The State Policy Network (SPN) is an umbrella group of right-wing think tanks in states across the country.

The Alaska Policy Forum (APF) is SPNs cookie-cutter think tank for the state of Alaska. While APF claims to be focused on issues important to the people of Alaska, it actually pushes an agenda dictated by its national right-wing funders and partners.

Defund and privatize Alaska's public schools through vouchers Block access to affordable healthcare for Alaskan families Oppose renewable energy and pollution protections
Alaska Policy Forum, accessed 9/9/2013

In June 2011, Alaska Policy Forums Bob Griffin was confronted by Anchorage Police School Resource Officers after a concerned bus driver reported a suspicious vehicle stalking school buses as they dropped children off from school. Griffin had been following the buses, counting school children as a means of data-collection for an Alaska Policy Forum study. Griffin, who had waged two unsuccessful school board campaigns, never contacted the school to inform them of the study. The practice of literally counting school children as they got off the bus was apparently considered a legitimate scientific research method by the Alaska Policy Forum.

The Alaska Policy Forum is not required to disclose its donors to the public, and refuses to do so voluntarily. Therefore little is known about the funding behind the organization. The only known funding source is Donors Capital Fund, a secretive Koch-funded conservative organization, known as the "dark money ATM of the conservative movement." Donors Capital Fund has contributed $192,000 to APF between 2009 and 2010.

In April 2010, the Alaska Dispatch detailed the Alaska Policy Forums lack of disclosure around the groups funding and statehouse reporting. At the time, APF was hiring a full time investigative reporter to cover the Alaska Legislature, although APF executives refused to disclose where the organizations funding came from. APF claimed they had a confidentiality agreement with its donors, which required APF to keep the names of individuals and organizations that gave money to APF secret. APF did acknowledge the majority of its donations came from outside Alaska.