The free market reveals the initiative inherent in all men and women and creates a prosperous society that maximizes the quality of life for all citizens. For their part, Lynde and Harry Bradley took full advantage of America’s economic freedom, building successful enterprises, hiring thousands of well-paid workers, and using their wealth to ensure that this opportunity is available to future generations. While this principle used to find almost universal support on the political right, in recent years even conservatives have begun calling for greater government control over various economic sectors, failing to recognize the full cost of succumbing to a control mindset.
In league with the Bradley Foundation, the Impact Fund opposes all efforts to undermine economic freedom, so through the Free Markets Fund, our donors support organizations and projects that educate the public and policymakers about the optimum conditions for economic growth and prosperity.
One of the economic freedom-focused organizations Impact Fund donors enthusiastically support is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators. With almost one-quarter of the country’s state legislators and stakeholders as members working together to advance limited government, free markets, and federalism, ALEC has been responsible for many of the biggest free market wins of recent years.
Unfortunately, there is much more to do. Accountable, efficient, and effective government that represents citizens’ best interests has become the exception rather than the rule. So, ALEC provides a forum for experts to discuss business and economic issues facing the states and for legislators to collaborate on implementing the policies that restore economic freedom at the state level.
The ALEC model policy library is home to dynamic and innovative ideas that reduce the cost of everyday life and ensure economic freedom. ALEC ideas and publications are the product of countless hours of research, debate, and discussion and serve as a toolkit for anyone who wants to increase the effectiveness and reduce the size, reach, and cost of government. State legislators who join ALEC gain the competitive advantage of shared knowledge and experience, as they are able to learn from one another about what policies have succeeded or failed in the states. Recent interstate migration confirms that Americans vote with their feet: ALEC’s leadership is helping market-friendly states to attract investment, workers, and opportunity.
Founded in 2011 by president and chief executive officer Tarren Bragdon, The Foundation for Government Accountability also equips policymakers with principled strategies to replace failed health and welfare programs nationwide. As an organization, FGA demands integrity, honesty, perseverance, and personal accountability. With its focus on healthcare policy research and recommendations the past several years, FGA has advanced reforms that move people off welfare.
Working with ALEC and the Secretaries’ Innovation Group, FGA focuses its research on public education about welfare reform best practices. By encouraging work requirements, FGA helps partner states help the truly needy by better tracking eligibility and reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. FGA’s policy reforms have helped working class Americans in thirty-four states, impacting 4.5 million people and saving taxpayers $92 billion over the last decade.
FGA’s impact has attracted the support and attention of Impact Fund donors for years. Millions of people have been freed from dependency. Small business owners are providing better healthcare options for their employees. Entrepreneurs are overcoming barriers to work. And voters know their voice is protected thanks to reforms that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
By innovating, learning from losses, and adapting to the ever-changing political landscape, FGA provides state lawmakers a menu with dozens of reform options and partnership in adapting them to each state with a comprehensive reform agenda. And it works: FGA’s 307 major studies and 200 polls (among other contributions) have led to more than 1,036 state-based wins and thirty major federal victories that are improving millions of lives across the country.