Persuasion Institute

Civility Nonprofit

Background

The Persuasion Institute was founded by Yascha Mounk, author of the controversial 2023 book, The Identity Trap. The Institute’s online magazine, Persuasion, is often sharply critical of DEI and anti-racism efforts. Mounk frequently hosts leaders of other civility groups on Persuasion’s podcast, “The Good Fight”—examples include Eboo Patel, Jonathan Haidt, Irshad Manji, and Rajiv Vinnakota. Persuasion maintains a partnership with the Institute for Humane Studies, in an ongoing column called “Why Liberalism.” The Institute for Humane Studies has been chaired and funded by Charles Koch for decades.

Notable People

Yascha Mounk

Founder of Persuasion Institute

In a December 2023 Atlantic article, Mounk argued that university leaders were overly tolerant of “hateful” rhetoric by pro-Palestine campus activists who he claimed were “advocating genocide”; whereas, he claimed, those same leaders were “pushing out heterodox faculty members.” More specifically, he criticized university presidents for engaging in “selective enforcement of rules that effectively gives one form of hatred—namely pro-Hamas and anti-Jewish advocacy—the stamp of university approval while punishing students and faculty members for speech that certainly does not rise to the same standard of hatefulness.”

Thomas Chatterton Williams

Founding board member of Persuasion Institute

Williams is a fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. Williams is a prolific critic of what he views as leftist excess. Williams also co-drafted the July 2020 “Harper’s Letter,” which compared an “intolerance” on the left with the threat to democracy posed by President Trump. Williams also wrote Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse, a book that blames right-wing populism, including the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, on the “lawlessness and violence” of the racial justice movement. Williams has characterized the left as carrying out “excesses and abuses perpetrated under the banner of social justice,” including “cancel culture, the outbursts of violence during the so-called racial reckoning of 2020, and the violations of even basic fairness at the peak of the #MeToo movement.”

Notable Funders

John Templeton Foundation

~$260,000 (2025)

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.

Achelis & Bodman Foundation

$130,000 (2020-2024)

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.

Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

sponsored Persuasion’s “Universities, Liberalism and Democracy” 2024-25 series, comprising essays that often criticize DEI programs, “cancel culture,” and leftist campus activism

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.