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Cato Institute

U.S. libertarian

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit governed by a board of directors. Co-founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch; restructured in 2012 to eliminate a Koch-family shareholder arrangement and replace it with traditional board governance.
FundingPrimarily private donations — approximately 78% from individuals, 9% from foundations, and 2% from corporations (FY 2025). Accepts no government funding. Historical donors have included the Koch family, the Scaife foundations, and donor-advised funds such as DonorsTrust.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Cato was founded in 1977 by libertarian activist Ed Crane, economist Murray Rothbard, and businessman Charles Koch, with early operating funds provided almost entirely by Koch. Originally based in San Francisco, it relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1981 to gain closer proximity to policymakers. The institute was structured as a nonprofit with individual shareholders — an unusual legal arrangement that triggered a governance crisis in 2012, when Charles and David Koch sued to seize majority control after a founding shareholder died; the dispute was settled by converting to a conventional board-governed nonprofit and retiring founding CEO Ed Crane. Peter Goettler has served as president and CEO since 2015. Cato's libertarian orientation produces a distinctive mix of positions: it supports drug decriminalization, open immigration, civil-liberties protections, and military restraint, while opposing taxes, regulation, and government social programs — drawing fire from the left on economics and from the right on social policy. During both Trump terms, Cato has been a consistent critic of protectionist trade policy, restrictions on legal immigration, and the concentration of executive power, and in 2025–2026 has explicitly characterized Trump's industrial and antitrust policies as departures from free-market conservatism. The institute has periodically faced scrutiny over its historical ties to Koch-funded donor networks, though Koch contributions have represented a small and declining share of its total revenue over time.

Sources

  1. Cato Institute – Wikipedia
  2. Financial Information, Funding, and Independence – Cato Institute
  3. Cato Institute official pushes back after Trump touts its immigration data – The Hill
  4. The Conspicuous Fist of Trump's State Corporatism – Cato Institute
  5. America Needs Workers, but Trump's Policies Are Sharply Cutting Legal Immigration – Cato Institute
  6. A Nonprofit with Shareholders? The Koch Brothers' 'Hostile Takeover' of Cato Institute – Nonprofit Quarterly
  7. Cato Institute – Ballotpedia
  8. Cato Institute – Influence Watch

Profile compiled 2026-07-04; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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