High Frontier
US nonprofit founded in the early 1980s by Lt Gen Daniel O. Graham to advocate ballistic missile defences
| High Frontier
| |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation (EIN 52-1241844) |
| Founded | Early 1980s (the organisation's staff biography of its founder gives 1981; a staff biography of its long-serving administrator refers to formation in May 1982; IRS ruling date 1 March 1982) |
| Founder(s) | Daniel O. Graham |
| Headquarters | Address on the organisation's last parsed IRS record: 111 East Marion Avenue 113, North Augusta, SC 29841–2935 |
| Key people | Henry F. Cooper (chairman, as listed on the Form 990 for the period ending November 2018) |
| Website | https://highfrontier.org/ |
High Frontier is a US nonprofit organisation that advocates the deployment of ballistic missile defences. Its "About" page describes it as a 501(c)(3) organisation "dedicated by our charter to the study, research and education in the scientific, technical, military and strategic problems of building effective ballistic missile defenses." It was founded by Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham. An Internal Revenue Service record compiled by ProPublica identifies the organisation under employer identification number 52-1241844, with a ruling date of 1 March 1982.[1][2][3]
Founding
An official staff biography of Graham, retained in High Frontier's old archive, states that in 1981 "he founded and became Director of High Frontier", and that he died in 1995. The same archive's biography of Bernice Coakley, described as chief administrator and as Graham's personal secretary and office manager, says she had been with High Frontier "since its formation in May of 1982." The organisation's current "About" page dates to 1982 the publication of a report by Graham, High Frontier: A New National Strategy. The IRS ruling date on the exemption record is 1 March 1982. These dates are set out as the sources give them and are not treated here as a single reconciled legal commencement date.[2][1][3]
The archived staff biography records that Graham was a West Point graduate who served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1973–1974 and as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1974–1976, and that he was a military adviser to Ronald Reagan in the 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns. In 1978, it states, he became co-chairman of the Coalition for Peace through Strength.[2]
Aims and claimed role in the Strategic Defense Initiative
High Frontier's "About" page states that the foundation of its concepts was "the abandonment of the suicidal and immoral strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] for the concept of Assured Survival through the creation of effective defenses against ballistic missiles." In the organisation's own account, "in no small measure, President Reagan adopted General Graham's recommendations and voiced them to the world in his March 23, 1983 televised speech, 'Defense and National Security'", which the page identifies as the beginning of the research and development plan that became the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The same page says that, on High Frontier's tenth anniversary, Reagan "thanked Danny Graham and the High Frontier for its efforts."[1]
That account, and the archived staff biography of Ambassador Henry F. (Hank) Cooper, describes Cooper as having served as President Reagan's chief negotiator at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks and later as director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization during the administration of George H. W. Bush. The "About" page says that Cooper "picked up the High Frontier baton from Danny Graham." The archived staff page names him as chairman of the board, "a non-profit, non-partisan educational corporation, formed to examine the potential for defending America against missile attack." The Form 990 for the period ending November 2018 likewise lists Henry F. Cooper as chairman.[1][2][3]
The "About" page, retrieved on 11 November 2026, lists the organisation's "top priorities" as fully developing Aegis sea-based defences, including against an electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States; reviving a space-based defence programme; and supporting improvements to existing ground-based and theatre missile defences. Claims on that page about the origins of particular deployed systems, about later administrations' funding decisions, and about the effects of SDI are the organisation's own wording.[1]
Officers, addresses and later filings
An undated "Contact" page in the same old archive lists the organisation at 500 N. Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314–2314. The ProPublica compilation of the IRS record, retrieved on 11 November 2026, lists the organisation at 111 East Marion Avenue 113, North Augusta, SC 29841–2935. ProPublica also notes that the organisation was not on the IRS's most recent list of tax-exempt organisations, though filings associated with the employer identification number remain in the project's database. The last parsed return in that record is for the fiscal year ending November 2018, filed on 23 October 2019. Besides Cooper as chairman, that return lists Scott Cooper as director and Michele Fowler as secretary/treasurer. Fowler appears on the earlier archived staff page as office manager. The highfrontier.org site was still online on 11 November 2026; its footer included a 2026 copyright line.[4][3][2][1]
Finances
The table uses totals from Form 990 filings compiled in ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. The filings identify the organisation as a 501(c)(3) (subsection 3). Periods are fiscal years ending in November. Officer compensation is taken from the parsed officer tables for the later years in which those tables appear; complete Form 990 PDFs were not relied on for names or figures.
| Tax period ending | Revenue | Expenses | Assets at period end |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2018 | 41,484 | 40,379 | 30,580 |
| November 2017 | 71,976 | 60,910 | 29,475 |
| November 2016 | 44,044 | 47,722 | 26,212 |
| November 2015 | 69,140 | 61,839 | 36,617 |
| November 2014 | 44,285 | 66,993 | 23,755 |
| November 2013 | 67,628 | 125,719 | 47,014 |
| November 2012 | 132,510 | 132,898 | 108,938 |
| November 2011 | 131,943 | 121,771 | 109,338 |
On the 2018 return, parsed officer compensation was $14,000 for Scott Cooper (director), $3,450 for Michele Fowler (secretary/treasurer) and none for Henry F. Cooper (chairman).[3]
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 High Frontier, About High Frontier—Past, Present, Future, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 High Frontier, Meet the Staff, undated page retained in the organisation's old archive (the text refers to events as late as June 2004), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, High Frontier, organisation record and Form 990 filings (EIN 52-1241844), accessed 11 November 2026 via the project's API and organisation page.
- ↑ High Frontier, Contact, undated page retained in the organisation's old archive, accessed 11 November 2026.