The Scaife Foundations disburse funds from the Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon family fortunes, and owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The grantees are primarily conservative organizations, especially the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, and Hoover Institution. Adjusted for inflation, the contributions described in a 1999 Washington Post article would be approximately $620 million.[1]
Other groups, funded through the multiple family foundations (Sarah Scaife, the Carthage, the Allegheny, and the Scaife Family) include: [2]
Recipients do not fall into one conservative ideology, ranging from the "paleoconservative" Free Congress Foundation to the libertarian Cato Institute. Some, such as CSIS, are often considered reasonably centrist, and others of more visibly conservative ideology, still have a reputation for careful research.