Heterodox Academy

Advocacy Group

Background

Heterodox Academy (HxA) was founded in 2015 by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, law professor Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, and sociologist Chris C. Martin. HxA says it has over 8,400 members at more than 2,000 institutions, with 82 formal campus chapters. Its stated mission is “to build a culture of open inquiry in higher education.” Higher ed faculty, employees, and graduate students can become members by affirming: “I support open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in research and education.”

In a September 2015 blog post describing HxA’s origins, Haidt asserted that the academy had become an institution that is “almost entirely on the left”; he called this “a very big problem” and noted that it was “amplified by the rising political polarization of the United States.” He said he co-founded HxA to press universities to “increase viewpoint diversity.”

Advocacy

Advocacy for Civil Discourse and Viewpoint Diversity in Higher Education

In April 2024, Heterodox Academy announced a $5 million gift from the Mike and Sofia Segal Foundation (see “Notable funders,” below). In recognition of this commitment, HxA renamed its New York City research center the Mike and Sofia Segal Center for Academic Pluralism. HxA describes the Segal Center as its “ideas laboratory” to promote “open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.” According to HxA’s website, the center has conducted research on “institutional neutrality, DEI in faculty hiring, civics centers, and faculty political diversity.” John Tomasi, HxA’s president, framed the Segal’s gift as a way to confront “the threats of censorship, groupthink, and polarization” on college campuses.

Advocacy Against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs

In recent years, Heterodox Academy has published frequent critiques of DEI-related efforts in education. For example, in July 2020, they published an essay by Irshad Manji—president and CEO of the heavily Koch-subsidized Moral Courage College—calling for “viewpoint diversity” in place of concepts like “white fragility.” Other essays have focused on the concepts of implicit bias. Still others have focused on culturally-responsive pedagogy and critical race theory. In December 2023, HxA published an essay on this theme by Kevin Wallsten, who is currently listed as a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his work focuses on higher ed reform and the City Journal College Rankings. Wallsten’s essay, “Is DEI Causing the ‘Crisis of Free Speech’ on Campus?,” combined FIRE data with a measure of university DEI staffing that built on research by The Heritage Foundation—leading to the claim that “larger DEI bureaucracies are correlated with more illiberal student attitudes toward speech.” (Notably, Wallsten himself cautioned that “the magnitude of DEI’s negative effects on campus expression are not large enough to validate the policy prescriptions endorsed by DEI’s harshest critics.”)

Advocacy for Institutional Neutrality

In February 2024, HxA joined FIRE and the Academic Freedom Alliance in urging college trustees to adopt neutrality policies. A July follow-up statement said the campaign was responding in part to campus protests, encampments, and institutional statements after October 7, 2023. HxA has described neutrality as a way to protect debate and diversity of opinion and it has built a national database tracking adoptions. A February 2026 statement by the group argued that neutrality creates conditions for “constructive disagreement.”

While several institutions on the right have lobbied extensively for institutional neutrality, such policies are strongly opposed by the AAUP and many scholars. An October 2025 research paper by Curtis Brewer and Michelle D. Young found that institutional neutrality had been deployed to normalize institutional silence, marginalize dissent, and constrain forms of political expression. Similarly, a spring 2026 Inside Higher Ed investigation found that college administrators have increasingly used institutional neutrality policies to justify censoring students’ political speech.

Notable People

Jonathan Haidt

Co-founder of Heterodox Academy and Constructive Dialogue Institute

Haidt is well known as the co-author of the controversial 2018 book The Coddling of the American Mind (with FIRE President Greg Lukianoff). In a December 2023 blog post about pro-Palestine activism, Haidt described college campuses as “rife with antisemitism” and chastised university administrators for being too “slow, weak, or entirely absent” in their response to protesters.

Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz

Co-founder of Heterodox Academy

Rosenkranz is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal organization to which Trump “outsourced the selection of his judicial appointments” to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a June 2017 symposium, Rosenkranz cited the protests of conservative speakers as evidence that “[s]peech is under threat on American campuses as never before,” and that “[c]ensorship in various forms is on the rise.” He characterized the cause as a lack of “intellectual diversity,” which he pegs to Republican party affiliation among faculty: “The free-speech crisis on campus is caused, at least in part, by a more insidious campus pathology: the almost complete lack of intellectual diversity on elite university faculties. At Yale, for example, the number of registered Republicans in the economics department is zero.”

John Tomasi

inaugural president of Heterodox Academy

Before leading Heterodox in 2021, Tomasi received over $1 million from the Koch network donors for his Political Theory Project at Brown University. In March 2026, Tomasi published an extended defense of viewpoint diversity on HxA’s website. In that piece, Tomasi credited David Horowitz with first drawing attention to higher ed’s need for more “viewpoint diversity” and “intellectual pluralism.” Horowitz, who died in 2025, was a conservative activist who SPLC has described as “a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black movements” since the late 1980s.

Notable Funders

Mike and Sofia Segal Foundation

$5 million to found the Segal Center for Academic Pluralism (2024)

Established by billionaires Mikhail (“Mike”) and Sofia Segal. The Segal Foundation has made significant grants to groups such as Aleph Institute (which has a formal partnership with Israel Defense Forces), as well as American Israel Education Foundation (an affiliate of AIPAC). Segal’s philanthropic advisor and media contact, Misha Galperin, co-authored a November 2024 op-ed arguing that higher ed is one “front” in a larger “war against antisemitism.” In the piece, Galperin and his co-author called for “something like a campaign to promote legislation on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism” (a definition that has been criticized by human rights groups and scholars for the risk that its Israel-related examples can be used to suppress criticism of Israel); they also recommended “educating corporate leaders, using research on current DEI that indicates that such policies hurt corporate culture and profits, and that there is a positive impact when companies reverse policies that are based on these neo-Marxist, racist and antisemitic underpinnings.” For reference, see the Segal Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022.

John Templeton Foundation

~$2 million (2020-2022)

Established by billionaire investor John Templeton. The foundation was led from 2015 to 2025 by his granddaughter, Heather Templeton Dill. It is now headed by the former CEO of Christianity Today, which describes itself as a “globally minded evangelical magazine.” Templeton makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing advocacy organizations such as State Policy Network and Mercatus Center, and Atlas Network (all three of which are described by Greenpeace as “Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Groups”). The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Templeton’s giving.

The Thomas W. Smith Foundation

$800,000 (2021-2024)

Founded by Thomas W. Smith, a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute with documented ties to the Koch Network. The Smith Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups, including American Enterprise Institute, Atlas Network, and Manhattan Institute. It also supports the climate change denial organization CO2 Coalition. James Piereson, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is listed as a compensated “Trustee/Director” on the Smith Foundation’s 2025 tax filing. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Smith’s giving.

Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

~$700,000 (2024-2025)

AVDF has made significant grants to Hillel International (an explicitly anti-BDS organization) and Tablet magazine (a self-described “Jewish, Zionist publication” whose editor-in-chief has called on Jewish communal groups to replace leaders who do not explicitly support Israel). Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on AVDF’s giving.

Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation

$530,000 (2022-2024)

Co-founded by Beth and Ravenel Curry III, whom Greenpeace listed in a 2014 report entitled “The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy.” Ravenel is a trustee of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and also Manhattan Institute. The Curry Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups, including American Enterprise Institute, Atlas Network, and Manhattan Institute. The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on the Curry Foundation’s giving.

Edelman Family Foundation

$460,000 (2021-2022)

Founded and led by billionaire hedge fund founder Joseph Edelman and his wife, Susan H. Lebovitz-Edelman. The foundation makes significant grants to conservative and Zionist groups such as Tikvah Fund, Manhattan Institute, American Jewish Committee (which has been a prominent supporter of anti-BDS laws), and FAIR (an anti-CRT group which SPLC describes as “a key voice amplifying anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience”). In September 2024, Joseph Edelman publicly resigned from his position as a trustee on the Brown University governing board in protest of the university's decision to hold a vote on divesting its endowment from companies linked to Israel. Edelman argued that considering a divestment vote was “morally reprehensible” and a concession to movements seeking the “destruction of the state of Israel.” For reference, see the Edelman Family Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.

See also: Jack Miller Center.

The Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation

$400,000 (2020-2024)

Founded by the billionaire hedge fund founder Daniel Loeb. The foundation makes significant grants to pro-Israel and Zionist advocacy groups such as American Israel Education Foundation (an affiliate of AIPAC), Birthright Israel, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (which collects donations for IDF soldiers), Israel on Campus Coalition (which the Center for Constitutional Rights describes as an organization that “coordinates anti-Palestinian advocacy groups”), among others. The Loeb foundation also funds conservative groups such as Manhattan Institute and Hudson Institute. Daniel Loeb participated in a private WhatsApp group whose communications were obtained by The Washington Post; the Post reported that members discussed how to influence New York City's and Columbia University's response to the spring 2024 encampment and that Loeb was part of an April 26, 2024 Zoom call with Mayor Eric Adams. The following day, Loeb wrote in the group, “I'll be grateful when the perpetrators are dragged off campus.” For reference, see the Loeb Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Asness Family Foundation

$350,000 (2022-2023)

Established by billionaire hedge fund co-founder Clifford (“Cliff”) Asness. Asness is a trustee of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and has documented ties to the Koch Network. The Asness Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups, including American Enterprise Institute, Institute for Humane Studies, and Manhattan Institute. Clifford Asness has made multiple public comments criticizing the Palestine solidarity movement and progressive campus activists. For example, he wrote an article in the July/August 2024 issue of Commentary in which he referred to “the ‘free Palestine’ mob” and linked the pro-Palestine campus protests to “hatred toward Jews.” Separately, Asness described the September 2023 Palestine Writes festival—a literature and cultural event—as “antisemitic Burning Man.” In a December 2023 Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “Liz Magill Is Out at Penn. It’s a Start,” he described withholding donations from Penn for not taking a hard enough stance against “hard-core student activists” who are “talking about wiping Israel off the map.” In that same op-ed, he notes that he has “long supported [FIRE] and Heterodox Academy” in the interest of “fostering open debate on campus.” For reference, see the Asness Family Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022.

See also: American Enterprise Institute.

Achelis & Bodman Foundation

$275,000 (2021-2025)

Makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Manhattan Institute. The foundation also supports climate change denial organizations such as CO2 Coalition. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Achelis & Bodman’s giving.

The Snider Foundation

~$220,000 (2020-2024)

Established by the late billionaire Ed Snider. The foundation makes significant grants to right-wing and pro-Israel advocacy groups such as the David Horowitz Freedom Center (described by SPLC as a sponsor of “anti-Muslim fear mongers”) and the Lawfare Project (described by the National Lawyers Guild as a “right-wing anti-Palestinian group”; not to be confused with Lawfare, the nonprofit online publication focused on national security issues). Current and former Snider Foundation board members, including Craig Snider and Tina Snider, have documented ties to the Koch Network. Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Snider’s giving.

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation/Bradley Impact Fund

$75,000 (2023)

According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch, the Bradley Impact Fund is a donor-advised fund “aligned with” the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation that makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing organizations. The fund is a major donor to conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom, as well as climate change denial groups like the Heartland Institute. Current and former Bradley Foundation board members, including Victor Davis Hanson and Art Pope, have documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Bradley’s giving.

Triad Foundation

$50,000 (2022)

The Triad Foundation has made significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups including the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, and America First Policy Institute (a think tank founded by former Trump officials), as well as climate change denial groups like the Heartland Institute. UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Triad’s giving.

Bellevue Foundation

$40,000 (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020)

The Bellevue Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups such as American Enterprise Institute, University of Austin (which reporting by The Nation and an investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy have tied to right-wing networks), and PragerU (which SPLC describes as a “far-right propaganda” group). For reference, see Bellevue’s tax filings for 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

See also: Stanford University.