Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, DC that was founded in 1916 when philathropist Robert S. Brookings joined a group of leading reformers to create the first private organization devoted to “the fact-based study of national public policy issues.”¹ Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, particularly in the fields of economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development.²  The think tank states that its mission is to "provide innovative and practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system."³ 

The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Source: Author/Wikimedia Commons. Author: Gryffindor. Permission: Released to Public Domain.

The Brookings Institution, which was originally called the "Institute for Government Research (IGR)," started as one of three organizes established during the same period by its founder Robert S. Bookings.  The other two, the Institute of Economics (1922) and a graduate school (1924), were merged into IGR in 1927 for form the current Brookings Institution.⁴