The Policy Circle

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The Policy Circle is a 501(c)(3) Illinois-based organization which aims to "brings together women in the same community to learn from fact-based research and strengthen their voices in public policy dialogue." The organization provides materials and discussion guidelines for "women in the same community to learn from fact-based research and strengthen their voices in public policy dialogue." The group claims to be "non-political" and "non-partisan" but admits to having a pro-free-market agenda.[1] The idea for The Policy Circle came as a successor to Sylvie Légère's "Rose Friedman Society," named for Rose and Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose.[2] Alongside Angela Braly and Kathryn Hubbard, Légère launched The Policy Circle in 2015. The organization claims to have 2,301 members from 30 different states as of June 2018. [3]

Meetings are supposed to abide by these "principles": The free-enterprise system works, Social issues are not discussed, "Fact-based dialogue," "Learn from each other," "Each of us are agents of change: We seek to increase the number and power of women who support these ideas," and "What is said in a circle stays in a circle: Circle discussions are “Off the Record.”[1]

The Policy Circle is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN) -- a web of state pressure groups that drive a right-wing agenda in statehouses nationwide.[4]

News and Controversies

2018 Circle Leadership

On September 6-7, The Policy Circle hosted its 2018 Circle Leadership Summit in Chicago. The speakers were:

  • Mick Mulvaney, at the time Mulvaney was Director of the Office of Management and Budget & Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
  • Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Chair of The Board of Governors of the American Red Cross | Founder and CEO of Pace Communications | U.S. Ambassador to Finland (2001-2003
  • Erin Wolf, Founding Board Member of Suite Track
  • Melanie Sturm, Founder & Principal of Engage To Win
  • Kim Borchers, Director of Executive Leadership Development, Foundation for Government Accountability
  • Antonio Ortiz, President of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
  • Mario Kratsch, Vice President of GACC Midwest
  • Krissy DeAlejandro Executive Director of tnAchieves
  • Allison Grealis, President of Women in Manufacturing
  • Mark Feinour, Executive Director of the Support Services group at Bank of America
  • Staci Sullivan, President of TD Ameritrade Clearing and Managing Director of Brokerage Operations
  • Jennifer DeJournett, Minnesota Executive Director of American Majority
  • Julianna Zobrist, Singer, Author, Speaker
  • Marie Whitney, Founder & Creative Director of Two Penny Blue

(click here for bio)

  • Lissa Druss, Senior Consultant, Serafin & Associates
  • John Pearman, Co-Founder and Principal, Delos Communications
  • Lacey Willard, Senior Director and Global Excellence Leader, CBRE
  • Heather Way Kitzes, Manager of Government & Community Relations, Chicago Cubs
  • Helen Lesser, Owner, Mat and Steel
  • Kimberly Grigsby, Chicago Community ToolBank
  • Jaye Maddon, Epic Boxing

Ties to the Republican Party

At the 2018 Circle Leadership Summit in September the keynote speaker is listed as Republican, President Donald Trump appointee Mick Mulvaney who as of December 2018, served as the acting White House Chief of Staff. Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, a Republican who served as U.S. ambassador to Finland, is the other speaker set to appear at the event.[5]

Angela Braly, at a time one of the highest paid female CEO's in the United States,[6] has donated 82 times to Republican causes and candidates[7] including $42,850 in 2016.

Kathryn Hubbard was appointed by President George W. Bush to the J. William Fulbright Board in 2006.[8] She has given 97 donations to Republican causes.[9] Hubbard's husband was the "Assistant to President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and executive director of the President’s Council on Competitiveness under the George H. W. Bush administration.

Sylvie Légère is part of the American Enterprise Institute National Council.[10] She is a member of the Ricketts family, "one of the Republican Party's biggest donors."[11] Her brother-in-law, Pete Ricketts, is the Republican Governor of Nebraska.

Advocacy around Janus v. AFSCME

Immediately following the ruling in favor of the Plaintiff in Janus vs AFSCME, The Policy Circle that they were going to host a "Conversation Call will be with Mark Janus" and Patrick Hughes of The Liberty Justice Center. "Participants in this Conversation Call will have a unique opportunity to hear directly from the plaintiff, discuss the implications of the Supreme Court decision and share in a piece of history." [12]

Ties to The State Policy Network

The Policy Circle is an "Associate" member of the State Policy Network. The Policy Circle organizes "policy briefs" into a "curriculum" for their "fact-based dialogue" from "aggregate research from established free-market think tanks who are part of the State Policy Network."[13]

The Policy Circle "collaborate[s] with the following free-market [SPN Memeber] think tanks to share statewide information, statistics and priorities with members:"[13]

Representatives from The Policy Circle attended the 2016 SPN conference and organized a 5k race there.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15]

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.'"[16]

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.[17]

Funding

The Policy Circle States that their "goal is to be self-sustaining through membership donations." The organizations "ask[s] members for an annual minimum contribution of $75." In 2015 The Policy Circle had less than 1,000 members[13] and $465,118 in revenue.[18]

Donors are not disclosed for The Policy Circle, but those who give $10,000 or more can have their "Logo/Name printed on The Policy Circle website"[19]

The logos of The State Policy Network, The Yankee Institute, Free to Choose Network, Illinois Policy Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute all appear on The Policy Circle website.

Core Financials

2016[20]

  • Total Revenue: $304,884
  • Total Expenses: $359,763
  • Net Assets: $124,653

2015[18]

  • Total Revenue: $465,118
  • Total Expenses: $285,586
  • Net Assets: $179,532

Personnel

Staff

  • Angela Braly, Secretary
  • Sylvie Légère, President
  • Kathryn Hubbard, Treasurer

Board of Trustees

  • Angela Braly, Secretary
  • Sylvie Légère, President
  • Kathryn Hubbard, Treasurer

Contact Information

The Policy Circle
1101 W. Ohio Street,
Suite 1350,
Indianapolis IN 46204
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepolicycircle
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepolicycircle

IRS Form 990 Filings

2016

2015

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Policy Circle Core Principles Organizational Website, Accessed June 2018
  2. ↑ The Policy Circle How It Started organizational website, accessed June 2018
  3. ↑ The Policy Circle home organizational website, June 2018
  4. ↑ State Policy Network, Directory, organizational website, accessed June 2018
  5. ↑ The Policy Circle agenda The Policy Circle, accessed June 2018
  6. ↑ Forbes Angela Braly Forbes, accessed June 2018
  7. ↑ Open Secrets Angela Braly Donor The Center for Responsive Politics, Accessed June 2018
  8. ↑ Depauw University [www.depauw.edu/news-media/la test-news/details/29186/ WITH $5 MILLION GIFT FROM AL & KATHY (’74) HUBBARD, DEPAUW TO CREATE NATIONAL MODEL FOR ADVISING AND CAREER PREPARATION IN THE LIBERAL ARTS] Depauw University, Nov 12, 2012
  9. ↑ Open Secrets [https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=Kathryn+Hubbard&sort=A&type=donors Kathryn Hubbard] The Center for Responsive Politics, Accessed June 2018
  10. ↑ Concordia Sylvie Legere Concordia organization, accessed June 2018
  11. ↑ Jaime Fuller [1] The Washington Post, April 4, 2014
  12. ↑ The Policy Circle Join a Policy Circle Conversation Call with Mark Janus, [the plaintiff in the historic Supreme Court case] Blog post, June 27, 2018
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 The Policy Circle 2016 Annual Report promotional document, accessed June 2018
  14. ↑ David Armiak, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/11/13/revenue-state-policy-network-state-affiliates-tops-120-million/ Revenue for State Policy Network and State Affiliates Tops $120 Million], ExposedbyCMD, November 13, 2019.
  15. ↑ Rebekah Wilce, 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.
  16. ↑ Jane Mayer, Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?, The New Yorker, November 15, 2013.
  17. ↑ Ed Pilkington and Suzanne Goldenberg, State conservative groups plan US-wide assault on education, health and tax, The Guardian, December 5, 2013.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 The Policy Circle 2015 IRS Form 990, Foundation Center Accessed June 2018.
  19. ↑ The Policy Circle Invest Organizational website, accessed June 2018
  20. ↑ The Policy Circle, 2016 IRS Form 990 Foundation Center, Accessed June 2018.
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