The Gunk Foundation is a charitable operating foundation that was established in December 1994 to provide a counterbalance to the recent, disturbing trends in funding for intellectual endeavors. The intellectual core in many countries has suffered a variety of setbacks over the last decade—massive cutbacks in governmental support for non-military, non-corporate projects; a conservative backlash that has effectively censored many forms of communication; the spreading grip of corporate funding for all forms of intellectual production; and the economic, social and ideological shifts created by the forces of globalization. It is our hope that The Gunk Foundation will help to challenge some of these trends.