Frederick S. Pardee is an economist, businessman, and philanthropist, whose generous, sustaining support has made the International Futures project the success it is today. His support made possible the Institute's flagship publication, Patterns of Human Progress, which became a catalyst for the ongoing work of the Institute.
In 2006, after meeting Dr. Barry Hughes and connecting on their shared interest in advancing the human condition through systems and data, Mr. Pardee supplied the support that allowed the University of Denver and its Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs to create the Frederick S. Pardee Institute for International Futures (formerly, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures). This gift sustained the Institute's work hosting International Futures (IFs), the world's leading forecasting system for the study of the human condition. In 2009, he also supported the building of an annex to Ben Cherrington Hall to house the Institute, a facility that provides the growing Institute team with basic workspace, video-conferencing resources, and presentation capability. Through Mr. Pardee’s gifts, we also receive annual endowment support, in addition to continued institutional support from the Korbel School. His contributions to the visioning and understanding of ways to improve the global human condition led the University of Denver to award him with an honorary PhD in 2013. An estate gift in 2024 brought his total giving to the University of Denver to just under $25 million. This generosity well-positions the Pardee Institute to expand our portfolio of tools, datasets, and applications, offering the opportunity to amplify the policy relevance and real-world applications of our growing body of work.
