Gift Hub

On Opposition Researchers

Scruggs on opposition research,

The people who know how to do opposition research are organized anarchically. You cannot get them to form something like a think tank. They are a close equivalent of a volunteer fire department. Most of them have jobs and commitments outside the field of research. As another, looser metaphor, think of them as an organization of Cincinnati, who have set up their network to preclude a permanent hierarchy. Most of what it is done gets done with ad hoc leadership. This is one way to prevent institutional corruption and time serving.

Very helpful, Mr, Scruggs, thank you.

Jay Taber's Proposed Opposition Research Center

Jay can describe his work in opposition research better than I, but he has long been active researching how grassroots pressure groups and their funders can create change contrary to the public interest. He has developed a curriculum. He can train others in the skills needed by researchers at the local community level. He proposes a center in San Francisco to advance this work and that of his colleagues.

Jay, please help me clarify - am I on the right track?. Let's say you revised that capsule summary to get it right. Then could you specify in as few words as possible:

1. What will be done?
2. By whom? (With links to background info.)
3. For what needed money?
4. Over what period of time?
5. With what expected results?
6. And what is the strategy for making this self-funding long term? (Earned revenue from tuition, from books and speaking engagements, fundraising from constituents?)

Having a short answer to such questions might enable interested parties to get their minds around your proposal more quickly.  Maybe in this way we can educate one another, and learn as we go along.

Tides Foundation, in San Francisco, by the way, has a drill, including application and a sample budget template that they require from prospective projects that might come under their umbrella. You might or might not want to consider becoming a Tides project, but their due diligence and planning drill would be of interest, maybe, as you shape your thoughts for potential foundation support.