Free To Choose Network
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Free To Choose® Network is a global entertainment and distribution organization focused on creating compelling documentaries that stimulate thought and cultivate conversations. Our award-winning productions offer fresh perspectives on important issues; they are real stories about real people. Equally important to our productions is our commitment to educating children and opening their minds to a world of possibilities. Through our educational affiliate, izzit.org®, we produce and distribute video-centric educational units that encourage thoughtful consideration and critical thinking. By way of powerful storytelling, Free To Choose Network inspires curiosity, elicits emotion, and opens the door for real conversations about issues that affect all of humanity. Free To Choose Network is a global media 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
izzit.org
izzit.org is a not-for-profit that provides educational material designed to promote critical thinking about improving people's lives, and spark curiosity and lively debate.
Free To Choose Media
Free To Choose Media produces thought-provoking public television programs and series, offering diverse voices, powerful stories, and a fresh perspective on a range of important global and national issues.
The Idea Channel
The Idea channel hosts videos of conversations held by and between some of the world's greatest thinkers.
Capitaf
We are the proud keepers of Capitaf (Cap-i-taf), a private space nestled in the Vermont mountains and once the summer home of Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose. Capitaf gives us a facility ideally suited for creative brainstorming, scholarly debate, quiet contemplation, and intellectual collaboration. It is available to scholars, students, business and government leaders, and those who seek to understand and consider how to apply Friedman’s insights to the challenges of our world today.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of product's released (such as audio/visual series, teaching units, course, e-books, etc.).
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
This is the number of total programs or materials produced each year. Examples, in 2020, A More of Less Perfect Union, 2019, Sweden, 2018, School Inc.
Total number of product's released (such as audio/visual series, teaching units, course, e-books, etc.).
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We want to instill a respect and appreciation for personal, economic, and political freedoms; a belief in and promotion of free-markets and entrepreneurial solutions to problems, and a limited government.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Whether it is a documentary film from Free To Choose Media, a teaching unit video from izzit.org, or a shorter "new media" piece on a number of social media platforms, we strive to give viewers a fresh perspective on any given issue with a "gee, I never thought of it that way before" moment. The compelling personal stories in our video programs spark critical thinking in the viewer, and are in lock-step with our Corporate Purpose: to use accessible and entertaining media to build popular support for personal, economic, and political freedom thus advancing human well-being.
The more content we can create, the more we can inspire a fresh look at any issue. This approach leads the viewer to do their own research and learn independent of any popular opinion or prevailing thought.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have been making high-quality, award-winning multimedia for a mass audience for 35+ years. We take our name from our first production, the seminal 10-hour public television miniseries "Free To Choose," featuring Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman.
In that time, via our documentary film division, Free To Choose Media, we have become highly respected in the public television universe, and stations across the country actively seek our programming. Executives in the largest media markets have told us we provide perspectives to a public television audience that is lacking and do so in a way that fulfills the very creation of public television in the first place.
Our educational affiliate, izzit.org, provides supplemental educational DVDs to teachers in the classroom and young learners directly via streaming video. Just as our documentaries do, our teaching videos provide new perspectives to students, sparking debate, curiosity, and critical thinking skills that last a lifetime and extend beyond the video's subject matter.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our work never ends. Everyone is now a potential student or has the ability to find information on any topic on a smartphone or other device, and we will continue to add content that offers viewers more to consider when they do.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Free To Choose Network
Board of directorsas of 02/24/2023
Mr. Chris Rufer
The Morning Star Company
Term: 2022 - 2023
Chris J. Rufer
The Morning Star Company
Preston Cody
Wood Mackenzie
David Jorgensen
Brian Singer
William Blair and Company
Ronald H. Muhlenkamp
Muhlenkamp and Co., Inc.
Andrew Walters
Wayne Olson
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Maryjo Cohen
National Presto Industries, Inc.
Thomas Martin
Stephanie Lips
Donors Trust Inc.
Mark Chitester
Rob Chatfield
Free To Choose Network
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data