peter g. Peterson foundation | Progress report

Pathways to A  brighter future
Peter g. peterson foundation

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to addressing America’s long-term fiscal challenges to ensure a better economic future.

Fiscal Sustainability & Economic Growth

Effective Democracy

Pathways to 
Fiscal Sustainability 
& Economic Growth

Advancing Policy Solutions

The Peterson Foundation provides a platform for leading thinkers and policymakers to have constructive discussions about our fiscal future.

Solutions Initiative

America’s fiscal challenges are serious, but they are also solvable. The Solutions Initiative convenes respected policy organizations from across the political spectrum to highlight the wide variety of options that can put America on a stronger, more sustainable fiscal path.

Solutions Initiative 2024: Charting a Brighter Future brought together seven leading research organizations: the American Action Forum, the American Enterprise Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for American Progress, the Economic Policy Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and the Progressive Policy Institute. All seven groups proposed comprehensive plans that would successfully lower and stabilize our debt through a combination of spending and revenue reforms.

The Solutions Initiative demonstrates that many solutions exist and, no matter your political outlook, there are good options to chart a brighter future for America.

Expert Views

The Peterson Foundation’s Expert Views essay series convenes leading voices to offer ideas, insights and analysis surrounding our nation’s fiscal and economic challenges.

With authors including former Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Rob Portman; economists Mark Zandi, Nela Richardson and Diane Swonk; and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, these substantive essays provide a range of perspectives to explore and explain the current policy landscape.

Expert Views authors have examined the connection between inflation, interest and the national debt, opportunities for bipartisan policymaking under divided government, and how best to structure a fiscal commission to achieve comprehensive deficit reduction.

Economic Forums

The Peterson Foundation Economic Forum brings together thought leaders shaping the future of our nation for in-depth conversations on America’s most pressing issues.
The Economic Forum is a live, virtual conversation with respected fiscal and economic experts, featuring live questions from the audience. Guests have included Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel, and respected economists Austan Goolsbee, Bill Gale, Nela Richardson and William Dudley.

Key Policy Research Grants

Through strategic grants and partnerships, the Peterson Foundation supports policy research and educational initiatives from respected organizations representing a variety of perspectives. Examples of our partners include:

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact. The Peterson Foundation supports CRFB’s work to advance fiscal sustainability and budget reform through research, outreach, and public engagement.

Bipartisan Policy Center

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a nonprofit organization that encourages across-the-aisle policymaking, providing Republicans and Democrats with the space, policy insights, and evidence-based research they need to negotiate in good faith and find common ground. The Peterson Foundation supports BPC’s work to produce bipartisan research and analysis on fiscal and economic policy solutions, including proposals to reform the debt limit and strengthen Social Security.

Manhattan Institute

The Manhattan Institute is a center-right public policy think tank dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in America. The Peterson Foundation supports the Manhattan Institute’s work to advance fiscal solutions through original research and analysis related to fiscal responsibility and outreach to policymakers and the media about the importance of the issue.

Progressive Policy Institute

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a center-left think tank focused on policy innovation and political reform to move America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. The Peterson Foundation supports PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future, which develops fiscally responsible policy proposals to strengthen public investments in the foundation of our economy, modernize health and retirement programs, transform our tax code and put the national debt on a downward trajectory.

Engaging Americans

PGPF Website

With original content, interactive tools and a deep library of substantive resources, pgpf.org is a dynamic educational hub for millions of users. Our timely research and analysis enhances the policy conversation by explaining the fiscal challenge, outlining solutions and empowering Americans with accessible and insightful content.

Featured Website Content

WEBSITE USERS

2.7m +

The PGPF website passed the 1-million-user mark for the first time in 2019, and by 2023 had amassed an audience of 2.7 million users.

The Federal Government Has Borrowed Trillions. Who Owns All that Debt?

Most federal debt is owed to domestic holders, but foreign ownership is much higher now than it was about 50 years ago.

Why Are Americans Paying More for Healthcare?

High healthcare spending is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it leads to better health outcomes. However, that is not the case in the United States.

Should We Eliminate the Social Security Tax Cap?

There have been a number of proposals to increase, eliminate, or otherwise adjust the payroll tax cap as a way to shore up Social Security’s finances.

National Debt Clock

In 2019, the Peterson Foundation installed national debt clocks in cities across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Cleveland, Des Moines and Milwaukee, reminding Americans about this critical issue during their daily commutes. The constantly-updated clocks provide the current national debt amount, as well as the total debt per person in America, serving as a reminder of this challenge to our shared future.

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Media

The Peterson Foundation regularly works with journalists to inform the policy conversation and serve as a source for unbiased, fact-based resources about America’s fiscal and economic challenges. CEO Michael Peterson and other staff members are resources providing nonpartisan commentary and analysis for global, national, regional, and trade media outlets.

Fiscal Confidence Index

The Fiscal Confidence Index (FCI) is a monthly survey that provides timely insights on the public’s views about our fiscal and economic condition, and the progress elected leaders are making in addressing it.

Modeled after the Consumer Confidence Index, FCI helps policymakers, members of the media, and the American public gauge voters’ views on the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges. Since its inception in 2012, the survey has consistently shown that Americans hold deep concerns about the level of our debt, and they urge policymakers to make addressing our fiscal and economic future a top priority.

Key Engagement Grants

The Peterson Foundation has developed a range of innovative grant partnerships to engage new audiences and broaden the policy conversation.

The Fiscal Ship

The Fiscal Ship, developed by the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution and the Wilson Center, is an interactive online game that challenges players to put the budget on a sustainable course while meeting policy goals.

Optional Link

Marketplace

Beginning in 2023, the Peterson Foundation provided a multi-year grant to Marketplace to enhance the outlet’s U.S. fiscal news-making capacity across radio, digital, podcast and social platforms. Marketplace journalists create audio and written reports delving into America’s long-term fiscal challenges and their human impacts. Marketplace hosts public fiscal events that engage a range of stakeholders.

Optional Link

Developing Future Fiscal and Economic Leaders

Empowering Young People

The next generation has the most to gain, and the most at stake, in how we build our fiscal and economic future. The Peterson Foundation is committed to engaging young Americans in a critical conversation about the rising national debt and ways to manage it. We have developed a range of programs to empower and inspire the next generation to build the future they want.

Up to Us

Up to Us is the only nationwide, campus-based program focused on building a sustainable economic and fiscal future for America's next generation. The nonpartisan program empowers college student leaders who come together to learn about fiscal policy, deepen their leadership skills, and build a community that can take action to advocate for a more prosperous and inclusive economic future.

Through a range of programs, including an intensive multi-week Campus Competition, Leadership Bootcamp, and classroom-based events, these emerging student leaders educate and engage their peers on the risks presented by America's unsustainable debt. With programming developed in collaboration with Net Impact and the Clinton Global Initiative University, Up to Us has created a movement of student leaders who have reached more than 500,000 students on hundreds of campuses in all 50 states since its launch in 2012.

Fiscal Challenge

The Fiscal Challenge brings the classroom to the Capitol through an annual competition that utilizes experiential learning to enhance students’ understanding of fiscal policy. The competition mobilizes teams of students from around the country to devise and defend their own plans for putting the United States on a sustainable fiscal path. The 2024 competition engaged representatives from more than 40 colleges.

Fiscal Internship Program

The Peterson Foundation Fiscal Internship Program offers full-time paid internships to college and graduate school students interested in fiscal policy at a set of public policy institutions. Interns live and work in Washington, D.C., for 10 weeks during the summer, while gaining professional experience, skills and contacts that will serve them throughout their careers.

Student Debt Smarter

For many young people, taking on a student loan is their first experience with debt. Student Debt Smarter is a simple and easy-to-understand free online resource aimed at helping prospective college students make informed, data-backed decisions about their student loans. Student Debt Smarter’s Affordability Calculator provides customized, relevant and accurate information about how a specific major, college, year of enrollment, and living location can affect the affordability of student loans. The website also includes independent resources to help students navigate the complex process of applying for financial aid, scholarships, and grants.

Key Leadership Grants

Howard University and WISER

Pete Peterson established the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in 2008 to raise awareness of America’s long-term fiscal challenges and promote solutions to ensure a better economic future. As a non-partisan organization, the Foundation works to put America on a fiscally sustainable path and protect the American Dream that Pete was so fortunate to have lived.

Pathways to 
Effective Democracy

The Peterson Foundation works to achieve a healthy democracy by fostering conditions that support effective, constructive, and forward-looking policymaking.

Election Trust Initiative

The Peterson Foundation has partnered with the Klarman Family Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to establish the Election Trust Initiative (ETI). This nonpartisan grantmaking organization works to strengthen the field of election administration and is guided by the principle that America’s election systems must be secure, transparent, accurate, and convenient. The initiative supports researchers, policymakers, election administrators and other organizations working to illuminate challenges, highlight successes, and bring evidence-based solutions to scale.

Key ETI Grants

R Street Institute and SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University: to engage community leaders to improve nonpartisan election administration and foster confidence in states’ election systems.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Lab (MDSL): to conduct and coordinate research to generate actionable, trusted, empirical evidence for the election policy and practice community.
Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC): to advance efforts to address workforce challenges in election administration, including recruitment, retention, and training.
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL): to update its public state elections legislation database, develop nonpartisan programs on election policy and practice for legislators and legislative staff and build connections between policymakers and election administrators.
Verified Voting: to increase its capacity to help election offices implement evidence-based election security, accuracy, and transparency practices.

All Peterson Foundation Grants

Since April 1, 2018, the Foundation has distributed 337 grants to 87 grantees.

list of grantees

990 Tax Forms