Leadership Institute

http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/

501(c)(3) nonprofit
Employer Identification Number: 51-0235174

Founded in 1979, the Arlington, Virginia-based organization identifies, recruits, trains and places conservatives in the public policy process. Considered by some as the farm system of the Republican Party, the institute claims to have trained over 74,000 students and helped 12,000 conservative student organizations around the country, including Karl Rove, Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and several Fox News reporters.

The Institute is lead Morton Blackwell, a former College Republican state chairman and Young Republican state chairman in Louisiana and a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan. Housed in a five-story building with dormitories, classrooms and television studies, the group is financed almost entirely by wealthy Republican individuals and philanthropies. While calling itself nonpartisan, there is no doubt that the group is conservative. It hails itself as the premier training ground for tomorrows conservative leaders.

The groups mainly operates through its training course, which trains young and old conservatives alike in the area of public speaking, journalism, internet activism and how to run for office. Its training courses are taught around the country. In 2008, the group conducted 344 training courses.