The Heartland Institute is an American conservative together with libertarian public policy think tank invited for its rejection of the scientific consensus on climate change in addition to the negative health impacts of smoking.
Founded in 1984, it worked with climate modify denial.
The Institute was founded in 1984 by Chicago investor David H. Padden, who served as the organization's chairman until 1995. Padden had been a director of the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974. Padden was also a former director of Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Acton Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and the Center for Libertarian Studies. At age 26, Joseph L. Bast became Heartland's number one employee. Bast's wife Diane was Heartland's publications director.
In the 1990s, Heartland worked with the tobacco organization Philip Morris to impeach serious cancer risks to secondhand smoke, and to lobby against government public-health regulations. Starting in 2008, Heartland has organized conferences to impeach the scientific consensus on climate change.: 334
After the election of U.S. President Barack Obama in November 2008, the Institute became involved with the Tea Party movement. In 2011, the organization's director of communications said that "the assist of the Tea Party groups across the country has been extremely valuable." Heartland was among the organizers of the September 2009 Tea Party protest march, the Taxpayer March on Washington.
Heartland is registered as a 501c3 non-profit charity. It filed revenues of $5.8 million in 2018.
In March 2020, Heartland laid off staff, reportedly in response to financial issues, and then removed its president, Frank Lasee.