Stanford University

Higher Education Institution

Hoover Institution’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions

The Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank affiliated with Stanford University, hosts an initiative called Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI). In March 2026, RAI announced a Civic Profile tool for individuals to use in exploring their civic identity. The project website describes it as “a civics Meyers-Briggs” and this blog post provides additional details about the tool.

Notable People

Brandice Canes-Wrone

Founding director of RAI

Canes-Wrone holds a formal advisory role with Princeton’s conservative James Madison Program.

Chester E. Finn Jr.

Volker Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, lead creator of Civic Profile

Finn is described here as the lead creator of RAI’s Civic Profile tool. Finn served in the Reagan administration and he has held senior or named positions at several conservative think tanks, including the Manhattan Institute, the Fordham Institute, and the Hudson Institute. He also co-edited a 2020 book subtitled The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow’s Schools.

Harlan Crow

Former member (as recently as April 2026) of the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers

Crow is a billionaire and major Republican donor. He is a trustee at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. In April 2023, Crow was found to have provided millions of dollars in undisclosed luxury trips and gifts to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas while Crow himself had business before the court.

See also: Princeton University; Stanford University.

Rebekah Mercer

Current member of the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers

Rebekah is a billionaire and Republican donor. She is a trustee at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Her father, Robert Mercer, is a Koch Network donor. The Mercer Family Foundation (where Rebekah serves as a director) has funded the Heartland Institute, a climate denial think tank. Rebekah has actively participated in events put on by Heartland.

Rupert Murdoch

Former member (as recently as April 2026) of the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers

Billionaire owner of numerous media outlets, including News Corp, owner of Fox News Corporation. His outlets have been accused of consistently “targeting and denigrating active supporters of the Palestinian cause.” Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has documented how Murdoch’s outlets have targeted pro-Palestine protestors and cheered on their repression.

Notable Funders

The Starr Foundation

$10 million (2023-2024)

The foundation’s longtime chair was billionaire insurance company executive Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg; it is now chaired by Greenberg’s son, Jeffrey W. Greenberg. Starr has awarded grants to a number of pro-Israel and conservative causes such as America-Israel Friendship League (which celebrates its opposition to divestment efforts on its organizational history page), the Manhattan Institute, and the Hudson Institute. Starr is also a longtime funder of NYPD’s International Liaison Program, which embeds NYPD officers with law enforcement in Israel and elsewhere to “gather information on international counterterrorism efforts and report in real-time to their counterparts back home.” For reference, see Starr’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021.

Stanford Civics Initiative / Alliance for Civics in the Academy

The Stanford Civics Initiative (SCI) is a campuswide civic learning effort that was founded in 2019, and it led to the creation of a related program, the Hoover Institution’s Alliance for Civics in the Academy (ACA), in spring 2024. Both SCI and ACA are led by Stanford professor Josiah Ober.

Notable People

Jenna Silber Storey

Member of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy Executive Committee

Storey is the Ravenel Curry Chair in Civic Thought at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. (Ravenel Curry III—the donor named in Storey’s title—is a trustee at the conservative Manhattan Institute who has documented ties to the Koch Network.) In addition to her roles at AEI and ACA, Storey is a nonresident senior fellow at the conservative Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She has also taught for the politically conservative and Zionist Tikvah Fund.

On August 3, 2026, Storey shared that she had played a role in the Trump administration’s letter to higher ed leaders, released that same day, under the title: “A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards.” The letter calls on schools to address seven areas, including “free speech and campus protest” and “intellectual pluralism.” It invokes the importance of a “thriving marketplace of ideas,” “open-minded campus discourse,” and protection against “unruly and violent protestors” who disrupt campus operations. According to Storey, she helped facilitate dialogue between the Trump administration and higher education leaders at the Association of American Universities (AAU), which then informed the substance of the letter. Separately, the AAUP and AFT called the letter “Compact 2.0” because it echoed many of the priorities advanced in Trump’s fall 2025 “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which was largely rejected by colleges and universities.

Sean Westwood

Director of the Polarization Research Lab at Dartmouth College

Westwood is the Starr Foundation National Fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution. He has contributed research to Hoover’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) initiative, including its inaugural conference in May 2023; in this June 2026 interview, he is described as doing work specifically for RAI. Westwood’s Polarization Research Lab is funded primarily by a multimillion-dollar grant from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation, a major funder of right-wing infrastructure for several decades. He is also co-chair of Dartmouth’s Heterodox Academy chapter.

Notable Funders

Sarah Scaife Foundation

~$330,000 (2021-2023)

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.

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

$320,000 (2020-2022)

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has made significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups such as the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Manhattan Institute. For reference, see Murdock’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

See also: Interfaith America; Stanford University.

Bellevue Foundation

$300,000 (2021)

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 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

See also: Heterodox Academy; Stanford University.

Zephyr Institute

$143,800 to Josiah Ober (2019, 2020, 2021)

Zephyr describes itself as “an independent academic center” with ties to Stanford. Between 2020 and 2024, the Institute received over $1 million from the conservative Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education (FEHE). The president of FEHE, Luis Tellez, is a founder of the National Organization for Marriage, a prominent opponent of same-sex marriage, and he also serves on the board of Zephyr. While FEHE is a grantmaking entity, it also receives funding from conservative and right-wing groups such as Bradley Impact Fund and Diana Davis Spencer Foundation; in January 2026, it was awarded a $10 million grant from Trump’s National Endowment for the Humanities. Zephyr describes itself as a “founding supporter” of the Stanford Civics Initiative (SCI). For reference, see Zephyr Institute’s tax filings for 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Markos & Eleni Kounalakis

Amount not identified; funding relationship documented here

Josiah Ober (director of the Stanford Civics Initiative and the Alliance for Civics in the Academy) holds an endowed chair funded by the Kounalakises. Eleni Kounalakis is California’s Lieutenant Governor. In that role, she sits on the governing boards of the University of California, California State University, and California community college systems. In December 2020, she told Jewish Insider that she saw “a strong antisemitic component of the BDS movement.” In May 2024, Kounalakis addressed more than 50 legislators convened by the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), a pro-Israel and anti-BDS lobbying organization. Discussing the pro-Palestinian campus protests, Kounalakis urged attendees to “fight back and educate our students [so they] understand the very importance…of the existence, celebration and empowerment of Israel.”

ePluribus Stanford

In November 2024, Stanford announced the launch of ePluribus Stanford, a campus-wide pluralism initiative. The initiative’s stated mission is to “Uplift the values and practices of academic freedom and free speech; curiosity and critical inquiry; open, inclusive, and constructive dialogue; and compassionate and effective civic engagement and citizenship.” In September 2025, ePluribus Stanford announced the addition of a speakers series called Stanford Builders Forum, funded by Daniel Lubetzky. According to this Stanford news article, the Builders Forum “bring[s] external speakers to campus who will share their stories about how they navigated high-conflict situations and disagreement.” The inaugural Builders Forum event took place in October 2025, featuring both Lubetzky and Stanford Provost Jenny Martinez.

Notable People

Jenny Martinez

Provost of Stanford

In March 2023, Martinez strongly condemned protesters who disrupted a talk at Stanford Law by Judge Kyle Duncan, a right-wing Trump appointee with a long record of opposing LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights. In May 2024, following a pro-Palestine encampment on Stanford’s White Plaza, Martinez issued a joint statement with President Saller, criticizing protesters for creating a space designed “not to invite discussion but to shut out those who disagree”; the statement framed the students’ activism in opposition to the university’s efforts “to advance discourse across disagreement.”

Notable Funders

Daniel Lubetzky

Amount not identified; funding relationship documented here

Billionaire KIND Snacks founder and co-founder of Builders Movement. In 2024, Lubetzky’s foundation (the Lubetzky Family Foundation) donated $60,000 to American Friends of LIBI (which supports the Israel Defense Forces). Lubetzky also 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 Lubetzky was part of an April 26, 2024 Zoom call with Mayor Eric Adams. After the call, Lubetzky circulated proposed actions that included contacting Columbia's president and trustees and resharing a link through which supporters could contribute to Adams's reelection campaign. Asked by the Post about the messages, Lubetzky emphasized the importance of building bridges between Black and Jewish communities. Lubetzky served on the board of the staunchly Zionist Anti-Defamation League from 2018 to 2024 and he delivered these remarks at a November 2023 ADL event:

There’s a lot of challenges on college campuses. The anti-colonial ideology is so rigid. It’s an us vs. them ideology. … The extremists that are calling “from the river to the sea”...they’re causing antisemitism [and] they’re also preventing this conflict from getting resolved.

See also: Viewpoints Project; Stanford University.

Partnerships

BridgeUSA

Stanford hosts a chapter of BridgeUSA. Refer to the "BridgeUSA" entry for details about the organization's leadership and funders.

Interfaith America

According to this announcement, Stanford’s School of Medicine is a recipient of Interfaith America’s 2026–27 Faith & Health Campus Grant. Refer to the "Interfaith America" entry for details about the organization's leadership and funders.

Campus Policy Context

In late April 2024, Stanford students approved an advisory “Statement on Divestment,” with 72.9% of participating undergraduate voters and 74.6% of participating graduate voters supporting divestment from companies identified by organizers as implicated in Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Around the same time, students established a pro-Palestinian encampment in White Plaza whose demands included divestment and boycott measures. On May 6, 2024, Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine submitted a formal petition asking the university to divest from defense companies supporting the Israel Defense Forces, disclose its investments, terminate certain donations, grants, and contracts, and add elected student positions to the university’s investment-responsibility committee.

May 7, 2024, while the White Plaza encampment remained in place, President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote that Stanford sought to promote “discourse across disagreement” and “constructive dialogue,” but that the encampment was designed “not to invite discussion but to shut out those who disagree.” On June 5, 2024, after protesters occupied the building housing the president’s and provost’s offices, law enforcement arrested 13 people and Stanford removed the White Plaza encampment; Saller and Martinez said the university would continue to welcome "the peaceful expression of diverse viewpoints."

On May 30, 2024, Stanford adopted a university speech policy that Heterodox Academy categorizes as “institutional neutrality.” Such policies are favored by groups like ACTA, The Heritage Foundation, Heterodox Academy, and Manhattan Institute, but 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.

In September 2024, Stanford updated and clarified its campus-use rules, including “the obligation to remove facial coverings for purposes of identification under circumstances covered by the Campus Disruptions Policy.” (Demonstrator face-covering restrictions have been promoted by conservative and right-wing groups such as ACTA, The Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, and the Trump administration, as well as Israel advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League; by contrast, representatives of the ACLU and its New York chapter have argued that peaceful protesters may wear masks as protection from surveillance and doxxing—and similar concerns about restrictions on protesters’ use of masks have been raised by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.)

On October 15, 2024, the Board of Trustees’ Special Committee on Investment Responsibility declined to take action on the May divestment petition, noting that the university should “seek to hear all viewpoints rather than to impose a university viewpoint.”

In April 2025, students and faculty criticized President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez for using Stanford’s institutional neutrality policy as an “excuse” for not co-signing a statement opposing federal interference in higher education. The next month, over 300 Stanford faculty members signed a letter that echoed this criticism of President Levin’s refusal to sign the statement. In November 2025, Stanford AAUP co-president Jessica Riskin argued that institutional neutrality had “become a pretext for institutional cowardice.”