Edwin Feulner Becomes Heritage Foundation President, Beginning 36-Year Tenure Building Conservative Policy Infrastructure

Edwin J. Feulner Jr., co-founder of the Heritage Foundation in 1973, assumed the presidency of the conservative think tank in 1977, beginning what would become a transformative 36-year tenure that built Heritage from a modest Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members into the preeminent conservative policy organization in Washington. Feulner’s appointment marked a critical inflection point in the conservative movement’s institutional development, as he would prove instrumental in translating the vision of the Powell Memorandum into concrete policy infrastructure that could directly influence government decision-making.

Prior to becoming president, Feulner had served as Heritage’s founding trustee from 1973 to 1977 while working as administrative assistant to Congressman Phil Crane (R-IL). In the spring of 1971, Feulner, then almost 30 years old, met regularly with Paul Weyrich, press secretary to Senator Gordon Allott (R-CO), at weekly breakfast meetings in the basement cafeteria of the U.S. Capitol. These two rising stars of the conservative movement spent the early 1970s organizing three foundational conservative organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, and the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress. In 1973, Weyrich and Feulner persuaded Joseph Coors, the Colorado brewing magnate, to provide the initial funding to establish Heritage as a think tank to counter liberal views on taxation and regulation.

When Feulner assumed the Heritage presidency in 1977, the organization had an annual budget of approximately $1 million and operated out of a rented Capitol Hill office. Weyrich had served as Heritage’s first president, but Feulner’s leadership style and strategic vision would prove particularly effective at scaling the organization and establishing its influence within Republican policy circles. Within the first 18 months of Feulner’s directorship, Heritage’s budget increased to $2.5 million with a donor pool of about 120,000 people, demonstrating his effectiveness at fundraising and movement-building.

Feulner’s strategic approach differed from traditional think tanks in several crucial ways. Rather than focusing primarily on long-term academic research, Heritage under Feulner’s leadership emphasized rapid-response policy analysis designed to influence immediate legislative and administrative decisions. Feulner instituted a practice of delivering concise policy briefs directly to congressional offices and executive branch officials within 24-48 hours of emerging issues, ensuring that Heritage’s conservative perspective would be readily available to policymakers at critical decision points. This “briefing book” approach made Heritage indispensable to conservative legislators who needed substantive policy arguments to support their political positions.

The timing of Feulner’s presidency proved fortuitous for the conservative movement. As the 1980 presidential election approached, Heritage was positioned to serve as the primary policy development organization for a potential Reagan administration. Feulner understood that to maximize Heritage’s influence, the organization needed to move beyond reactive policy analysis to proactive agenda-setting. This understanding would drive Heritage’s most significant early achievement under Feulner’s leadership: the development of “Mandate for Leadership,” a comprehensive conservative policy blueprint that would be published in January 1981.

Feulner’s leadership philosophy emphasized institution-building over personality-driven advocacy. While many conservative activists sought media attention and public profiles, Feulner focused on building organizational capacity, developing talent pipelines, and establishing sustainable funding streams. He recognized that lasting conservative influence required permanent infrastructure that could outlast individual political figures or electoral cycles. This institutional focus aligned perfectly with the broader strategy outlined in the Powell Memorandum: the construction of a conservative counter-establishment that could rival liberal policy institutions.

A critical component of Feulner’s success involved cultivating relationships with major conservative donors. Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking fortune, became Heritage’s primary donor under Feulner’s leadership. In 1976, just before Feulner became president, Scaife gave Heritage $420,000, which represented 42 percent of Heritage’s million-dollar budget. Over the following two decades, Scaife would contribute more than $23 million to Heritage (from 1975 to 1998), providing the financial foundation for Feulner’s expansion plans. Scaife served as vice-chairman of the Heritage Foundation board of trustees, and Attorney General Edwin Meese would later describe Scaife as “the unseen hand” of the conservative movement—a hand that Feulner helped guide toward strategic institutional investments.

Feulner also maintained close coordination with other conservative movement leaders, particularly Paul Weyrich, his co-founder and longtime collaborator. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Feulner participated in informal coordination meetings where conservative leaders brainstormed strategies and ensured that their various organizations (think tanks, advocacy groups, political action committees, and media outlets) worked synergistically rather than at cross-purposes. This coordination function proved essential to the movement’s effectiveness, allowing resources to be deployed strategically and preventing duplication of effort.

Under Feulner’s direction, Heritage began developing policy expertise across a broad range of issue areas: tax policy, regulatory reform, national defense, foreign policy, social issues, and constitutional interpretation. Feulner recruited talented conservative intellectuals and policy analysts, offering competitive salaries and the promise of real-world influence. Many Heritage staffers would later transition into government positions during Republican administrations, creating a revolving door that ensured Heritage’s ideas had direct pathways to implementation. This talent development function effectively made Heritage a “government-in-waiting” for conservative administrations.

Feulner’s appointment as president in 1977 represented a critical milestone in the construction of the 54-year capture system. By building Heritage into a professionally staffed, well-funded, ideologically focused policy organization, Feulner created essential infrastructure for translating conservative political victories into concrete policy changes. The organization he built would serve as the model for dozens of similar state-level think tanks (coordinated through the State Policy Network, which Scaife also funded heavily) and would directly influence the policy agendas of every Republican administration from Reagan forward, culminating in Heritage’s Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump administration.