Setting up a think tank
January 30, 2007 11:28 AM Subscribe
How would I set up a think tank or similar institution?
A small group of us run a political weblog ( Self Link Here ), mainly concentrating on uk politics and international relations although we are going to do more on EU relations. We've got a good enough reputation and are thinking of how we can take things further.
Initially we will be an internet only operation to keep costs down.
We're not really trying to be academics and we see ourselves as working with other orgs and networks as well as individuals. We do have contacts in academia and think tanks, but I thought it would be very worthwhile to ask Mefi for suggestions also.
We are based in the UK and Belgium, has anyone any advice or suggestions?
A small group of us run a political weblog ( Self Link Here ), mainly concentrating on uk politics and international relations although we are going to do more on EU relations. We've got a good enough reputation and are thinking of how we can take things further.
Initially we will be an internet only operation to keep costs down.
We're not really trying to be academics and we see ourselves as working with other orgs and networks as well as individuals. We do have contacts in academia and think tanks, but I thought it would be very worthwhile to ask Mefi for suggestions also.
We are based in the UK and Belgium, has anyone any advice or suggestions?
Best answer: I think there are fours ways to take this forward, which are highly complimentary and all related. And you can probably bootstrap this entire thing, if you approach it properly.
posted by Mutant at 12:02 PM on January 30, 2007
- Conferences - Arrange meetings of like minded folks. Put forth broad topics, organise a conference and discuss amongst yourselves.
- Publish - three directions here - first, publish proceedings from the conferences you've previously organised (see above). Second, regularly publish comments on significant political events (as your weblog is political). Make your institutions opinion known. Three, push papers into newspapers, magazines, 'zines, blogs and the like.
- Organise - get people together, perhaps marching under a banner bearing your groups name.
- Cooperate - lend your name to events organised by other groups that share your interests. Helps to get your name out and move your cause forward.
posted by Mutant at 12:02 PM on January 30, 2007
Response by poster: Thanks for those excellent points. We hope to concentrate on political accountability, electoral reform and using ICT to get more people involved in the political process.
We have a mailing list of sympathisers and there are people willing to offer small donations.
I've some experience in dealing with academics, NGO's and think tanks as have others who write for us and some sympathetic people in journalism/ marketing..
We might be able to 'unofficially' use an office in London and Brussels.
3C could be very doable.
Thanks, that was helpful. We're at the 'should we do this' stage of discussion. Additionally we won't be redundant after Blair resigns as the core issues we're interested will remail. We have some brand recognition under our curent name and may keep it, but that's something else we're discussing.
posted by quarsan at 12:08 PM on January 30, 2007
We have a mailing list of sympathisers and there are people willing to offer small donations.
I've some experience in dealing with academics, NGO's and think tanks as have others who write for us and some sympathetic people in journalism/ marketing..
We might be able to 'unofficially' use an office in London and Brussels.
3C could be very doable.
Thanks, that was helpful. We're at the 'should we do this' stage of discussion. Additionally we won't be redundant after Blair resigns as the core issues we're interested will remail. We have some brand recognition under our curent name and may keep it, but that's something else we're discussing.
posted by quarsan at 12:08 PM on January 30, 2007
Best answer: First things first, good luck! Please take the below with a pinch of salt and if it come across as overly critical (which it's not intended to be) please dismiss as the cynicism of a sold-out armchair political scientist and activist.
As a former lobbyist I've had some dealings with think tanks so thought I'd chip in 2p. First things first you need an idea, an ideology. Simple opposition to an existing arrangement of power is a pressure group not a think tank. It is the role of think thanks to 'fly kites' - that is to say to formulate and consider policy that is not a feasible proposition for politicians and public officials. You need both an overarching idea and granular policy which which it might be effected. In your case something like using SMS technology to increase participation in community-based decision making might suffice had Chris Lightfoot who runs the one man thnk tank Voxpolitics not beaten you to the punch.
This has been true of Demos which essentially re-tooled Anthony Gidden's academic '3rd way' precept into workable policy propositions. Likewise the IPPR is associated (rightly or wrongly) with implementing 'social capital' via polity. Even the Adam Smith Institute stands for something tangible - economic efficiency, tax reduction and simplification.
On your site at the moment you claim to be in favour of electoral reform. Commendable but what differentiates your perspective from that of Make Votes Count or Charter 88. Or indeed the Electoral Reform Society. Transparency in governance likewise is like motherhood and apple pie - everyone's in favour; where's your value added on this issue? You need a distinctive and coherent perspective; you don't seem to have one.
In terms of propagation and communication of your message you need to 'leverage' (ugh) opinion leaders like commentators, academics, politicians and officials. Without their credibility you risk being dismissed as cranks or hobbyists. Moreover without diverse input into your policy discussions you risk stale thinking, feedback loops and trammelled perspectives. Furthermore without challenge and affirmation error abounds in policy propositions.
Once your distinctive perspective and message is crafted you need to do your friend / foe analysis. You need to get out there and be seen to be intelligently knocking down your ideological opponents. Moreover you need to leverage likeminds. Do be careful who you get into bed with however. Trotskyites, Respect, UKIPers, re-styled Tories and most of the Liberal Democrat Party would appear to be congruent with you policy platform such as it stands at the moment. Chose your friends even more carefully than your enemies.
I have little to add to the (excellent) above but one further avenue exists for you to propound your message and that is lobbying agencies which routinely do events with think tanks. Once you've got yourself physically and intellectually grounded consider getting in touch with the dozen top APPC agencies and making your pitch.
All of the above is not to say that this can't be done. It can. Indeed Phil Daniels did so not five years ago in setting up the Social Market Foundation but he very clearly had an ideological platform perhaps fermented during his years in the City. Moreover those same years provided the capital for setting up such an expensive and time-consuming enterprise. Similarly the rewards in getting it right can be profound; in 1997 Geoff Mulgan and most of the then staff of Demos were co-opted into Number 10 to run the Policy Unit - perhaps you'll be doing the same thing one day under future Prime Minister x?
posted by dmt at 8:03 AM on January 31, 2007
As a former lobbyist I've had some dealings with think tanks so thought I'd chip in 2p. First things first you need an idea, an ideology. Simple opposition to an existing arrangement of power is a pressure group not a think tank. It is the role of think thanks to 'fly kites' - that is to say to formulate and consider policy that is not a feasible proposition for politicians and public officials. You need both an overarching idea and granular policy which which it might be effected. In your case something like using SMS technology to increase participation in community-based decision making might suffice had Chris Lightfoot who runs the one man thnk tank Voxpolitics not beaten you to the punch.
This has been true of Demos which essentially re-tooled Anthony Gidden's academic '3rd way' precept into workable policy propositions. Likewise the IPPR is associated (rightly or wrongly) with implementing 'social capital' via polity. Even the Adam Smith Institute stands for something tangible - economic efficiency, tax reduction and simplification.
On your site at the moment you claim to be in favour of electoral reform. Commendable but what differentiates your perspective from that of Make Votes Count or Charter 88. Or indeed the Electoral Reform Society. Transparency in governance likewise is like motherhood and apple pie - everyone's in favour; where's your value added on this issue? You need a distinctive and coherent perspective; you don't seem to have one.
In terms of propagation and communication of your message you need to 'leverage' (ugh) opinion leaders like commentators, academics, politicians and officials. Without their credibility you risk being dismissed as cranks or hobbyists. Moreover without diverse input into your policy discussions you risk stale thinking, feedback loops and trammelled perspectives. Furthermore without challenge and affirmation error abounds in policy propositions.
Once your distinctive perspective and message is crafted you need to do your friend / foe analysis. You need to get out there and be seen to be intelligently knocking down your ideological opponents. Moreover you need to leverage likeminds. Do be careful who you get into bed with however. Trotskyites, Respect, UKIPers, re-styled Tories and most of the Liberal Democrat Party would appear to be congruent with you policy platform such as it stands at the moment. Chose your friends even more carefully than your enemies.
I have little to add to the (excellent) above but one further avenue exists for you to propound your message and that is lobbying agencies which routinely do events with think tanks. Once you've got yourself physically and intellectually grounded consider getting in touch with the dozen top APPC agencies and making your pitch.
All of the above is not to say that this can't be done. It can. Indeed Phil Daniels did so not five years ago in setting up the Social Market Foundation but he very clearly had an ideological platform perhaps fermented during his years in the City. Moreover those same years provided the capital for setting up such an expensive and time-consuming enterprise. Similarly the rewards in getting it right can be profound; in 1997 Geoff Mulgan and most of the then staff of Demos were co-opted into Number 10 to run the Policy Unit - perhaps you'll be doing the same thing one day under future Prime Minister x?
posted by dmt at 8:03 AM on January 31, 2007
Response by poster: Thank you for your excellent and thoughtful comments. You are raising issues that we are considering. We've reached a level of recognition and visibility that we never thought about when we started and, as you pointed out, we've not looked at our structure or platform until now.
I think, at the moment, that we would be better at networking and joining in dialogue and discussion rather than advocating a particular policy. for example we're all convinced of the importance of electoral reform, but we don't advocate any particular policy or narrow solution.
We've become less dogmatic and less convinced that we have any answers as such, but that is a strength as we can build alliances and enter dialogue with others.
posted by quarsan at 4:10 AM on February 1, 2007
I think, at the moment, that we would be better at networking and joining in dialogue and discussion rather than advocating a particular policy. for example we're all convinced of the importance of electoral reform, but we don't advocate any particular policy or narrow solution.
We've become less dogmatic and less convinced that we have any answers as such, but that is a strength as we can build alliances and enter dialogue with others.
posted by quarsan at 4:10 AM on February 1, 2007
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But, for the record, this is how you start a thinktank.
1. Have a good idea.
2. Find enough people who think your idea is good who are writers/authors/academics/etc and who are willing to back you on the project and are not already part of other thinktanks.
3. In your country of origin, see if this has already been done. If it has, that means that there are corporate/philanthropic supporters willing to throw large amounts of money at you. If this has not been done, then you have to network through the litany of friends that you have and find a philanthropic person or group willing to help you lay the groundwork.
3B. Easy way to scare up funding: Get a sympathetic journalist to do a piece about "A new thinktank forming to research the future of the Labour Party..." Then make sure that there is a place on your website where people can go and add their info for your mailing list. (We will discuss your mailing list later on).
3C. Best interesting way: Find a great speaker or cadre of speakers, some of whom are your friends and some of whom are enemies of your thinktank's ideology and have a public sit-down debate in London, invite piles of people, the press, parliamentarians, and then shake lots of hands, wear nametags and follow-up with everyone in the room afterwards to arrange lunches and phone conversations about the building up of your foundation.
4. Find a suitable office. In London, I recommend Kingsway or Old Queen Street. Brussels, well I hated it frankly. Why not relocate to London and set up a small office of one or two in Brussels for legislative correspondence and then populate with lobbyists when the fancy strikes you.
5. Your costs at the get-go are probably going to run in the upwards of $200,000.
6. Your mailing list and any mailing lists that you can get your grubby hands on will prove invaluable. You want to fashion a very good marketing letter, preferably reaching out to marketers who have experience in NGO fundraising in Great Britain and make your case to the middle class that yours is the opinion that matters if New Labour is to be taken seriously after the departure of Tony Blair.
7. If you think you can work with other organizations then make contact as soon as you have registered as a charity. If you do it sooner, they will worry about giving you any money.
Hope all this helps.
posted by parmanparman at 11:52 AM on January 30, 2007