Population Resource Center

The Population Resource Center (initially called “Projects for Population Action”) was the product of Henry McIntyre’s visionary concern. McIntyre, who served as the Chairman of the Board until 1982, established the Center in 1975 to stimulate greater foundation interest in funding “population” programs by providing them with professional assistance in understanding and evaluating the relevance of population issues to their own fields of interest. At the time, less than one percent of foundation funding was directed toward population-related activities.

In the 1970’s the Center set up offices in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC., and established several committees of experts to demonstrate to foundations the relevance of population issues to a variety of broad economic and social concerns, such as health, energy, environment and resources, youth, women, the elderly, urbanization and rural development, economics and business.

Gradually, however, the Center shifted its focus from educating the donor community to educating policymakers about the policy implications of population growth and demographic change. In 1979, the Center entered into a formal partnership with the Population Association of America (PAA), a professional association of demographers. As part of that partnership, the Center monitored Congressional activity to identify areas where demographic analysis could inform and elevate the policy debate. With the cooperation of PAA, the Center each year brought dozens of demographic experts to Washington to brief Members of Congress and their staffs on key demographic trends and their relevance to important economic, environmental, and social issues.

While the partnership with PAA expired in 1988, the Center has continued to elevate and inform Congressional policy deliberations by bringing leading demographic experts to brief Congress on a host of critical issues, including global poverty, reproductive health, the environment, immigration, climate change, and teen pregnancy.

During the late 1980's, with support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Center expanded into the international arena. A sister project was started in Africa: The Environment and Population Centre of Zambia.  Similar program development began in Mexico, Costa Rica and Indonesia. The Center also joined the African Development Bank in developing an international conference “Africa in the 21^st Century.”

Beginning in 1993, the Center secured funding for programs on new aspects of domestic policy such as the prevention of teen pregnancy and welfare reform. With grants from the Houston Endowment, The Erik and Edith Bergstrom Foundation and the Educational Foundation of America, the Center produced programs to encourage individuals in states with responsibility for implementing welfare reform to increase the expenditure of funds to prevent teen pregnancy. In recent years, the Center has continued working with state and local policymakers in expanding and improving teen pregnancy prevention programs.

In 1997, with the impetus of the United Nations Kyoto environmental conference, PRC received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to organize a series of programs for members of Congress and staff on the relationship between population growth and increased greenhouse gas emissions. In 1999, the Center received a one million dollar four-year matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to organize 20 programs per year for Congressional staff, state and local policymakers and key constituencies on the impact of population growth on health and the environment.

The Center also supports the decennial census and the collection and analysis of demographic data. In preparation for the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, the Center worked closely with regional area foundations to involve state and local organizations in an effort to improve the accuracy of the census and reduce the undercount of minorities and underserved populations. In 2001 and 2002, the Center received funding from the Ford Foundation to educate policymakers about the important demographic data collected by the “long form” used in the decennial census. 

The work of the Center has been generously supported by small private donations and foundation grants. Over the years, it has received major support from the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the W. W. Kellogg Foundation, the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

In 1989, PRC moved its New York City office to Princeton, NJ and closed its San Francisco Office. The Center’s Washington office has been in continuous operation since 1975. Jane S. DeLung, who served as President for nearly 20 years, retired in 2007 and was succeeded by Robert J. Walker. M. Faith Mitchell, the Chair of the Center’s Board of Directors, succeeded Dr. Wayne Holtzman in 2004, who served as chair since 1999.