Frequently Asked Questions

John and Mary Markle established the Foundation in 1927, “to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge among the people of the United States, and to promote the general good of mankind.” Over the years and with each successive leader, the focus of the Foundation’s work has evolved without ever straying from John and Mary Markle’s original vision of creating a better world through the advancement and dissemination of knowledge.

Markle’s work in health, national security, and the economy focuses on how to catalyze change across the sectors to improve the lives of Americans. Technology often provides an important means to this end.

When technology is woven into the fabric of institutions that serve and protect people, information becomes a powerful tool for addressing critical public needs and empowering individuals to improve their lives. Learn more About Markle.

Markle’s current initiative, Rework America, is focused on accelerating innovations that use the forces of technology and globalization to return opportunities to Americans in today’s rapidly changing networked economy.

Connecting for Health was a public-private collaborative of government, industry, technology, consumer, and health care leaders. This collaborative has worked to catalyze the widespread changes needed to realize the full potential of health information technology, while protecting patient privacy and the security of personal health information.

The Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age brought together a diverse panel of security experts from the past six presidential administrations, as well as numerous thought leaders from both the private and public sectors.

Markle Task Force members’ expertise has encompassed technology, government, industry, policy development, and civil liberties. Many of the Markle Task Force’s recommendations for building a trusted information environment have been incorporated in federal legislation and executive order.

Markle has demonstrated that bringing together the knowledge and experience of the public and private sectors can provide a formula for addressing previously intractable public problems. This strategy has proven successful in finding common ground and building consensus as well as promoting innovation among a broad spectrum of experts in government, industry, and the non-profit sector.

This collaborative approach has been the driving force behind three important Markle initiatives, and the work of these initiatives has gained widespread acceptance, as evidenced by the enactment of major federal laws consistent with Markle principles and the development of new technologies over the last 15 years.

As part of its mission, the Markle Foundation aspires to use its assets wisely to achieve the greatest possible impact. We believe that making our work openly available and free to the public will contribute to this mission. Our intention is to assure that the intellectual fruits of the works we develop and commission, other than material of purely internal application, are easy to find and available for sharing in order to maximize their impact and hence the public benefit. Therefore, a Creative Commons license applies to publications, reports and videos which bear the Creative Commons symbol.

Documents posted on this website which do not bear the Creative Commons symbol also exist to serve our mission to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge. You are free to read the documents online or download them for your own reference. You may also create links to our materials on your own website or social networks.

If you are interested in reprinting, redistributing, or referencing any portion of our work not marked with a Creative Commons symbol in your own publications, please contact us at [email protected] for permissions, attribution language, or additional information.

We have found that the most effective way for us to leverage our resources is to structure and operate our own projects in cooperation with our partners, instead of working as a traditional grant-making organization. Therefore, we do not accept unsolicited grant applications.

Markle’s approach entails convening multi-sector groups of leaders and innovators from technology, government, public interest organizations, and business to bring about the technical and policy changes needed to enable breakthroughs in the public interest. We seek out partners who can make valuable contributions toward achieving our common goals.

Please review the descriptions provided on our Rework America, Health and National Security pages, or contact us at [email protected] for more information.

The forms are available here: Tax Forms