“The Freedom Foundation is more than a think tank. We’re more than an action tank. We’re a battle tank that’s battering the entrenched power of Left-wing government union bosses who represent a permanent lobby for bigger government, higher taxes, and radical social agendas. Through education, litigation, legislation, and community activation, we have liberated public employees from political exploitation.”
– Freedom Foundation
Many of our FPIW friends are faithful Christians who work in public education or perhaps as a government employee. They often feel called to such important work. Yet they also feel compelled to join the union as a member. As a result, they pay dues where their own money is too often used to fund Left-wing causes they deeply disagree with: abortion, homosexuality-and-transgenderism, anti-parental choice, and other anti-American, anti-Biblical ideologies. That’s their money, and our friends have good reasons to be concerned about what’s happening.
As Marsha, a Christian fourth-grade teacher in a teachers union, said: “I believe there are many of us who are concerned about putting our money into a union that is polarizing itself from our basic moral values.”
The Freedom Foundation exists for those people like Marsha and thousands of others who want their freedom back – and there is very good news to share. Nearly 50,000 in Washington State alone have been helped by the Freedom Foundation to stop funding the Left’s agenda. As Founding Father Thomas Jefferson once penned: “[T]o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.” People want to be free, and that idea of freedom is at the very heart of what drives the important mission of the Freedom Foundation. We at FPIW are glad to help share the good, pro-freedom news: “You don’t have to fund union politics.”
From Olympia To A National Presence
Established in Olympia in 1991 by former Washington State Representative Bob Williams and Lynn Harsh, the nonprofit Freedom Foundation was originally known as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and began as a public-policy think tank focused on free-market and limited-government principles.
During more than three decades, it has grown from its Washington roots into an organization operating nationwide, while continuing to maintain a significant presence in the state where it began. The Freedom Foundation’s work reflects the belief that individuals should have greater control over their own earnings, political associations, and participation in organizations that claim to represent them. Its combination of education, legal advocacy, public outreach, and policy engagement has made it a prominent organization in the debate over public-sector unions and worker freedom, which is its main focus today.
In recent years, the organization has concentrated much of its work on public-sector labor unions, arguing that government employees should be able to make their own decisions about union membership and financial support. Importantly, the organization’s stated position is based on worker choice: employees who value their union representation remain free to participate, while employees who do not wish to belong are provided information and assistance in exercising their rights.
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Helping Washingtonians
Here is a number to note: 48,887 – that’s how many people to date the Freedom Foundation has helped to opt out of funding the Left-wing union agenda in our state alone. It’s truly remarkable, and more work is needed as Washington State remains an important part of the Freedom Foundation’s mission. Through direct mail, email, digital communications, personal outreach, and other educational efforts, the organization contacts public employees and provides information about union membership, dues, and workers’ legal options.
Take a look at these recent numbers. The Freedom Foundation:
• Helped approximately 5,000 Washington public employees cancel their union dues in 2025 alone
• 626 Washington public employees opted out during July 2026 alone.
That’s impressive, and they rightfully hold the leadership position in our state on helping such people. The organization views these efforts not simply as opposition to unions, but as a way of ensuring that individual employees — not employers, government officials, unions, or political organizations — ultimately decide which organizations receive their financial support.
Legally, the organization traces an important part of its legal history to Davenport v. Washington Education Association, a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 involving Washington’s rules governing the use of nonmember fees for election-related purposes. After subsequent Supreme Court decisions expanded protections against compulsory public-sector union fees, the Freedom Foundation increasingly concentrated its resources on helping government employees understand and exercise those protections. This combination of education and action has allowed an organization founded around an Olympia dinner table to expand its activities across the country. The graphic below shows the Freedom Foundation’s impressive national reach, with some 300,000 people they have helped to opt-out of union dues.
Ultimately, the Freedom Foundation represents a Washington-grown effort to promote individual choice, economic freedom, constitutional rights, and government accountability. Its supporters see its work as an important counterweight to powerful institutions and as a means of ensuring that public employees understand their rights regarding union membership and financial support. The organization’s growth is substantial.
From its beginnings as a Washington public-policy organization to its present nationwide operations, the Freedom Foundation has consistently emphasized the principle that individuals should be able to decide for themselves which organizations and political activities they financially support. Through education, litigation, outreach, and advocacy, it continues to pursue its stated vision of greater individual liberty, free enterprise, worker choice, and limited and accountable government.
How To Free Yourself
“After reading the resolutions, I sat down and cried. I knew I couldn’t stay in.”
– Cindy, a special education teacher
Here is the good news: No teacher nor government employee has to be a member of a union. They can resign from union membership. However, a person resigning from membership will most likely still have to pay a fee. “Dues” are the money paid by a member; “fees” are the money paid by nonmembers for mandatory representation during collective bargaining. That’s the key distinction.
To date, some thirty states in the United States – including Washington State – have enacted some form of mandatory bargaining laws. Mandatory bargaining laws require that when employees vote to be represented by a union, the organization must bargain with the union. That is, whenever a specific union is chosen by a majority of employees, the union represents all the employees — even those who oppose the particular union.
Whether an employee must pay fees depends upon whether the contract with the organization contains something called an agency-shop clause. An agency-shop clause mandates that nonmembers pay fees for collective bargaining. If an agency-shop clause is not inserted in their contract, employees do not have to pay fees. But if there is an agency-shop clause in the contract, an employee must either become a union member and thus pay union dues; or choose one of two other options:
(1) An employee can submit a religious objection that allows one to refuse union membership and redirect one’s entire fee to charity; or
(2) An employee can submit an objection to union membership, which can be based on any political, philosophical or religious view, in order to become simply a fee payer, rather than a membership dues payer.
For more details on this “opt out avenue” of freedom available to you and those you care about, we encourage you to contact the team at the Freedom Foundation – and let your own freedom ring.
To follow and support the Freedom Foundation, here are their social media links: X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.