Manhattan Institute

Advocacy Group

Background

The Manhattan Institute is an influential conservative think tank that the Center for Media and Democracy describes as a right-wing organization. According to DeSmog, Manhattan has “promoted climate science contrarianism while defending policies supporting fossil fuel development.” Founded in 1978 by free-market organizer Antony Fisher (founder of the Atlas Network) and future Reagan CIA director William Casey. In 2019, Manhattan Institute’s magazine City Journal hired the conservative, anti-DEI activist Christopher Rufo as contributing editor. Rufo was named a Senior Fellow of the Institute in 2021. Rufo pioneered the attacks and speech restrictions around Critical Race Theory.

Advocacy

Advocacy for Civil Discourse and Viewpoint Diversity in Higher Education

In October 2025, Manhattan Institute announced the City Journal College Rankings. Manhattan’s ranking methodology includes—among other categories—criteria tied to “Faculty Ideological Pluralism,” which awards points for faculty affiliated with Heterodox Academy, indicating their commitment to “viewpoint diversity.”

Similarly, the City Journal rankings include measures tied to “Heterodox Infrastructure”—awarding points for campuses that host centers endorsed by the conservative groups ACTA or Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education (FEHE); according to Manhattan Institute, these endorsements reflect a center’s emphasis on “civil discourse,” and “viewpoint diversity.” The rankings also award points for schools that adopt institutional neutrality and reject BDS. By contrast, they deduct points for schools that have “Environmental Commitments” (which, according to Manhattan, “violate principles of institutional neutrality”), “Pronoun Selection Options,” and “Administrative Weakness in Response to Protest Encampments.”

Advocacy for Institutional Neutrality

By January 2025, the Manhattan Institute was explicitly urging university trustees to adopt institutional neutrality as part of a larger effort to restore campus “viewpoint diversity.” A trustee guide argued that public universities should not support political activism and that faculty, when acting on behalf of the institution, should not encourage students to attend protests. In July 2025, the Institute released the “Manhattan Statement on Higher Education”—a set of policy recommendations addressed to President Trump. The statement promotes institutional neutrality alongside “abolishing DEI bureaucracies” and the “highest standard of civil discourse”; it also calls for “swift and significant penalties” for disruptive protests, encampments, and building occupations. On July 15, 2025, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a billionaire Trump appointee, publicly congratulated Christopher Rufo and the Manhattan Institute for producing what she called a “compelling roadmap to restore integrity and rigor to the American academy!” The Trump administration released its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” less than three months later. (Refer to the U.S. Department of Education entry for additional details.)

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.

Advocacy Against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement

As noted above, the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal College Rankings—launched in October 2025—incorporate several pro-Israel metrics, including schools where there have been recent BDS resolutions. This builds on a history of opposition to BDS by staff and writers associated with Manhattan Institute. For example, in February 2021, City Journal reprinted an article from Tablet Magazine (a self-described “Jewish, Zionist publication”) that described BDS as “anti-semitic.” Similarly, Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam published an April 2024 article entitled “Embrace Pluralism over Racialism,” in which he linked BDS to “anti-semitism.” In May 2024, City Journal published an article, co-authored by senior fellow James Piereson, opposing university divestment campaigns targeting Israel. In August 2024, the Institute joined an amicus brief supporting CUNY professors seeking to dissociate from a union that had adopted a BDS resolution.

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

In January 2023, Manhattan Institute released model state legislation entitled “Abolish DEI Bureaucracies and Restore Colorblind Equality in Public Universities.” The proposal calls for abolishing DEI offices, ending mandatory diversity training, curtailing required diversity statements and other “political coercion.” The authors—Christopher Rufo, Ilya Shapiro, and Matt Beienburg—frame those policies as a defense of institutional neutrality and “intellectual diversity.” In July 2025, the “Manhattan Statement on Higher Education” (see above) incorporated the same anti-DEI agenda into a platform that also invokes the “highest standard of civil discourse.”

Advocacy for Restrictions on Protester Face-Coverings

In June 2024, the Manhattan Institute published “Model Legislation to Modernize Anti-KKK Masking Laws for Intimidating Protesters”—model legislation for anti-masking laws in response to the use of face covering by pro-Palestine campus protesters. The brief compares masked protesters to the Ku Klux Klan and describes recent campus demonstrations as “pro-Hamas ‘protests.’” The Institute’s model law would prohibit mask-wearing intended to conceal identity (with limited exceptions, including for health reasons), and it frames such restrictions as critical tools for “maintaining public safety and accountability.”

By contrast, representatives of the ACLU and its New York chapter have argued against bans on face covering, noting that peaceful protesters may wear masks as protection from surveillance and doxxing. Similar concerns about restrictions on protesters’ use of masks have been raised by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

Notable People

Christopher F. Rufo

Senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Manhattan describes Rufo as “a leader in the fight against critical race theory” whose “activism inspired a presidential order and legislation in 15 states.” He also directs the Manhattan’s Logos Fellowship, an accelerator for “conservative journalists, activists, and opinion leaders” whose participants bring a “culture war” project intended to “shape the discourse and change public policy.” Rufo has blamed pro-Palestine campus protestors for anti-Semitic attacks, and characterized them as an “enemy”: “On one side stand Palestine’s domestic proxies: the decolonization theorists, keffiyeh-clad campus leftists, and, increasingly, the radicalized individuals now out for blood. These elements are connected. The ideology is hatched at places like Harvard, where it trickles down to student activists who occupy campus buildings and make lithographs of Hamas paragliders. It then gets refracted on social media, flipping the switch within the minds of those predisposed to violence, giving them a rationale to lash out at Jews.”

Ilya Shapiro

Senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at Manhattan Institute

Shapiro previously served as a vice president at the Cato Institute and he has ties to other conservative groups like The Federalist Society and staunchly pro-Israel groups like Jewish Policy Center and Tikvah Fund. At Manhattan Institute he co-authored the 2023 model legislation to abolish campus DEI and the 2024 model anti-masking law aimed at protesters.

Paul E. Singer

Chair emeritus of Manhattan Institute

Singer is a billionaire hedge fund founder with documented ties to the Koch Network. He served as board chair of Manhattan Institute from 2008 to 2025 and currently serves as Chair Emeritus. In a May 2023 speech at the Institute, Singer denounced “the rancid stew of…wokeness that seeks to tear down all that we hold dear.” In a May 2024 speech, he called pro-Palestine campus protesters “mobsters” motivated by “anti-Jewish hate.” He contrasted the protesters with people who fight for “the virtues of merit and civil debate.” Singer’s foundations have awarded millions to Zionist groups such as Birthright Israel, Boundless Israel (an organization that describes itself as “unapologetically Zionist” and promotes anti-BDS material on its website), and American Israel Education Foundation (an affiliate of AIPAC). In addition, the Singer Family Charitable Foundation is a major funder of the campus dialogue organization, BridgeUSA. For reference, see the Singer Family Charitable Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022, along with the Paul E. Singer Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022.

See also: Princeton University.

Notable Funders

The Thomas W. Smith Foundation

$6.18 million (2020-2024)

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 PragerU (which SPLC describes as a “far-right propaganda” group). 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.

Sarah Scaife Foundation

$2.88 million (2020-2024)

Established by the late billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch, Scaife is “one of the largest foundations focused on supporting right-wing causes.” The foundation is a major donor to conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, as well as climate change denial groups like Global Warming Policy Foundation and the nativist/anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Scaife’s giving.

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation/Bradley Impact fund

$2.6 million (2020-2024)

The Bradley Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing organizations. The closely related Bradley Impact 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.

Achelis & Bodman Foundation

$1.75 million (2020-2025)

Makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, as well as climate change denial groups like Global Warming Policy Foundation. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Achelis & Bodman’s giving.

Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation

~$1.05 million (2020-2024)

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 Hudson 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.

John William Pope Foundation

$450,000 (2020-2024)

Chaired by Art Pope, whom Greenpeace describes as “a major funder of groups that deny climate change.” The foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing advocacy groups like the Heritage Foundation, Mercatus Center, and the Federalist Society. The Pope Foundation is included on IPS’s top ten funders of climate disinformation groups from 2020 to 2022. The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Pope’s giving.

Charles Koch Foundation/Stand Together Trust

$394,000 (2020)

Established by billionaire oil fortune heir, Charles Koch, the foundation has been a major funder of right-wing infrastructure for several decades. Koch invests millions into the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups, including climate change denial organizations such as CO2 Coalition. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Koch’s giving.

F. M. Kirby Foundation

$320,000 (2020-2023)

Kirby makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups such as American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society, along with the anti-union advocacy group National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Kirby’s giving.

Fred Maytag Foundation

$300,000 (2020-2023)

Maytag makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups such as the Hoover Institution and the Hudson Institute, along with the Center for Immigration Studies (which SPLC describes as an “anti-immigrant hate group” that has platformed “white nationalist and antisemitic writers”). Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Maytag’s giving.

Adolph Coors Foundation

$30,000 (2021)

Established by Adolph Coors, Jr., the son of the founder of the Coors Brewing Company. A 2015 Forbes report estimated the Coors family’s combined wealth at $4 billion. The Coors Foundation’s chairman, Peter H. Coors, is a trustee of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. The foundation makes significant grants to the State Policy Network, which the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch describes as “a web of right-wing ‘think tanks.’” The foundation also makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, as well as Turning Point USA. The Coors family is included on DeSmog’s list of “6 Billionaire Fortunes Bankrolling Project 2025.” See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Coors’ giving.

John Templeton Foundation

$25,000 (2020)

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.