SUPPORT FOR BROOKINGS
SUPPORT FOR BROOKINGS
Resources for Independent
Research
The work of Brookings scholars is made possible by the generous support of a wide range of donors—individuals, corporations, foundations, governments, and other organizations—who share the Institution’s commitment to fact-based research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national, and global level.
Whether they are supporting specific research projects or making unrestricted—or “core needs”—contributions to the Institution, they recognize that the value and impact of our research is firmly rooted in our scholars’ independence. Stakeholders in government, the private sector, civil society, the media, and the public know that Brookings is never seeking partisan advantage or advancing any agenda beyond the common good. Brookings is grateful for their support and engagement.
Brookings Council and Robert S. Brookings
Society Provide Opportunities for Engagement
The Brookings Council comprises individual and corporate donors who make gifts of unrestricted funds toward Brookings’s mission. These contributions provide essential resources that advance Brookings research and help ensure that our scholars have the communication platforms, information technology, and other tools to achieve impact on policy. The Council’s gifts allow Brookings to invest in a robust infrastructure, maintain sound Institutional oversight, and advance new research priorities.
The Robert S. Brookings Society provides emerging business and community leaders with avenues to engage with independent policy research. The Society brings together like-minded individuals for in-depth discussions on pressing policy issues that help them build knowledge and develop valuable relationships with their peers. In addition to providing great exposure to the work of Brookings experts, the Society nurtures the next generation of philanthropists. The important work Brookings does to strengthen governance relies on a culture of giving and civic involvement to succeed, and the Institution is proud to foster a spirit of generosity that will benefit the nation and the world for years to come.
The backbone of the annual Council and Society program is a series of scholar briefings that connect these supporters with research and analysis on pressing issues through presentations, panel discussions, roundtables, and other formats that encourage conversation and exchange of ideas and perspectives.
This year, monthly virtual events included conversations on the pandemic, criminal justice reform, Supreme Court nominations, the Middle East, the middle class, the national debt, and more. Featured participants included policymakers, journalists, and Brookings experts. The Brookings Council and Society are also invited to participate in select Board of Trustees and International Advisory Council programs, providing additional opportunities to engage with Brookings scholarship.
With pandemic-driven protocols shifting these interactions entirely online since March 2020, the Council and Society gained access to a wider array of opportunities to engage, without the constraints of geography or the commitment of travel. Brookings looks forward to reopening our doors to visitors and convening events across the country as soon as health conditions allow.
“I admire Brookings for its increasingly audacious mission and contributions toward making the world a better place. Having long outgrown its role as a mere ‘think tank,’ Brookings is a leading voice whose dedication to independence and quality make it uniquely credible and capable of transcending the hyper-partisan landscape.”
— Heath Gray, Brookings Society
Council and Society Summit Returns to Assess the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration
The Council and Society calendar was highlighted by the annual Summit, which, after a pause in spring 2020 as the pandemic was spreading, returned in a virtual format. Organized around an evaluation of President Biden’s first 100 days in office, the Summit was hosted by Brookings President John R. Allen.
Vice President and Director of Governance Studies Darrell West and Senior Fellow and Director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative Camille Busette began the proceedings with an interactive assessment of the administration that invited participants to provide their own grades. The Summit featured panels of leading Brookings experts discussing economic growth and dynamism and climate and resilience. The Summit concluded with breakout sessions that provided space for the Council and Society to connect and reflect on the day’s conversations.
Board of Trustees Provides Leadership and Support
The Board of Trustees provides critical leadership for Brookings through fiduciary oversight and ensuring the Institution’s integrity, financial health, and scholarly independence. The Brookings Board is deeply engaged with our scholars’ research through opportunities to participate in substantive policy conversations as panelists and moderators. Trustees chair and are members of each of the five Program Leadership Councils that support the research programs and help advance their impact.
Brookings Trustees are generous donors to Brookings, contributing a major share of the Institution’s core needs funding on an annual basis. The sustained financial support of the Board has been instrumental to the Institution’s continued strong fiscal position throughout the pandemic, when the demand for Brookings’s research, analysis, and policy prescriptions have never been greater. Trustees also make important investments in key initiatives and Presidential Research Priorities, giving scholars critical flexible funds to engage in long-term efforts on the most pressing policy issues. Brookings is grateful for the support and leadership of the Board, which make what we do possible.
“I’m honored to invest in the future of Brookings as its scholarly work serves global leaders grappling with the creation and sustainment of a desirable quality of life for all of humanity.”
– Art Collins, Brookings Trustee
and Vice Chair of the Board
“As a Brookings Trustee, I am proud to be part of an organization that rapidly responded to the challenges of a polarized nation and a global pandemic by providing evidence-based policy solutions to improve the domestic and international landscapes.”
– Leonard Schaeffer, Brookings Trustee and
Vice Chair of the Board
“The Brookings Metro program has the unique ability to identify a policy opportunity, interrogate it at a local level among a wide variety of constituencies. I can think of no other group in the world of urban issues as trusted by so many stake holders across a variety of geographies, sectors, and levels of government.”
– Cheryl Cohen Effron, Brookings Trustee and Treasurer
“In a world seeking truth and leadership, the depth and quality of Brookings’s global expertise and solutions-oriented ideas have never been more relevant or necessary.”
– Tracy Wolstencroft, Brookings Trustee and
Secretary of the Board
Transformative Gift from Trustee Phil Knight Establishes the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology and the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy
Trustee Phil Knight made a major gift to the Foreign Policy program to endow the new Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy and to provide five years of support for the Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology.
The inaugural holder of the Knight Chair will be Senior Fellow and Director of Research in Foreign Policy Michael O’Hanlon. The Center will be renamed the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology, in honor of the Brookings’s former president and in recognition of Strobe Talbott’s notable contributions to Brookings and to American foreign policy over a long career in journalism, public service, and academia. The resources provided by this gift will enable Brookings to continue to achieve real impact on critical enduring and emerging national security issues.
Phil Knight
Brookings Trustee
Phil Knight
Brookings Trustee
Trustee Phil Knight made a major gift to the Foreign Policy program to endow the new Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy and to provide five years of support for the Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology.
The inaugural holder of the Knight Chair will be Senior Fellow and Director of Research in Foreign Policy Michael O’Hanlon. The Center will be renamed the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology, in honor of the Brookings’s former president and in recognition of Strobe Talbott’s notable contributions to Brookings and to American foreign policy over a long career in journalism, public service, and academia. The resources provided by this gift will enable Brookings to continue to achieve real impact on critical enduring and emerging national security issues.
This generous gift builds on previous support that Phil Knight has given to Brookings, including endowing the Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies, which is held by Senior Fellow Mireya Solís. He has also provided critical resources for Brookings’s work on climate issues and supported Strobe Talbott’s scholarship in writing Our Founders’ Warning, which was published in 2020.
Brookings Welcomes Eleven New Trustees
The Brookings Institution elected eleven new members to its Board of Trustees in the 2021 fiscal year. These new Trustees join a distinguished group of community leaders from the public and private sector. The Board of Trustees meets three times annually and protects the Institution’s reputation, safeguards its independent scholarship, and provides fiduciary oversight. Brookings warmly welcomes the newest members to the Board of Trustees.
Jeffrey L. Bewkes
Former Chairman and CEO
Time Warner Inc.
David Bozeman
VP for Amazon Transportation Services
Amazon
Cheryl Crazy Bull
President and CEO
American Indian College Fund
Kevin Mandia
CEO
FireEye
Beth E. Mooney
Retired Chairman and CEO
KeyCorp
Oscar Munoz
Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Retired
United Airlines
Ginni Rometty
Former Chairman, President & CEO
IBM
Timothy F. Ryan
U.S. Chair and Senior Partner
PwC
James C. Smith
Chairman
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Kevin Sneader
Co-President, Asian Pacific Ex-Japan
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Douglas M. Steenland
Retired CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.
In Memoriam
Louis W. Cabot
Louis Cabot served on the Brookings Board of Trustees for 59 years including eight years as chair. He was a strong advocate for Brookings and remained engaged with the Institution’s work as an Honorary and later Lifetime Trustee. During his time as chair of the Board, his family established the first endowed chair at Brookings, the Cabot Family Chair, creating an enduring legacy of support for outstanding scholarship. Louis served as chairman of Cabot-Wellington LLC and as a trustee of the Virginia W. Cabot Foundation and the Cabot Family Trust. In addition to serving on numerous corporate boards over his long career, he also was a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a trustee of Northeastern University, Conservation International, and the Boston Museum of Science. He was an honorary life member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served on the Harvard Board of Overseers. He was a fellow and former chairman of the American Academy of Arts and Science, director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Business Council. He also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Anthony Downs
Anthony Downs was one of the nation’s leading experts on real estate finance, transportation, and infrastructure policy. As a Brookings scholar, his research focused on “smart growth,” traffic congestion, and metropolitan policy. His book, An Economic Theory of Democracy, which was published in 1957, before he had even turned 27, led to him being short-listed for a Nobel Prize. To this day, his book is considered one of the most impactful contributions of the past century to the topics of political economy, democratic political systems, and the theories of public choice and rational ignorance. For many years, Tony served as a true champion of Brookings Metro from its founding onwards, helping guide them towards the impressive success they’ve achieved today.
Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian served on the Brookings Board of Trustees from 1994–1997. He was a towering figure in philanthropy, academia, and civic leadership who immigrated to the United States as a young man and went on to rise through the ranks to leadership positions across civil society. As president, Vartan led rescue of the New York Public Library in the 1980s, a lasting legacy treasured by millions of New Yorkers and visitors alike. He served as the 12th president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York after previously serving as president of Brown University. Over his remarkable career, Vartan received numerous honorary degrees and prestigious awards, including the National Humanities Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Vernon Jordan
Vernon Jordan was first elected to the Brookings Board in 1986 and served as an Honorary and then Lifetime Trustee since 1996. He was a towering civil rights icon and true American leader who, after graduating from Howard University Law School, successfully challenged the University of Georgia over racial discrimination in its admissions policies. He served as a field director for the NAACP, a director of the Southern Regional Council for the Voter Education Project, executive director of the United Negro College Fund, and as president of the National Urban League. He also served as a counselor to numerous presidents and other powerful figures in Washington. Vernon also had a successful career in business, serving as a partner of Akin Gump and then later of Lazard, and as member of the board of directors of some of the largest companies in the world. He was the author of a memoir, Vernon Can Read!, and a collection of his public speeches, Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out. PBS also produced a documentary of his remarkable life, Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain, which premiered in December 2020.
Arne Sorenson
Arne Sorenson served as a Brookings Trustee since 2015 and as Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee since 2018. As a Board leader, Arne was deeply engaged with the management and scholarship of Brookings. At the time of his passing, Arne was president and CEO of Marriott International, the first outside the Marriott family to serve as chief executive. Arne led the company to tremendous growth and success and provided steady leadership during the pandemic’s challenges to the hospitality industry. He was a leader on many global issues, and led the company’s efforts on diversity, equity, and inclusion, environmental sustainability, and human trafficking awareness and prevention. In honor of his leadership, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), the American Hotel & Lodging Foundation, and the BHN Group established the Arne Sorenson Social Impact Leadership Award in 2021. In addition to serving on the Brookings Board, Arne was a member of the board of directors of Microsoft and Walmart.
David Swensen
David Swensen served on the Brookings Board from 2004–2011, including as chair of the Investment Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee. He was a valued Trustee who steered Brookings’s endowment through the turbulence of the 2008 financial crisis. David was best known as the chief investment officer of Yale, where his management and stewardship of the University’s endowment established him as a legend of institutional investing. In addition to growing the endowment dramatically through what came to be known as the “Yale Model,” David mentored a generation of investment managers who lead investment offices at other colleges and universities. He was the author of two books on investing, Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment and Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment.
James D. Wolfensohn
James Wolfensohn served on the Brookings Board of Trustees from 1983–2011. He was a visionary philanthropist who provided major support to Brookings for fresh, action-oriented thinking on effective solutions to the challenges of global development. In honor of his generosity, Brookings established the Wolfensohn Center for Development to conduct research on how to lift people out of poverty and create a better future for young people. Jim served two terms as president of the World Bank, where he brought attention to the problem of corruption and championed the world’s poor. Prior to leading the World Bank, he was a senior executive at Solomon Brothers and played a major role in rescuing Chrysler from the verge of bankruptcy. In addition to being a Brookings Trustee, he served as chairman of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.