Capital Campaign Prospectus

8/9/2019 Capital Campaign Prospectus

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future T H Eliberating

t h e c a t o i n s t i t u t ec a p i t a l c a m p a i g n


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l i b e r a t i n g t h e F u t u r e

i n its more than three decades of existence the Cato Institute has neverundertaken as ambitious a program as the $50 million capital campaignit launched in 2010. Our theme of Liberating the Future reflects the con-

cerns of the Institutes Board of Directors that our heritage of liberty is under

assault as never before. Powerful forces seek to put America on a dangerous

path that will lead to less freedom, less prosperity, and greatly restricted oppor-

tunities for the next and future generations.

These are challenging times for friends of freedom; but amid crisis, there

are also signs of opportunity. Abroad, the powerful forces globalization has

unleashed have brought increased economic and political freedom to tens of

millions. And at home, Americans demonstrate a growing resistance to regi-mentation that frustrates latter-day planners and progressives. An energized

freedom movement is at hand.

No organization is more committed than Cato to the principles of freedom

that made America a beacon for the worlda cause for optimism and oppor-

tunity in a world of widespread misery and suffering. We will not stand idly by

and see that heritage destroyed, its blessings denied to our children and grand-

children. We aim to redouble our efforts to defend and promote liberty

through the ambitious program we are calling Liberating the Future.

With a view of the Washington

Convention Center, the Roof

Garden will be located on the

new seventh floor addition to

the Institutes headquarters.

The Garden will be an outdoor

venue to host intimate recep-

tions, staff gatherings, and pre-

sentations for approximately

100 people. In addition, the

Garden will feature a majesticOstermiller Golden Eagle

Bronze overlooking

Massachusetts Avenue donated

by the Kammerer Foundation

in the spirit of its founder

R. Michael Kammerer Jr.

K e n & F r a y d al e v y l i b e r t yg a r d e n


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F a C i l i t y n a m i n g o p p o r t u n i t i e s

EXPANDED F. A. H AYEK AUDITORIUM $5 MILLION

LECTURE H ALLS (2) OF T HEGEORGE M. Y EAGER CONFERENCE CENTER $1 MILLION

(EACH )

GREEN R OO M $500,000

SEVENTH FLOOR CONFERENCE R OO M $500,000

SIXTH FLOOR CONFERENCE R OO M $500,000

p o l i C y C e n t e r n a m i n g o p p o r t u n i t i e s

CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL STUDIES $10 MILLION

CENTER FOR GLOBAL LIBERTY & PROSPERITY $5 MILLION

CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM $5 MILLION

R EGULATORY AFFAIRS $5 MILLION

Y OUNG LEADERS PROGRAM $5 MILLION

d o n a t e d

CLIFF & LAUREL ASNESS LECTURE H ALL ( IN T HE GEORGE M. Y EAGER CONFERENCE CENTER )

CHARLES R. BURNETT F ITNESS CENTER

BILL & R EBECCA D UN N BOARD R OO M

R O GER AND ELIZABETH H AGANS M ULTIMEDIA CENTER

JAMES M. K ILTS CAFETERIA

M ELVYN JAY KUSHNER LIBRARY

R OSE W ILDER LANE H ALL

KEN & FRAYDA LEV Y LIBERTY GARDEN

R ICHARD & SUE ANN M ASSON POLICY CENTER

BOB & R UT H R EINGOLD STUDENT CENTER

H ERBERT A. STIEFEL CENTER F OR TRADE POLICY STUDIES

GEORGE M. Y EAGER CONFERENCE CENTER

n a m i n g o p p o r t u n i t i e s


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t he expansion of Catos headquarters wont simply provide the Institute withbetter facilities: crucially, it will allow us to add much-needed manpower sothat we can join the battle in issue areas we currently dont have the staff to address.

The heart of our campaign for Liberating the Future is the addition of new scholars.

For over three decades, Cato has built up a well-deserved reputation for sound

analysis and incorruptible integrity. Catos high profile is due to the political inde-

pendence of the Institute, the finely-honed communications skills of its policy staff,

and the intellectual strength of its policy work. The impressive stable of Nobel laure-

ates and leading academics who work closely with the Institute demands attention

and respecteven from a biased media.

And yet, much more can be doneneeds to be doneto capitalize on the platformwe have. Remarkably, in a time when threats to liberty are increasing all across the pol-

icy spectrum, Cato does not have a single analyst devoted full time to environmental

policy. Nor do we currently have the space or the budget to hire scholars who focus

exclusively on drug policywhere opportunities for reform aboundor labor and

employment regulationwhere threats to freedom and dynamism loom. And while

27,000 new pages are added every year to the Federal Register,Cato has only one full-

time regulatory scholar. Thats simply not enough.

To keep the ideas of the American Revolution alive and relevant for the next gener-

ation, Cato needs to bring new scholars on boardhighly skilled analysts who

can provide timely responses to opponents, warn of the dangers of new laws and reg-

ulations, and point to opportunities for pro-freedom reforms. What follows are some

of the issue areas where Cato plans to shift the terms of debate as we carry the fight for

liberty into the 21st century.

labor and employment poliCy studies: Proclaiming their devotion to

change, powerful forces in Washington now seek to bolster public employee union-

ism, arrest the decline of private sector unions, and expand the reach of our anachro-

nistic labor laws, designed in the early 20th century for an industrial order that no

longer exists. Meanwhile, enhanced prosecution of employment discrimination laws

is imposing staggering new costs on employees and employers.

n e w p r o g r a m a r e a s

Given freedom, the

American people will flourish.

Given the Cato Institute, the

American people will, in

time, secure freedom.

g e o rg e F. w i l l


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A Cato research program devoted to Labor and Employment Studies will expose

the hidden costs of outmoded labor regulations, make the case against new laws that

would hamstring our dynamic labor markets, and shift the debate toward a new

appreciation of flexible, market-oriented workforce policies.

money and banKing: History has shown that predictable, stable currency

is the bedrock on which entrepreneurial creativity and economic dynamism rest. As

capital markets become more sophisticated, they are simultaneously more essential

to the functioning of a complex economy and more vulnerable to a political class

that reflexively seeks to control that which it doesnt understand. A Cato research pro-

gram on Money and Banking would bring aboard analysts devoted to critiquingFed policy, securities regulation, insurance regulation, and international monetary

policy. In a time of new regulatory threats, Cato needs new analysts who can explain

the value of free flows of capital and the burdens imposed on markets by counterpro-

ductive regulation.

Key to Catos expansion isrevamping and enlarging the

F. A. Hayek Auditorium. The

new Hayek Auditorium will be

able to better accommodate

conference attendees with an

increased capacity of 210 seats,

more comfortable seating, and

an expanded pre-function area

to welcome visitors and event

guests. In addition, the F. A.

Hayek Auditorium will offer

the latest in conference telecom-

munications technology as well

as improved facilities to better

allow members of the press and

their camera crews to broadcast

the Institutes activities.

a n e x p a n d e d

F. a . h a y e K

a u d i t o r i u m


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regulatory aFFairs speCialists: Today, there is no greater impedi-

ment to American prosperity than the immense body of regulations chronicled in

the Federal Register.While the Washington policy debate focuses on the federal budget,

the off-budget costs of regulatory mandates too often get overlooked. Federal environ-

mental, safety and health, and economic regulations touch virtually every area of

American life, and the costs they impose are staggeringin some estimates surpassing

the toll taken by the federal income tax.

But our burgeoning regulatory state threatens far more than our prosperity. Its

also a serious threat to the rule of law. Remarkable as it is to contemplate, the fact is,

most of the actual law in this countrythe rules that citizens have to follow, at pain

of fine or imprisonmentis generated by unelected administrative agencies, usingbroad authority unconstitutionally delegated by Congress. The result is a regulatory

code thats literally unknowable, and that brings with it an enormous concentration

of unaccountable power. Cato needs to bring additional scholars on board to expose

these hidden costs, and the threats they represent to American self-government.

environmental studies: Cato has done valuable work in the areas

of natural resource regulation and climate change policy, fighting off efforts at

The Policy Center will be aredesign of the Institutes cur-

rent F. A. Hayek Auditorium.

This new facility will be a state-

of-the-art classroom with seat-

ing for up to 60 people. It will

be an ideal venue for intern

seminars and student pro-

grams, scholar lecture series,

visiting dignitaries, overflow

space for large conferences,

and informal forums and meet-

ings. With the expansion of

our policy program, the Policy

Center will be able to accommo-

date all of our scholars, analysts,

and research assistants in our

monthly policy staff meetings.

r i C h a r d a n d

s u e a n n m a s s o n

p o l i C y C e n t e r


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price controls, debunking the bad science surrounding renewable energy schemes, and

demonstrating that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated. But

environmental policy is increasingly becoming the central regulatory battleground, and

we cannot play the role we need to play in that fight without new analysts who can cover

areas such as clean air regulations, endangered species, and sustainable development.

an expanded Center For Constitutional studies: Surveying

the American scene early in our history, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that "scarcely any

political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a

judicial question." But even Tocqueville could not have imagined how those judicial

questions would multiply over the next two centuries. As government has grown to reg-ulate nearly every aspect of American life, its essential that our courts play their intend-

ed role as the bulwark of our liberties, in Madisons phrase.

Cato established its Center for Constitutional Studies in 1989 to examine the courts

work critically, in light of Americas first principles as set forth in our founding docu-

ments, and to lay the intellectual groundwork for restoring firm limits to government

power. But, in part because of laws growing complexity, the Centers limited staff can-

not give a number of important subjects the coverage they deserve. A larger staff would

allow the Center to better address government overreaching in telecommunications,

medicine, financial markets, family relations, education, immigration, trade, intellectual

property, and more. As many Americans are coming to recognize, restoring a constitu-

tional culture is more urgent now than ever beforeand Catos Center for Constitutional

Studies has a vital role to play in that restoration.

CommuniCations Freedom: A free people and a free society require

media free from government control. Yet self-styled champions of the public interest

are mounting frontal assaults and indirect attacks on Americans freedom of speech.

Campaign-finance restrictionists are fighting to curtail participation in electoral

debate through limits on fundraising for broadcast ads; others seek a revitalized

Fairness Doctrine, which will chill talk radio and other forms of political speech. A

Cato project on Communications Freedom will seek to wall off the internet from the

There is noinstitution that

person for per son,dollar fordollar, idea foridea, has beenevenclose to thCatoInstitutein advancing fundamental principles.

F r e d e r i C K w. s m i t hCeo, F e C .


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anti-speech regulatory system currently governing other media and work to hem in the

FEC and the FCCs power, with the ultimate goal of shuttering the agencies entirely.

government transparenCy: Information technology has delivered

change, openness, and efficiency in sector after sector of American societyyet govern-

ment remains one of the last bastions of closed management and poor accountability.

A burgeoning new movement for government transparency promises to change that,

and Cato scholars should be at the forefront.

A Cato research program devoted to Government Transparency will promote

Freedom of Information Act reform, checks on government surveillance, and expo-

sure of all government processes on the Internet through freely accessible databases.With the decline of formal media like newspapers (which have so often been captured

by pro-government partisans), the future of government oversight belongs to individ-

uals and groups who recognize that corruption thrives in a culture of secrecy. While

Cato continues to defend formal, constitutional limits on government, its Project on

Government Transparency will complement that effort by fostering the information

infrastructure that strengthens informal checks on government power.

adjunCt sCholars and visiting Fellows program: Cato plans to

intensify its efforts to recruit leading thinkers to affiliate with us as Cato Fellows,

strengthening the Institutes reputation as the institutional center of the classical

liberal vision, which transcends the current, stale divide between left and right. To

integrate these scholars work into the Institutes output, we will disseminate their

academic work in formats accessible to policymakers, journalists, and the general

publicsignificantly increasing, at minimal expense the amount of top-quality empir-

ical research that Cato injects into the ongoing policy debate.

A key part of this effort will be the creation of a Visiting Fellows program. Cato-

affiliated academics on sabbatical will be able to work at the Institute for a semester or

year, focusing not only on their own research projects but also serving as in-house

experts and promoters of Catos mission during their tenure here.

Anyonewho fights for

the future,livesin it today.a y n r a n d


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budgeting For the Common deFense: Over the last decade, the

Pentagons budget has grown by nearly 50 percent, even excluding the costs of our two

ongoing wars. Today, America accounts for almost half of the worlds military spend-

ing, despite the lack of any conventional threat or genuine superpower competitor. A

defense budget that actually aimed at defense would make real cuts, shedding our out-

dated, Cold Warera military commitments, and adopting a force structure appropri-

ate for the foreign policy of a constitutional republic. Bringing aboard additional

experienced scholars to examine existing and proposed weapons systems and defense

policies will help Cato build the intellectual case and political will for right-sizing

one of the largest items in our outsized federal budget.

bioethiCs studies: If the 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st

will be the century of biologyand of biotechnology. Congress and regulatory agen-

cies will be asked to make decisions on issues ranging from human cloning and stem-

cell research to genetic engineering, organ transplants, assisted suicide, and genetical-

ly altered food and plants. Anti-market crusaders, vested interests, and some religious

activists will seek to influence debate and policymaking on all of those issues. Cato

Made possible through the

generosity of longtime Cato

Club 200 member George

Yeager, the Yeager Conference

Center will be a new facility in

the Institutes expanded head-

quarters. The Center will

accommodate approximately

200 people for sit-down lunches

and will have the capability to

transform into three separate

lecture halls for smaller

conference venues.

g e o r g e

m . y e a g e r

C o n F e r e n C e

C e n t e r


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policy work in Bioethics will focus on ensuring that those crucial matters arent decid-

ed solely by pro-regulation forces.

sCienCe and risK studies: Expenditures on risks that are tiny or

chimerical reduce health by slowing economic growth, the driving force behind longer

and healthier lives. The public debate often suffers from an insufficient appreciation

of those tradeoffs. A Cato research program in Science and Risk Studies will meet that

need by exposing questionable science, examining the use and misuse of statistical

analysis by regulatory bodies, shedding light on the opportunity costs associated with

government risk assessment decisions, and identifying new nonpolitical bodies better

suited to making risk assessments. The programs overarching goal will be to exploreways to move risk decisionmaking out of the government and into the market.

international studies sCholars: Every region of the world has seen

an increase in economic and other freedoms during the current era of globalization.

The policies that lead to prosperity and a free society are not a mystery, but successful

implementation of those policies differs from country to country, and sound analysis

aimed at enhancing human liberty calls for scholars with regional expertise. For

instance, Chinas emergence as a global economic power is one of the most conse-

quential geopolitical developments of the past 30 yearsand libertys future depends

With the expansion, Cato will

offer its scholars and visitors

a leading classical liberal library

in Washington, D.C. The

library will feature the Roy A.

Childs Jr. Collection of books

and papers on economics,

philosophy, and history.

In addition, the Library will

provide advanced research

technologies, reference works,

papers, and other tools for pub-

lic policy study. It will serve as

an essential resource and work-

ing space for the Institute.

me lvyn

j a y K u s h n e r

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on Chinas becoming a peaceful, market-oriented society undergirded by the rule of

law. The addition of a full-time China scholar will greatly help Cato aid that transition.

Moreover, other regional scholars devoted to Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa,

and the Middle East can help elevate Catos unique perspective on development

issuesone that recognizes the poisonous, kleptocrat-empowering consequences of

foreign aid and the benefits of free and open economiesto the central place it

deserves in the debate over policy toward the developing world.

drug poliCy studies/penal Code reForm: The United States locks up

more people per capita than any other country in the worlda huge percentage of

them nonviolent drug offenders. Americas Drug War has caused untold damage tolife, liberty, and property. Yet today the prospects for drug policy reform look better

than they have for decades. In recent years, 15 states have legalized medical marijua-

na, and recent polling data shows the publics increasing receptiveness toward decrim-

inalization. Catos existing Project on Criminal Justice could help capitalize on those

trends by hiring new analysts devoted to drug policy and federal penal code reform.

the young leaders program: Liberating the future depends upon convinc-

ing the next generation of the importance of limited government, peace, and free enter-

prise. Friends of liberty face some serious challenges on that front: collectivist bias in aca-

demia remains rampant, and polls show that younger voters are substantially more likely

to support universal health care, labor unions, and federal education spending.

Cato needs to step up its efforts to identify and develop young classical liberal tal-

ent. Our intensive educational internship program is designed to cultivate the next

generation of pro-freedom opinion leaders by selecting talented young people and giv-

ing them the intellectual ammunition and communications skills they need to make

the case for a free society. With additional resources and new facilities, Cato plans to

expand that program. We will also extend the reach of our youth-oriented website,

Catooncampus.org; continue to work closely with Students for Liberty; and help

students across the globe connect with other like-minded individuals who want to

explore the ideas of liberty not often presented by their teachers and professors.


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t h e n e e d t o a C t

i deas have consequences, and the idea of liberty has changed the course of civiliza-tion. None of the worthy concerns that attract philanthropic support can ever befully and effectively addressed without sustaining the engines of wealth, creativity, and

personal fulfillment that follow from economic and social freedom. Nothing we have

achieved in this world would have been possible without the social and economic liber-

ties afforded by sacrifices from past generations. Nothing that we hope our children and

grandchildren will achieve is possible without commitment from the present genera-

tion. Simply put, liberty is the necessary prerequisite for the betterment of mankind.

For liberty to survive and expand in the 21st century, however, its proponents must emu-

late the spirit our forefathers demonstrated when they pledged nothing less than theirlives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of freedom more than two centuries ago.

The Cato Institute takes its name from Catos Letters, a series of pamphlets that cir-

culated widely in the American colonies in the middle of the 18th century. Historians

credit Catos Letters with providing the philosophical underpinning that helped make

the American Revolution possible. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1815:

What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution:

it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the peo-

ple, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a dropof blood was shed at Lexington.

It was, Jefferson said, the public debatein the colonial legislatures, in the pam-

phlets, the newspapers in all the coloniesthrough which public opinion was enlight-

ened and informed about the blessings of liberty and the dangers of powerthat was

the real American revolution.

Catos campaign for Liberating the Future will carry on that revolution, ensuring that

the libertarian ideals of the American Founding prevail in the 21st century. We invite you

to join us in this noble campaign.


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1 0 0 0 m a s s a c h u s e t t s a v e n u e , n W W a s h i n g t o n , d c 2 0 0 0 1

future T H Eliberating

Capital Campaign Prospectus

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