Funded by foundations, corporate donors and individual contributors, think tanks are endowed with the financial and human resources which enable them to systematically influence public opinion, media agenda setting and policy discussion. From time to time, when evidence is not at hand, these institutions produce tailor-made arguments, backing their ideological concepts, with the aim to influence policy making. In some cases this construction of evidence has not only remained in the position of an attempt, but actually led to specific policy reforms.
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The Reason Foundation was created as "a think tank for liberty." Its initial mission was to publish a national magazine on current issues (Reason magazine) and to conduct conferences and seminars on classical-liberal ideas. Over time, its mission has broadened to include public policy research, via the Reason Public Policy Institute division. The Foundation is now a national research and educational organization that explores and promotes the twin values of rationality and freedom as the basic underpinnings of a good society. The Foundation supports the rule of law, private property, and limited government, and promotes voluntarism and individual responsibility in social and economic interactions, relying on choice and competition to achieve the best outcomes.
Founded in 1918 as a war library by Herbert Hoover, the Institution today is a center of scholarship and public policy research, committed to generating ideas that define a "free society". The defining principles of individual, economic and political freedom, private enterprise, and representative government were fundamental to Hoover's vision. Hoover described the mission as contributing to the pursuits of securing and safeguarding peace, improving the human condition, and limiting government intrusion into the lives of individuals.