Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Which Think Tank Holds the Most Events?

DC Linktank recently released a new Top 50 list of think tanks ranked by their Alexa ranking.  Interestingly, the chart also includes a list of the average number of events held per month.

Following are the top five think tanks based on events held.  The Wilson Center dominates the competition, with an average of 58.7 events held per month.
  1. Wilson Center: 58.7
  2. Brookings: 26.1
  3. Heritage: 22.1
  4. CSIS: 22.0
  5. AEI: 17.6
You can view all of the Wilson Center's upcoming events here.

Top 50 DC Think Tanks

(ranked by popularity)
Rank Organization Website Annual Contributions Annual Expenses Average Events/Month Alexa Ranking
1 Heritage Foundation heritage.org $73,957,186 $80,378,250 22.1 17,105
2 Council on Foreign Relations cfr.org $47,654,800 $50,731,317 10 45,172
3 Cato Institute cato.org $39,253,053 $23,648,195 11.3 58,117
4 Brookings Institution brookings.edu $86,934,790 $88,922,671 26.1 69,560
5 RAND rand.org $250,987,982 $266,873,864 1.5 74,123
6 Center for American Progress americanprogress.org $36,517,866 $33,727,128 7.2 93,527
7 US Institute of Peace usip.org $24,447,975 $30,284,229 16.2 102,152
8 World Resources Institute wri.org $47,451,943 $40,533,012 2.7 120,700
9 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities cbpp.org $28,029,778 $26,380,857 0 120,798
10 Center for Strategic and International Studies csis.org $39,138,159 $30,114,700 22.0 121,560
11 Urban Institute urban.org $73,294,793 $64,700,749 3.9 130,185
12 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace carnegieendowment.org $20,916,398 $28,289,710 9.6 130,791
13 Freedom House freedomhouse.org $41,448,447 $41,450,257 0.7 140,721
14 American Enterprise Institute aei.org $34,577,193 $29,030,559 17.6 147,673
15 New America Foundation newamerica.net $15,836,375 $15,695,563 14.5 160,620
16 Center for Economic and Policy Research cepr.net $1,661,756 $1,872,717 0.6 182,966
17 Family Research Council frc.org $13,064,417 $12,952,734 2.2 201,933
18 Economic Policy Institute epi.org $6,573,520 $6,426,906 1.6 211,790
19 Institute for National Strategic Studies ndu.edu N/A N/A 0.2 222,452
20 Pew Charitable Trusts pewtrusts.org $283,445,062 $278,982,877 0.8 227,455
21 Mercatus Center mercatus.org $11,602,622 $10,770,500
232,751
22 Atlantic Council of the United States acus.org $7,995,306 $7,416,161 4.4 241,398
23 Center for Global Development cgdev.org $18,457,280 $9,720,926 6.6 241,467
24 Aspen Institute aspeninstitute.org $69,095,692 $66,067,040 4.7 244,165
25 Woodrow Wilson Center wilsoncenter.org $16,452,666 $20,218,504 58.7 262,671
26 Center for a New American Security cnas.org $5,846,959 $5,237,667 1.1 276,938
27 National Democratic Institute ndi.org $130,207,368 $130,086,031 1.1 281,883
27* The Washington Institute washingtoninstitute.org $$8,646,154 $8,460,571
302,920
28 German Marshall Fund gmfus.org $40,856,014 $38,617,770 0.1 385,636
29 National Endowment for Democracy ned.org $136,692,723 $136,760,415 4.1 430,951
30 Jamestown Foundation jamestown.org $1,493,626 $1,175,343 0.4 443,154
31 Benton Foundation benton.org $786,529 $317,936 4.4 450,397
32 East-West Center eastwestcenter.org $2,371,918 $723,157 1.5 464,555
33 Institute for Policy Studies ips-dc.org $2,943,472 $4,080,221 9.1 513,650
34 International Institute for Strategic Studies iiss.org $1,342,151 $694,724 0.8 538,426
35 German Historical Institute ghi-dc.org

2.0 541,287
36 Peterson Institute for International Economics iie.com $7,460,008 $11,354,424
584,689
37 Bipartisan Policy Center bipartisanpolicy.org $21,798,883 $18,895,309 3.5 632,991
38 Heinrich Boell Foundation boell.org N/A N/A 0.4 708,003
39 Institute for the Study of War understandingwar.org $1,190,641 $1,674,281 0.2 724,696
40 Competitive Enterprise Institute cei.org $4,247,228 $4,332,971 1.3 751,059
41 Demos demos.org N/A N/A 1.3 758,381
42 Resources for the Future rff.org $11,018,135 $14,061,919 4.5 788,437
43 Hudson Institute hudson.org $9,804,595 $10,635,441 7.9 805,630
44 Migration Policy Institute migrationpolicy.org $8,140,018 $5,025,840 0.7 829,490
45 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation itif.org $2,471,944 $2,205,616 3.5 877,534
46 Al-Hewar Center alhewar.com

1.1 881,945
47 Foreign Policy Research Initiative fpri.org $1,575,411 $1,483,384 0.8 896,363
48 Century Foundation tcf.org N/A N/A 0.9 952,913
49 International Foundation for Electoral Systems ifes.org $94,754,333 $92,489,758 0.7 985,497
50 Middle East Institute mei.edu $2,482,504 $2,291,776 4.8 1,106,498