The initial group was led by Frank Davidson and included Olaf Helmer, Paul Baran, Arnold Kramish, and Theodore Gordon.

[4] Early attempts at doing so included a "Future State of the Union" report, formatted according to the traditional US Presidential address to the Nation.

[5] Despite establishing an excellent reputation for painstaking analysis of future analyses and forecasting methods, various problems meant that the Institute struggled to find its footing at first.

[7] Starting from the early seventies astrophysicist and computer scientist Jacques Vallee, sociologist Bob Johansen, and technology forecaster Paul Saffo worked for IFTF.

[10] In 1984 the sociologist Herbert L Smith noted that, by the late 1970s, the idea of an open Union reporting format had given way to the proprietary Ten Year Forecast.

Having taken part in early ARPANET development, Institute staff were well aware of the impact that computer networking would have on society and its inclusion in policy making.

This game enlisted the blogs and wikis of over 5,000 people to discuss life 10 years in the future; presenting them with a set of hypothetical, overlapping social threats, and encouraging them to seek collaborative "superstruct" solutions.

Guidestar, the largest information source on nonprofit organizations and private foundations in the United States,[32] gave Institute for the Future a Gold Transparency rating for 2023.

[33] Charity Navigator, the world's largest evaluator of nonprofits,[34] gave it a score of 92% earning it a rating of four out of four stars, stating, "If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.