Book Preview: “Forces for Good”

“We must begin to study and understand nonprofits not merely as organizations housed within four walls,” they write, “but as catalysts that work within, and change, entire systems.”

The politically conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation is a case in point. Founded in the early 1970s, it exploded conventional wisdom about the role of think tanks in society: rarefied, academic and far behind the scenes — an eminence grise of public-policy formulation. But by taking a boisterous, grassroots approach — what Crutchfield and McLeod Grant call converting ordinary supporters into “evangelists” — and by aggressively courting Republican representatives of Congress, Heritage has been wildly successful at pushing its agenda through — causing enormous political change in a relatively small amount of time and in a remarkably public way.