John and Mary Markle established the Foundation in 1927, "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge among the people of the United States, and to promote the general good of mankind." Over the years and with each successive leader, the focus of the Foundation's work has undergone increasingly innovative refinements without ever straying from John and Mary Markle's original vision of creating a better world through the advancement and dissemination of knowledge.

Learn more about John and Mary Markle.
View the Markle Timeline and see how each leader helped to shape the work of the Foundation.

The "connective tissue" between these two seemingly unrelated concerns is Information Technology.

When technology is woven into the fabric of institutions that serve and protect people, information becomes a powerful tool for addressing critical public needs and empowering individuals to improve their lives.

The Foundation works with many collaborators from both the public and private sectors to promote the development of new technologies to achieve two principal goals:

• To strengthen our nation's security while protecting the civil liberties of its citizens.
• To modernize our complex and over-burdened health care system while preserving personal privacy.

In each of these areas, we know that the effective and appropriate use of information technology can — and does — save lives. We also know that our nation's goals in both of these areas cannot be met without applying advancements in technology, and that the development of new technologies must be guided by carefully deliberated policies.

Read Building Trusted Information-Sharing Environments for National Security and Health Care by Zoë Baird, president of The Markle Foundation.

The Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age comprises a panel of security experts from five presidential administrations, as well as numerous thought leaders from both the private and public sectors. The Task Force members' expertise encompasses technology, government, industry, policy development, and civil liberties.

The federal government has used the Task Force's recommendations for building a trusted information environment to enact many important reforms through legislation and executive order. These new national strategies have facilitated the flow of information among agencies at the federal, state, and local level, the private sector, and international partners.

Read a summary of the work of the Markle Task Force on National Security and a description of the work that lies ahead.

In health care, Markle supports and manages Connecting for Health, a public-private collaborative consisting of government, industry, technology, consumer, and health care leaders. Its purpose is to catalyze the widespread changes that are needed to realize the full potential of health information technology, while protecting patient privacy and the security of personal health information.

Read a Connecting for Health Policy Brief outlining the key elements of a trusted and networked information-sharing environment for health care.

Markle and its collaborators produce numerous reports, multimedia and interactive presentations, articles, and briefs of interest to a wide range of audiences, including but not limited to the following:

• Policy-Makers and Regulators
• Consultants
• Legal Experts
• Decision-Makers in the Public Sector (e.g., Government Agencies and the Organizations they Contract to Provide Services to the Public)
• Legislators and Regulatory Agencies at the Local, State, and Federal Level
• Technology Developers and Implementers
• Industry Experts (e.g., Health Care Providers and Insurers, Energy Companies, Homeland Security Contractors)
• Public Interest Advocates and Representatives
• Academics, Researchers, Analysts, and Think-Tanks

A searchable and sortable list of publications and presentations is available in the News section on this website.

Also, please visit www.markletaskforce.org to read about or download National Security reports. The Connecting for Health compendium of Common Framework documents, as well as other publications and videos, are available at www.connectingforhealth.org.

The Markle documents posted on this website are there to serve our mission to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge. You are free to read the documents online or download them for your own reference. You may also create links on your website to our reports, audio/video presentations, and other publications.

If you are interested in reprinting, redistributing, or referencing any portion of our work in your own publications, please contact us at info@markle.org for permissions, attribution language, or additional information.

The Weekly Digest is published online every Friday by Research@Markle.org. It provides news excerpts from around the world regarding information and communications technologies related to Internet security, privacy, and health care.

You may download or read the Weekly Digest anytime from the link provided on our home page. You may also subscribe to the Weekly Digest.

We have found that the most effective way for us to leverage our resources is to structure and operate our own projects in cooperation with our partners, instead of working as a traditional grant-making organization. Therefore, we do not accept unsolicited grant applications.

Markle's approach entails convening multi-sectoral groups of leaders and innovators from technology, government, public interest organizations and business to bring about the technical and policy changes needed to enable breakthroughs in the public interest. We seek out partners who can make valuable contributions toward achieving our common goals.

Please review the descriptions provided on our Health and National Security program pages, or contact us at info@markle.org for more information.