Civitas Institute

The Civitas Institute (formerly the John William Pope Civitas Institute) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit right-wing pressure group based in North Carolina and launched in 2005 to "facilitate the implementation of conservative policy solutions." It calls itself a "think tank." It gets most of its funding from North Carolina businessman and politician Art Pope (John William Pope's son). A 2010 Facing South comparison of the tax records filed by the Civitas Institute and the John Williams Pope Foundation -- which Art Pope chairs -- reveals that Pope's backing has constituted more than 99 percent of all the grants, donations and gifts that Civitas has received between 2005 and 2009. Civitas Action is its 501(c)(4) sister organization, in which Pope is also a founding member. According to its website, Civitas' vision is "of a North Carolina whose citizens enjoy liberty and prosperity derived from limited government, personal responsibility and civic engagement. The Civitas Institute is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN).

News and Controversies

Voter Suppression

Alex Kotch and the ExposedByCMD Editors discuss Civitas and Civitas Action’s recent efforts to impact voter suppression and the dissemination of news in their article, "Bradley Foundation Bankrolls Chairman Art Pope’s Extreme Agenda In North Carolina.” The Civitas “think tank” and its nonprofit sister agency, Civitas Action, have used funds from Art Pope’s Variety Stores, the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and the State Policy Network to influence state elections and voter ID laws.

Civitas has focused their legislative reform efforts on voter fraud. For example, in 2013, Civitas supported an elections omnibus bill passed by Republican state legislators that advocated for, “strict voter ID, a shortened early voting period and the elimination of same-day registration and high school pre-registration.” In 2016, the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the law, and in May 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to the lower court’s ruling. Also in 2016, Civitas filed two separate lawsuits challenging same-day voter registration in North Carolina.

Campaigning for Climate Skeptics

In October 2010, Civitas Action spent $5,750 on mailers targeting North Carolina House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight, Democrats who have been supportive of efforts to address global warming. Hackney led the state's climate change commission for a time before appointing in his place Rep. Pricey Harrison (D), one of the legislature's strongest environmental advocates. Basnight has talked about his concern that global warming and associated sea rise could inundate the region and supports a move to clean energy sources. Frances De Luca, president of the Civitas Institute and the former state director of the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity, has said more mailers are planned.

Running against 15-term Hackney is Cathy Wright, a nursing instructor who's also worked as a lobbyist for medical groups. Her campaign manager did not respond to Facing South's request for information about her position on climate change. But Wright does say she's a member of the Conservative Womens Forum, which promotes a book calling global warming a "scam" and is critical of clean energy solutions from cap-and trade legislation to wind power to the promotion of compact-fluorescent light bulbs. Additionally, her campaign website links directly to both the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Institute. Basnight's opponent is Hood Richardson, a retired minerals geologist and commissioner for Beaufort County, N.C. Richardson calls global warming a "problem that has since been debunked as based on faulty science." He also criticizes Basnight for helping create the state climate change commission, saying it will "severely harm businesses." He cites the John Locke Foundation for his assertions.

Civitas Action

Civitas Action, the Civitas Institute's 501(c)(4) sister group that ran attack ads against 2010 Democratic state legislators that supported renewable energy. Art Pope is a founding board member of Civitas Action. According to State Board of Elections records, 72 percent of the money Civitas Action raised for the ads comes from Variety Wholesalers, the retail company Pope owns. The rest came from Americans for Prosperity, where Pope was a director and a leading donor.

Ties to the Bradley Foundation

Through 2016, the Civitas Institute received $1,970,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Bradley detailed the most recent grants in internal documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Below are the descriptions prepared by CMD. The quoted text was written by Bradley staff.

The Bradley Foundation provided Civitas (shared with the John Locke Foundation with $1.5 million to create a communications infrastructure to disseminate the ideas of its right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups. This effort includes, “radio, online content aggregation, mobile applications, and an AP-style news service for local newspapers,” according to Bradley documents. For example, it’s website “Mapping the Left” has created an online database of activists and North Carolina liberals. According to its website, "The Mapping the Left (MTL) project combines data, research and news articles to show the magnitude of the radical Left’s infrastructure in North Carolina. For decades, the liberal/progressive movement has mostly been invisible to the general public. Hiding from the “liberal” label, the well-organized progressive movement has built a network of groups that work together to push an extreme, liberal/progressive agenda that the media has failed to report upon." MTL also served to "track the connections between progressive organizations in North Carolina."

2016: $50,000 to support the Center for Law and Freedom.

2015: $160,000 to support a litigation center and general operations. “Following the model of existing state based litigation centers and helped by the Goldwater Institute’s Bradley supported state litigation alliance, Civitas is creating an in house center to be led by an experienced attorney who will lead the execution of a comprehensive legal strategy to complement the work done by it and its allies in the state.”

2014: $160,000 to support general operations and a litigation center. “Civitas has been one of the biggest parts of one the most successful such infrastructures in the United States during the past decade and especially during the last year and a half.” Its president is the former director of AFP NC. In 2014 Civitas focused on “fiscal policy, education policy, holding government accountable and challenging the narratives of the Left.”

Bradley Files

In 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of SourceWatch, launched a series of articles on the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, exposing the inner-workings of one of America's largest right-wing foundations. 56,000 previously undisclosed documents laid bare the Bradley Foundation's highly politicized agenda. CMD detailed Bradley's efforts to map and measure right wing infrastructure nationwide, including by dismantling and defunding unions to impact state elections; bankrolling discredited spin doctor Richard Berman and his many front groups; and more. Find the series here at ExposedbyCMD.org.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

The Civitas Institute has ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both through SPN and directly. An August 2013 ALEC board document obtained by The Guardian lists the Civitas Institute as a former member of the Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which was shuttered in April 2012 after the death of Trayvon Martin, and lists it as intending "to change membership to Education," namely ALEC's Education Task Force.

See SPN Ties to ALEC for more.

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Ties to the State Policy Network

Civitas Institute is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN). It has also received funding from SPN. (See below.) SPN is a web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom. As of October 2019, SPN's membership totals 162. Today's SPN is the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party. SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that the revenue of the combined groups was some $80 million, but a 2019 analysis of SPN's main members IRS filings by the Center for Media and Democracy shows that the combined revenue is over $120 million. Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, the Center for Media and Democracy's in-depth investigation, "EXPOSED: The State Policy Network -- The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government," reveals that SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.

In response to CMD's report, SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told national and statehouse reporters that SPN affiliates are "fiercely independent." Later the same week, however, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer caught Sharp in a contradiction. In her article, "Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?," the Pulitzer-nominated reporter revealed that, in a recent meeting behind closed doors with the heads of SPN affiliates around the country, Sharp "compared the organization’s model to that of the giant global chain IKEA." She reportedly said that SPN "would provide 'the raw materials,' along with the 'services' needed to assemble the products. Rather than acting like passive customers who buy finished products, she wanted each state group to show the enterprise and creativity needed to assemble the parts in their home states. 'Pick what you need,' she said, 'and customize it for what works best for you.'" Not only that, but Sharp "also acknowledged privately to the members that the organization's often anonymous donors frequently shape the agenda. 'The grants are driven by donor intent,' she told the gathered think-tank heads. She added that, often, 'the donors have a very specific idea of what they want to happen.'"

A set of coordinated fundraising proposals obtained and released by The Guardian in early December 2013 confirm many of these SPN members' intent to change state laws and policies, referring to "advancing model legislation" and "candidate briefings." These activities "arguably cross the line into lobbying," The Guardian notes.

Funding

Civitas' near-total reliance on funding from Art Pope makes it a "private foundation" in the eyes of the IRS, a classification reserved for nonprofits that depend on a sole benefactor. Nationally, the majority of 501(c)(3) nonprofits are public charities; only six percent are private foundations. Pope used to also sit on the group's board of directors.

Due to Civitas Institute being a private foundation, it must disclose its contributors to the IRS. Here they are as listed in IRS filings.

2015

• John William Pope Foundation: $1,131,000
• Donors Capital Fund - $20,250
• RAI Services Company - $5,000
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - $550,000
• State Policy Network - $44,000
• Luddy Charitable Foundation - $100,000
• Roe Foundation - $20,000
• Americans for Prosperity - $10,000
• Wanderwoude Family Foundation - $10,000
• Time Warner Cable - $5,000
• Jarrett Bay Boatworks - $7,500
• Mr. and Mrs. Mark Cantin - $10,000
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina - $20,000
• James Anthony - $29,650
• Mr. and Mrs. Baker Mitchell - $5,000
• Theodore Hicks - $5,000
• Keystone Corporation - $10,000
• Nai Carolantic Realty - $5,000
• Duke Energy - $5,000
• Alexandra Henson - $12,000
• Jay Stobbs - $6,848

2014

• John William Pope Foundation: $1,080,000
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $160,000
• State Policy Network: $10,000
• JM Foundation: $40,000
• Robert L. Luddy: $100,000
• Roe Foundation: $20,000
• Time Warner Cable: $5,000
• Mr. and Mrs. Mark Cantin: $60,000
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina: $25,000
• Anthony and Co. DBA Colliers Int'l: $15,000
• Education Freedom Alliance: $15,000
• Garland Tucker: $12,488
• The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc: $20,000
• Drs Rosemary and David Stein: $7,500
• Americans for Prosperity Foundation: $6,500
• National Draft Ben Carson: $5,000
• C. Theodore Hicks: $5,000
• Coca Cola Bottling Co Consolidate: $5,000
• J. Patrick Gavaghan: $5,000
• Carolantic Reality: $5,000
• Mr. and Mrs. Howard Shultz: $5,000

Core Financials

Filing as a private foundation:

2015

• Total Revenue: $2,496,320
• Total Expenses: $2,189,784
• Net Assets: $742,163

2014

• Total Revenue: $1,906,327
• Total Expenses: $2,091,529
• Net Assets: $510,034

2013

• Total Revenue: $1,703,881
• Total Expenses: $1,537,092
• Net Assets: $599,759

2012

• Total Revenue: $1,861,191
• Total Expenses: $1,722,789
• Net Assets: $428,905

2011

• Total Revenue: $1,583,410
• Total Expenses: $1,489,622
• Net Assets: $290,503

2010:

• Total Revenue: $1,384,584
• Total Expenses: $1,599,000
• Net Assets: $196,715

2009:

• Total Revenue: $1,384,584
• Total Expenses: $1,599,000
• Net Assets: $255,763

2008:

• Total Revenue: $1,066,592
• Total Expenses: $1,551,161
• Net Assets: $457,628

Personnel

Staff

As of September 2018:

• Donald Bryson, President and CEO
• Brian Balfour, Executive Vice President
• Bob Luebke, Director of Policy
• Brooke Medina, Communications Director
• Ray Nothstine, Editor
• Carrie Leggins, Development and Operations Manager
• Leah Byers, Policy Analyst

Former Staffers

• Dr. Robert Luebke, Senior Policy Analyst
• Jim Tynen, Director of communications
• Francis X. De Luca, President (former director of the North Carolina branch of Americans for Prosperity)
• Susan Myrick, Elections Analyst
• Alexander Guin, Director of Development
• Bill Gilbert, Director of Technology and Outreach
• Cameron Harwick, Web Development and Media
• Angela Height, Policy Analyst
• Rhett Forman, Outreach and Development Assistant

Board of Directors

As of January 2016:

• Francis X. De Luca, President
• Brian Balfour, Treasurer
• Robert Luddy
• Jim Anthony
• Howard Schultz
• Garland Tucker III

Contact Information

Employer Identification Number (EIN): 20-2454741

Civitas Institute
805 Spring Forest Rd., Ste 100
Raleigh, NC 27609
Phone: 919-834-2099
Website: https://www.nccivitas.org
Email: info@nccivitas.org
Twitter: @NCCivitas
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CivitasInstitute

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Americans for Prosperity
• Art Pope
• Astroturf
• Grassroots
• John Locke Foundation
• Patients First
• State Policy Network:
  • SPN Portal
  • SPN Political Activity
  • SPN Funding
    • SPN 2011 Funding
    • SPN 2010 Funding
    • SPN 2009 Funding
  • SPN Agenda
  • SPN Founders, History, and Staff
  • SPN Members
  • SPN Ties to ALEC
  • Thomas A. Roe
  • Tracie Sharp
  • Byron S. Lamm
  • Roe Foundation
• American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
  • ALEC Non-Profits
• DonorsTrust
• Donors Capital Fund
• Koch Family Foundations
• Koch Industries
• Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity
• Heritage Foundation
• Think tanks
• Whitney Ball
• Adam Meyerson
• Bridgett Wagner

Related PRWatch Articles

• Brendan Fischer, Why Are the Franklin Center's "Wisconsin Reporter" and "Watchdog.org" Attacking the John Doe?, PRWatch.org, December 19, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, The State Policy Network's Cozy Relationship with Big Tobacco, PRWatch.org, December 16, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, Did ALEC Found SPN? 1991 Report Suggests So, Exposes SPN Agenda, PRWatch.org, December 12, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, Guardian Documents Expose State Policy Network Groups' Intent to Lobby, PRWatch.org, December 5, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, State Policy Network: The Stealth Network Dramatically Influencing State Law, PRWatch.org, December 5, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, Tracie Sharp: Bursar of Mystery Money and "IKEA Model" Materials to Stink Tanks, PRWatch.org, November 19, 2013.
• Center for Media and Democracy, Reports Expose Extreme Pressure Groups Masquerading as Think Tanks, press release, November 13, 2013.
• Rebekah Wilce, A Reporters’ Guide to the "State Policy Network": the Right-Wing Think Tanks Spinning Disinformation and Pushing the ALEC Agenda in the States, PRWatch.org, April 4, 2013.
• Sara Jerving, ALEC and Heartland Aim to Crush Renewable Energy Standards in the States, PRWatch.org, November 27, 2012.
• Connor Gibson, Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: "Donors Trust" and "Donors Capital Fund", PRWatch.org, October 29, 2012.
• Brendan Fischer, Koch-Funded Mackinac Center Brings Wisconsin Act 10 Provisions to ALEC, PRWatch.org, May 2, 2012.
• Sara Jerving, Franklin Center: Right-Wing Funds State News Source, PRWatch.org, October 31, 2011.

External Resources

• StinkTanks.org, "SPN in Your State: Art Pope Attempts to Hijack North Carolina's Statehouse with the John Locke Foundation & the Civitas Institute."
• Matea Gold, In N.C., conservative donor Art Pope sits at heart of government he helped transform, Washington Post, July 19, 2014.
• Saeed Shabazz, "Activists striking back against conservative legislative agenda in state of North Carolina," The Final Call, December 26, 2013.
• Wall Street Journal, The Spoils of the Republican State Conquest, December 9, 2016, archived by CMD here.
• DeSmog Blog, Stink Tanks: Historical Records Reveal State Policy Network Was Created by ALEC, December 9, 2013.
• The Guardian, State conservative groups plan US-wide assault on education, health and tax, December 5, 2013.
• Portland Press Herald, "Washington County residents have mixed reactions to plan to eliminate taxes," December 5, 2013.
• The Texas Observer, "The Money Behind the Fight to Undermine Medicaid," December 5, 2013.
• Media Matters, North Carolina Newspapers Largely Ignore Conservative Funding Of Sham Think Tanks, December 3, 2013.
• Shepherd Express, Masters of Manipulation: Right-wing Billionaires, Corporations and the Bradley Foundation Pay for Junk Studies that Prop up Their Agenda, November 27, 2013.
• "Moyers & Company," How a Shadowy Network of Corporate Front Groups Distorts the Marketplace of Ideas, November 19, 2013.
• MSNBC "Rachel Maddow Show," November 18, 2013.
• Free Speech TV "Ring of Fire," Facebook, Microsoft, AT&T and Others Supporting Right Wing Propaganda Machine, November 18, 2013.
• Topeka Capital-Journal, Trabert dismisses report tying KPI to Koch agenda, November 16, 2013.
• The New Yorker (Jane Mayer), Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?, November 15, 2013.
• Salon, Ted Cruz and Koch brothers embroiled in shadowy Tea Party scheme, November 15, 2013.
• St. Louis Business Journal, Beyond Sinquefield: Who else is funding the Show-Me Institute?, November 15, 2013.
• The Guardian, Facebook and Microsoft help fund rightwing lobby network, report finds, November 14, 2013.
• Huffington Post, Meet The Little-Known Network Pushing Ideas For Kochs, ALEC, November 14, 2013.
• CBS St. Louis, Show-Me Institute’s Ties Questioned in New Report, November 14, 2013.
• Talking Points Memo, Florida Conservative Group Helping Muck Up Obamacare In Alaska, November 14, 2013.
• Mint Press News, Reports Reveal SPN’s Secret Corporate Agenda Through Use ‘Expert’ Testimony, November 14, 2013.
• Media Matters, Shadowy Right-Wing Group Generates Media Coverage For Conservative Policy From Coast To Coast, November 14, 2013.
• The Institute for Southern Studies, Are conservative think tanks breaking lobbying laws?, November 14, 2013.
• Nonprofit Quarterly, Corporate Money in Network of Right-Wing State Policy Think Tanks, November 14, 2013.
• The Progressive, Right-Wing Think Tanks Push Privatization in the States, November 13, 2013.
• Politico, Report: Think tanks tied to Kochs, November 13, 2013.
• Lawrence Journal-World, Reports released by progressive groups are critical of Kansas Policy Institute, November 13, 2013.
• Maine Insights, Report: Maine Heritage Policy Center’s funding connection to Koch Brothers, November 13, 2013.
• The Florida Current, Liberal groups bemoan lobbying by conservative think tanks, November 13, 2013.
• The Oregonian, Cascade Policy Institute benefits from secretive donor group but says it operates independently, November 13, 2013.
• Center for Media and Democracy, EXPOSED: The State Policy Network, The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Arizona Working Families and CMD, A Reporter’s Guide to the Goldwater Institute: What Citizens, Policymakers, and Reporters Should Know, organizational report, updated November 13, 2013.
• Progress Florida and CMD, Lawmaking Under the Influence of Very Special Interests: Understand the role of Florida ‘think tanks’ in driving a Koch-fueled, ALEC-allied corporate agenda, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Maine's Majority Education Fund, Fooling Maine: How national conservative groups infiltrated Maine politics by founding and funding the Maine Heritage Policy Center, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Progress Michigan, Who's Running Michigan? The Far-Right Influence of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Who's in Charge: How Nationalized Corporate-Run Think Tanks Influence Minnesota Politics, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Progress Missouri, What Missourians Need to Know About the Show-Me Institute, organizational report, updated November 13, 2013.
• Granite State Progress, Bad Bartlett: The Josiah Bartlett Center and NH Watchdog Answer the Call of the Koch Brothers, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• ProgressOhio, Smoke Screen: The Buckeye Institute, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Keystone Progress, Think tanks or corporate lobbyist propaganda mills?, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Progress Texas, TPPF + ALEC, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• One Wisconsin Now, S is for Shill: Inside the Bradley Foundation's Attack on Public Education, organizational report, November 13, 2013.
• Muncie Voice, Pence and Right-Wing Are Taking Over Public Education, November 13, 2013.
• The Spokesman-Review, Shawn Vestal: Idaho Freedom Foundation pushes limits of word ‘charity’, November 2, 2013.
• AZ Central, When this ‘watchdog’ pitches, taxpayers strike out, October 12, 2013.
• IndyStar, Daniels says speech to partisan group was a mistake, October 10, 2013.
• Muncie Voice, Indiana Policy Review: Not an Independent News Source, October 2, 2013.
• The Spokesman-Review, Idaho Freedom Foundation's charitable status scrutinized, September 15, 2013.
• CounterSpin, Lee Fang on 'The Right Leans In', April 5, 2013.
• FireDogLake, State Policy Network, an umbrella coordinating ALEC, Heritage, Heartland and others, April 4, 2013.
• Thom Hartmann with Lee Fang on MSNBC, The conservative State Policy Network is sneaking into your state & will change America, March 29, 2013.
• Current TV "War Room", Lee Fang discussing the State Policy Network, March 28, 2013.
• The Nation, The Right Leans In, March 26, 2013.
• Democracy Now, Donors Trust: Little-Known Group Helps Wealthy Backers Fund Right-Wing Agenda in Secret, February 19, 2013.
• Paul Abowd, Center for Public Integrity, Donors use charity to push free-market policies in states, Consider the Source, February 14, 2013.
• John R. Mashey, Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax 2, DeSmog Blog report, updated October 23, 2012, p. 74.
• Urban Milwaukee, Stealth Conservatives, October 11, 2012.
• Rome News-Tribune, ANALYSIS: Georgia leaders depend on the same well for ideas, October 2012.
• Andy Kroll, The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions, Mother Jones, April 25, 2011.
• Guidestar, State Policy Network, IRS filings and other organizational information about SPN.
• Center for Policy Alternatives, ALEC and the Extreme Right-Wing Agenda, organizational brochure about ALEC and SPN.
• John J. Miller, Fifty Flowers Bloom: Conservative think tanks — mini–Heritage Foundations — at the state level, National Review, November 19, 2007.
• Bridge Project, State Policy Network, online resource listing grants to SPN and SPN's connections to other groups.
• People for the American Way, State Policy Network, RightWingWatch.org, organizational resource.
• Greenpeace, Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: State Policy Network (SPN), organizational resource.