Frequently Asked Questions
SLLF is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, independent organization, established in 1972 to represent all Senate Presidents, Speakers of the House, Majority Leaders, Minority Leaders, and Pro Tempores. Our mission aptly sums up our purpose: to educate and inspire our nation’s current and future state legislative leaders to excellence, without regard for party, politics, or ideology.
SLLF receives most of its funding from the private sector in the form of annual dues, grants, and program sponsorship fees. The Foundation’s principal source of funds is its 70-member Advisory Council, made up of representatives of leading corporations.
The members of the SLLF Advisory Council are invited to attend and participate in the Foundation’s educational programs. These representatives of leading corporations and businesses play a valuable role enriching the classroom discussions and promoting new public/private partnerships.
Most SLLF programs are held in partnership with universities and colleges and focus on critical public policy issues and insights on effective leadership. Universities and their faculties help insure that all SLLF programs are nonpartisan, focusing on facts and proven strategies. As a sign of the Foundation’s nonpartisan standing, equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, attend SLLF programs.
Our overarching goal is to provide objectivity, accuracy, and balance. Our university partnerships help us ensure we meet these high standards.
- SLLF is exclusively focused on state legislative leaders. It is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose sole political constituency is the 349 men and women who lead our nation’s 50 state legislatures.
- Our educational programs are widely judged as the finest in the land. Legislative leaders and business leaders consistently use such adjectives as: thoughtful, relevant, insightful, useful, and enjoyable, to describe their experiences at SLLF events.
- Unlike many other organizations, SLLF never advocates positions on public policy. Our goal is to inform the debate by providing legislative leaders and business leaders withthe facts and with options to consider when responding to a given issue or when exercising good leadership.
- SLLF does not accept public funds.
- To ensure a vigorous dialogue, all SLLF programs are intimate in size. Generally, no more than 40 state legislative leaders take part in any single SLLF program. Customarily they are joined by a similar cohort of Advisory Council members.
- Our staff is the best! They are experienced, smart and dedicated.
All Senate Presidents, Speakers of the House, Majority Leaders, and Minority Leaders are eligible to attend SLLF programs. Over the course of a normal calendar year SLLF will hold 8-10 national and international programs. All legislative leaders are invited to these programs with the exception of leadership programs designated for specific cohorts of leaders, e.g., the National Speakers Conference, The Majority Leaders Conference, the Women in Leadership program.
One of the most important decisions SLLF makes every year is what issues to address in its national programs. A number of factors are taken into consideration including the overall significance of a particular issue, now and in the future, and our ability to examine a given issue in a thoughtful manner that does not simply replicate what has already been said.