Di top 50 US tink tanks don collect hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign governments, na wetin one report from Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft tok.

Di report wey dem title Big Ideas and Big Money: Think Tank Funding in America, give five-point transparency score to di top 50 tink tanks for US. Dem use scale wey di institute create based on five binary questions.

“Based on dis criteria, nine of di top 50 tink tanks dey fully transparent, while 23 tink tanks dey partially transparent. Wetin dey worry pass be say di remaining 18 tink tanks na ‘dark money’ tink tanks, wey no dey show who dey fund dem,” di report tok.

Di report show say between 2019-2023, foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities don dash more than $110 million to di top 50 tink tanks.

Gulf states and di UK na di biggest donors, as dem give millions of dollars to US tink tanks.

Among di tink tanks, Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, and German Marshall Fund collect di highest money from foreign governments during di timeframe with $20.8 million, $17.1 million, and $16.1 million respectively.

Di report also show say di US government don directly give at least $1.49 billion to American tink tanks between 2019-2023, and almost all di money ($1.4 billion) enter Rand Corporation pocket.

On top dat one, since 2019, top Pentagon contractors don contribute more than $34.7 million to di tink tanks wey dem study.

Out of di tink tanks wey dey show dia donors, 62 percent collect money from Pentagon contractors, but di real number fit dey higher because many tink tanks dey publish donor list but no dey show corporate contributions, na wetin di report tok.

Eighteen out of di 50 tink tanks wey dem survey na “dark money tink tanks” because dem no dey show who dey fund dem at all. By law, tink tanks no need to publicly identify dia donation sources.

But sometimes, tink tanks go mistakenly expose who dey fund dem. For one American Enterprise Institute event, di moderator mention say Pentagon contractors dey fund di tink tank. E talk say, “we no go fit forget to mention say both Lockheed (Martin) and Northrop (Grumman) dey give philanthropic support to AEI. We dey grateful for dat support,” na wetin di findings show.

Dis kain situation fit cause conflict of interest, as di report tok, because some of dis dark money tink tanks, like AEI, na dem dey among di most prominent tink tanks wey dey testify for Congress.

For 2021, Quincy Institute Senior Advisor Eli Clifton report say less than 30 percent of tink tank-affiliated witnesses wey appear for US House Foreign Affairs Committee dey fully disclose dia donors.