12500 N.E. 10th Place
Bellevue, Washington 98005
Phone: 206-455-5038
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A group of entrepreneurs, educators, and legislators and students who were concerned about restrictions being imposed on America's free enterprise system founded the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise on July 4, 1976, believing that a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) educational foundation was needed to underwrite education projects. Today the center relies on volunteer attorneys for approximately 20 percent of its legal work and occasionally uses student interns to supplement the efforts of its staff of four. Its annual operating budget is about $80,000, with the largest segment of this-60 percent-coming from private contributions. An additional 20 percent comes from foundations, with 10 percent coming each from membership fees and corporate funding. Publications and other public information consume 70 percent of the budget; 20 percent is spent on litigation activities.
Most of these litigation activities are in the form of the submission of amicus curiae briefs "to get conservative free enterprise principles into case law to assure their future." Some of this amicus activity has been in coordination with the Pacific Legal Foundation,* the Mountain States Legal Foundation,* and Oregonians for Food and Shelter.
