The Alex C. Walker Educational and Charitable Foundation’s mission is to investigate the causes of economic imbalances, seek market-based solutions, protect the free enterprise system, investigate the effect of the financial system in fostering a sustainable economy, and inform the public of the results.

The trustees are guided by the principle of maximizing individual freedom. Nobel Prize winning economist Vernon Smith's work in experimental economics supports the view that individuals should be as free as possible to make their own tradeoffs. Says Smith "Whether we're talking about politics or economics, or even social interactions, the best systems maximize the freedom of the individual, subject to the constraint of others in the system.

Traditional Economics

Alex Walker had a strong philosophy of free enterprise. He believed this system was responsible for the outstanding position of the United States in the family of nations. At the time Alex established the Foundation, the world was divided between two competing economic systems. With the triumph of capitalism over communism, the US economy has become increasingly integrated into the global economy. Responding to this change, the trustees seek to address economic imbalances that may affect the United States within the context of the global economy.

Support of free enterprise is assumed by some to be synonymous with laissez faire economic philosophy - implying that government regulations should be drastically reduced across the board. The trustees hold a more nuanced view that regulations have to be examined on a case-by-case basis. For example, some regulations promote free markets by requiring companies to be accountable to their shareholders. Other regulations hinder market competition by creating special-interest benefits. The Foundation seeks projects that improve market accountability and economic efficiency.

Ecological Economics

Responding to an increasing number of grant applications on the topic, the Foundation began investigating changes to the environment as an emerging cause of economic imbalances. As chronicled in the section on the history of the Foundation in the industrial city of Pittsburgh, economic activity can result in environmental damage, which unless corrected, constrains future prosperity. The kinds of environmental problems faced by Pittsburgh at the end of World War II have now become commonplace and larger in scale. In response, the trustees have developed an expertise in the field and are funding an increasing number of solution-oriented grants in ecological economics.

Learn how Alex Walker's hometown revived its economy through a pioneering clean up effort, and how this experience helped define the Walker Foundation's goals.

Air and Water Crisis in Pittsburgh

Economists have long recognized the failure of markets to adequately address certain problems. As the world’s growing population creates ever more demands on the services of nature, markets are increasingly blamed for environmental harm. However, markets create wealth that can be applied to addressing environmental degradation. The trustees view this imbalance as being one of the greatest challenges of our generation.

Rather than constrain markets through restraints on trade or command-and-control regulation, the trustees seek to fund innovative solutions that harness markets to protect the world’s ecosystems. Recognizing that ecosystems provide clean air, clean water, climate regulation and other essential services of nature, for which there is no substitute, it is essential for our economic well-being and the future of our children that market activity is sustainable.

One of the purposes of the Foundation is to promote a sustainable economy through a sound national accounting system. A growing number of economists recognize that the current system does not account for ecosystem services, also known as nature's services. Some examples of these services are climate moderation, provision of clean water through the hydrological cycle, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, and provision of seafood. Generally these services are taken for granted. Just as markets provide an abundance of manufactured goods through the principle of supply and demand, the pricing of ecosystem ecosystem services has the potential to avoid scarcity and maintain a healthy economy.

The Foundation has funded a number of innovative and diverse approaches that develop the concept of ecosystem valuation and which are producing good, promising results. Following are three examples.

Our longest running project charged for ecosystem services that were previously free. "Implementing Ecosystem Valuation as a Global Conservation and Economic Development Strategy" was a cooperative project with the Nature Conservancy that established user fees that pay for scientific monitoring and development of visitation plans at key preserve systems and World Heritage sites.

Another service of nature is the provision of seafood. Our program on "Rights-Based Fisheries" is a unique partnership of market, environmental, and public policy organizations sharing a common goal of promoting sustainable management by developing fishing rights that reward better stewardship. The program works with fishermen to apply proven rights-based strategies such as individual fishing quotas, catch shares, and harvest cooperatives.

The third example is a series of grants we provided to Defenders of Wildlife to create and account for economic benefits from the first reintroduction in the United States of a species that was officially extinct in the wild. Federal subsidies for predator control, along with habitat loss, led in 1980 led to the Eastern Red Wolf being declared extinct in the wild. Fewer than twenty surviving individuals were captured and successfully bred until there were enough captive animals to begin a reintroduction program in northeastern North Carolina. Wolf reintroduction can benefit local economies by bringing more tourist dollars. The Foundation funded a study "Red Wolves: Creating Economic Opportunity through Ecotourism in Rural North Carolina, followed by stakeholder meetings and an educational displays. The meetings identified numerous ways in which the wolves have created benefits that are not accounted for in the economic system. The project has expanded to investigate how monetizing environmental goods may help foster a sustainable rural economy in red wolf country

All of these projects create market mechanisms in the form of feedback loops or systems of checks and balances. Highly evolved natural systems, such as rainforests and coral reefs function in much the same way through feedback mechanisms that cycle nutrients, and other scarce resources. These natural systems have evolved to moderate rapid change in the local environment. Our goal is to learn from the science of ecology and develop economic systems that are sustainable and robust.

In summary, the Foundation seeks market approaches for addressing economic imbalances and protecting our environment.