Reason Foundation

The Reason Foundation is an American libertarian research organization founded in 1968 that also publishes the magazine Reason. Based in Los Angeles, it is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that, like other think tanks, produces papers and studies to support a particular set of values. According to its web site, they are "the values of individual freedom and choice, limited government, and market-friendly policies."

Reason Foundation's policy research areas include: air traffic control, American domestic monetary policy, school choice, eminent domain, government reform, housing, land use, immigration, privatization, public-private partnerships, urban traffic and congestion, transportation, industrial hemp, medical marijuana, police raids and militarization, free trade, globalization and telecommunications. Affiliated projects include Drew Carey's Reason TV video website, UrbanFutures and NewEnvironmentalism.org. Reason Foundation staff also regularly contribute to the Out of Control Policy Blog.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and The Wall Street Journal editorial board have strongly endorsed the Foundation. Friedman said, "Reason Foundation's tolerance, civility, and consistency in defending individual liberty make it a haven for believers in a free society of all shades of opinion;" and according to The Wall Street Journal, "Of all the nation's conservative or free-market policy groups, it may be the most libertarian among them, the Reason Foundation in Southern California, that ends up having the most direct impact on the actual functioning of government."

Reason Foundation founder Robert Poole is an MIT-trained engineer and the author of Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980. Cutting Back City Hall provided the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom. Poole remains at Reason serving as an Officer on the organization's Board of Trustees and Director of Transportation Policy.