Brookings Institution

Orientation: usually described as centrist or centre-left; Brookings calls itself nonpartisan. Funding: a large endowment plus foundations, corporations, wealthy individuals and some foreign governments, the last of which has drawn press scrutiny. Founded in 1916, it is the institution later think tanks measured themselves against; the Heritage Foundation was set up partly as a conservative counterweight to it. Known for the Hamilton Project, an economic policy programme launched in 2006 with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin among its founders, and for the Tax Policy Center it runs with the Urban Institute. A good mainstream baseline on economics, governance and foreign policy.