Progress and Poverty Institute

Overview

The Progress and Poverty Institute (PPI) is the current name of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation — the century-old institution established in 1925 to promote the economic ideas of Henry George. The foundation announced the renaming in 2025, marking its centennial, presenting it as "a new name, a continuing mission."[1] Its stated mission: to enhance liberty and equality of opportunity through research, outreach, and community-level interventions integrating economic, social, and environmental justice, poverty, and government-granted privileges. Its executive director is Josie Faass.[2]

The name deliberately reclaims George's 1879 title — Progress and Poverty — for a research-forward institutional identity. (Note for disambiguation: PPI is a separate organization from progress.org, the independent publication whose wiki this is, and from the Progress and Poverty Substack.)

Role in the Georgist Research Ecosystem

• Research agenda-setting. PPI published Advancing Land Value Taxation: Research Priorities for 2025 and Beyond, the field's current gap analysis — identifying priority settings such as New Zealand's historical pure-LVT local funding and the Gemmell et al. Auckland natural experiment.[3]
• Funding and infrastructure. Scholarship and grant programs (including a National Tax Association grant presence) and a registry of researchers working on land-value taxation.[2][4]
• 2026 grant cycle. PPI's 2026 "Progress of Ideas" grant program invited proposals (due April 6, 2026, from US 501(c)(3) organizations) on LVT valuation methods, fiscal/distributional modeling, political economy and messaging, and legal/institutional constraints, offering grants of up to $10,000 for projects of up to two years.[5]
• Publishing lineage. As Schalkenbach, the organization spent a century keeping George's works in print and funding scholarship — the publishing history documented on the Schalkenbach page, which covers the pre-2025 era; this page covers the institute going forward.

See Also

• Robert Schalkenbach Foundation — the same organization's first century
• LVT Research Priorities 2025 — its agenda document
• The Modern Georgism of Respected Economists — a PPI-published survey
• Land Value Tax · Henry George

Sources

1. Progress and Poverty Institute, "Announcing The Progress and Poverty Institute: A New Name, a Continuing Mission" (2025). Announcement — used for the renaming, its centennial timing, and the continuity framing (A-claims).
2. Progress and Poverty Institute, "Who We Are." Site — used for the mission statement and executive director (A-claims).
3. Progress and Poverty Institute, Advancing Land Value Taxation: Research Priorities for 2025 and Beyond (2025). Document — used for the research-agenda role (A-claims).
4. National Tax Association, "Progress & Poverty Institute Grant" (2026). NTA — used for the grant program's external footprint (A-claim).
5. Progress and Poverty Institute, "2026 Progress of Ideas Grant Application: Land Value Taxation" (RFP document, 2026). PDF — used for the 2026 grant cycle's scope, eligibility, deadline, and award size (A-claim; primary source).