The OvertonInstitute
Five programs to move the Overton Window.
Each one exists to serve the mission. Free speech and research are the foundation; everything else serves to reach the people who should know it.
Research and policy
The Institute conducts and publishes original research on public policy questions facing the United States and Europe: reports, data series, policy papers and short analyses of current events. Every publication states its sources, its method and its limits, presents the relevant facts fully enough for a reader to reach their own conclusion, and is available to the public without charge. The Institute takes positions where the evidence supports them.
In plain words: we study the questions the West is reluctant to discuss, we say what we find, and we show how we found it. Demography, migration, energy, security, economics, speech, sovereignty: any question the mission covers. Named authors, published data, fast answers when events demand them.
Political engagement
The Institute brings its research to the people who make policy. It briefs legislators, officials, parties and their staff in the United States and Europe, publishes dossiers on the questions it studies, convenes conferences and closed-door meetings where policymakers, scholars and practitioners discuss them, and organizes delegations and exchanges between the two continents. The Institute does not endorse, oppose, fund or assist any candidate, party or campaign, and it does not act for any government or party.
In plain words: the work is only useful if the people who decide have read it. We put it in front of them, on both sides of the Atlantic, and we bring them into the same room.
Media and education
The Institute produces and publishes educational media on the questions it studies: video and audio series, explainers, interviews and documentary work, under its own editorial control and to the same evidentiary standard as its written research. It trains writers, producers and researchers in research methods, production and media law. It awards the Overton Fellowship to individuals selected by open call against published criteria, for a defined program of research or educational work that the Institute publishes.
In plain words: the research reaches a wider public as shows, films and explainers that we make and own. We train the next generation of people who can do this work, and the Overton Fellowship pays for a defined piece of it.
Europe
The Institute works in Europe as it works in the United States: it researches, publishes, briefs and convenes. It does so from the United States, through contractors and events in Europe, and through grants to European nonprofit organizations for specific research and educational projects that the Institute selects.
In plain words: the questions are the same on both continents and so is the work. We fund European research and education projects that align with our mission.
Legal aid for free speech cases
The Institute provides legal aid to persons of limited means who face civil or administrative proceedings, or criminal charges, arising from lawful speech, publication or research on matters of public concern. Eligibility is decided under published financial and matter criteria. Aid takes the form of counsel's fees paid directly to counsel for defensive and injunctive matters. The Institute does not select recipients by their views, does not pay fines or damages, does not take matters involving violence or incitement to violence, and does not assist any candidate or campaign.
In plain words: people who cannot afford a lawyer should not lose the right to speak because of it. We pay the lawyer.