Company Profile
Company Overview
The Stanley Foundation advances multilateral action to create fair, just, and lasting solutions to critical issues of peace and security. The foundation's work is built on a belief that greater international cooperation will improve global governance and enhance global citizenship. The organization values its Midwestern roots and family heritage as well as its role as a nonpartisan, private operating foundation.
Company History
The Stanley Foundation and its work grow out of a Midwestern family’s commitment to advance a world in which there is a secure peace with freedom and justice.
C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley created the Stanley Foundation in 1956. Max Stanley was a professional engineer, businessman, and world citizen. His deep interest in global security and international organizations in an increasingly interdependent world were reflected in his extensive writing and speaking. Betty Stanley shared her husband’s interest in world affairs. She supported the arts, encouraged environmental responsibility, and worked to improve education.
From the outset, the foundation was intended to have family members deeply engaged in its governance and policy direction. The initial Board of Directors consisted of the two founders and their children. Max Stanley served as president until his death in 1984. He was succeeded by the founders’ son, Richard H. Stanley, also a professional engineer, businessman, and world citizen. Dick served as president until 2007 and continued as board chair until shortly before his death in 2017.
Programming began modestly. Policy work started in 1960 with the Strategy for Peace Conference. The first Conference on the United Nations of the Next Decade was held in 1965, the 20th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The first paid staff member was hired in 1967. Project Enrichment, the initial community-education program, began in local Muscatine, Iowa, schools in 1971. Over the years, programming has grown and changed, guided by periodic reviews and adjustments, to sharpen focus and address developing needs and opportunities.
In 1989, a two-tier governance structure was installed to facilitate increased family and community involvement in governance. Selected community or non-family members were added to bring needed perspectives and skills to foundation governance, supplementing those provided by growing numbers of family members. The first community member joined the board in 1996. Family members now hold more than two-thirds of the governance positions. Most of these are third-generation, but fourth-generation participation is beginning. In 1999, the position of board chair was created so that the president could be a paid staff position while retaining a voluntary unpaid chair. The first paid president was elected in 2007.
The Stanley Foundation advocates principled multilateralism in the conduct of world affairs. It supports a global governance system based on laws, rules, and norms that can address pressing global challenges in peace and security. It interacts actively with governments, international institutions, and non-state actors. It maintains a long-term, independent, and nonpartisan perspective while promoting collaborative approaches and multilateral solutions.
The foundation is a private operating foundation that works from its Muscatine office. It carries out its own programming and does not make grants to others. It often collaborates with other organizations that share common goals. Governance, finances, and leadership are managed to maintain continuity.