The New York Times, New America did it to please Google.[21][22] In response to the decision to fire Lynn and his team, 25 former and current employees of the think tank signed a letter expressing concern about the extent to which sponsors are influencing New America's work.[23] Google reportedly made New America take this action because the researchers, including prominent young competition law scholar Lina Khan,[24] had lauded the EU's antitrust ruling against Google.[25] New America's president Anne-Marie Slaughter denied the allegations of improper influence by Google.[21]
In 2021, Paul Butler, formerly COO of the consulting firm Sparks & Honey, joined New America as its president and chief transformation officer.[26]
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Political stance
In 2002, Newsweek's Howard Fineman called New America a "hive of state-of-the-art policy entrepreneurship".[27] New America has been characterized as "liberal" by the Pacific Standard online magazine,[28] "left-leaning" by The Washington Post,[29] and "left-of-center" by the Capital Research Center organization.[30]
Open Technology Institute
The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation. OTI formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open-source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks.[31][32]
Commotion Wireless
Commotion Wireless was an open source "device-as-infrastructure" communication platform that promised to integrate users' existing cell phones, Wi-Fi-enabled computers, and other wireless-capable devices to create community- and metro-scale, peer-to-peer communications networks.[33] The project was described as the "Internet in a Suitcase" by The New York Times.[34]
After an initial flurry of attention, the project did not prove sustainable. The relevant code development profiles for the project have not been updated since 2016,[35] and the project's website has been offline since approximately September 2024.[36]
Red Hook Wi-Fi
Founded in 2011 through a collaboration with OTI and Commotion Wireless, Red Hook Wi-Fi is a mesh network which services residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn, in New York City. The Wi-Fi network reached prominence in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy shut down many internet and communication systems throughout the city, but Red Hook remained connected through its mesh network.[37][38]
Assets and funding
New America is registered as a non-profit under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.[39] Its financial information is publicly available through annual IRS Form 990 filings and independent audits.[40] For the financial year ending in 2023, the organization reported revenue of approximately $46.8 million and expenses of $40.8 million. Its total assets for the same period were recorded at $88.0 million, and a net asset position of $56,424,720.[40][41][2]
The organization maintains a funding disclosure policy and publishes a list of institutional donors on its website.[42] Top institutional donors in recent years have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, Google,[43] Alphabet, the MacArthur Foundation,[44] and the Rockefeller Foundation.[45][46][47]
Board of directors
New America’s board leadership has changed several times since the organization's founding. In November 2017, Lenny Mendonca was appointed chair of the board.[48] He was succeeded in September 2019 by Helene D. Gayle, who served as chair until 2023.[49] Following her tenure, Gayle has continued to serve as a member of the board.[50] In January 2024, the organization announced the addition of Don Katz and Patrick Radden Keefe as new board members.[51]
As of 2025, the chair of the board is Sally R. Osberg, with Monica C. Lozano and Todd Park serving as vice chairs.[52]
