An organization in the United Kingdom aims to identify funders of think tanks that work to influence public policy. While the group’s focus is on the UK, it is a safe bet that political operatives and large organizations use their financial resources to achieve similar objectives in Canada and other nations.

Key takeaways from the report:

• Eight out of 14 highly influential UK think tanks were opaque about their funding.

• ‘Dark money’-funded think tanks were more influential on social media than transparent think tanks.

• Some think tanks care deeply about their credibility and proactively aim to be as transparent about their finances as possible. Others seem to do as much as they can to hide where their funding comes from.

• Think tanks produce their own media output, court journalists who can promote their ideas, or running advertising campaigns. This activity can have a significant impact on government thinking, even though think tanks themselves are rarely democratically controlled or regulated as lobbyists.

• Presstitution must be paid for, which is why understanding who funds think tanks, and who they act for, is so important.

Globe and Mail columnist Konrad Yakabuski wrote that representatives from Canada’s leading think tanks appeared often before parliamentary committees and were cited frequently in the Canadian media. This gave their research priceless exposure and influence. Yakabuski also wrote that Canadian think tanks “lag well behind their peers in the United States and Britain in providing detailed disclosure on their sources of funding.”