Charles Koch Convenes First Donor Seminar to Build Network

Charles Koch convened the first invitation-only donor seminar in 2003, gathering wealthy business owners and philanthropists to coordinate funding for libertarian and conservative policy organizations. Koch told attendees that disillusionment with George W. Bush's spending on Medicare Part D and steel tariffs required donors to build their own institutional alternative. The biannual seminars grew into the Koch Network, which by 2018 reported coordinated spending plans of $400 million per election cycle.