He was later named DeWitt Wallace Fellow, and eventually appointed to the J.B. Fuqua Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, where over three decades he researched a range of topics extending from social welfare and demographics to economics and cultural trends.

[6] He has written 13 books, including one released simultaneous with the 2016 elections on the best ways to solve future social problems,[7] a 2015 volume on how public policy is changed by savvy donors, and a 2014 look at charter school effectiveness (with a spinoff in the Wall Street Journal[8]).

[11] The book has been described as the authoritative reference on private giving in the U.S.[12] It contains sections on America's greatest givers, living and dead; the major achievements of American philanthropy in nine areas (including Medicine, Education, the Arts, Religion, Overseas giving, Local projects, and so forth); an annotated list of essential readings in the field; a collection of leading quotes on philanthropy; a 22-page foldout timeline mapping important philanthropic events in the U.S. from 1636 to 2015.

For a dozen years before becoming the White House Domestic Policy Adviser (1994 to 2006), Zinsmeister was editor-in-chief of The American Enterprise, a national magazine covering politics, business, and culture.

A storytelling cookbook, regional culture guide, and celebration of localism that he co-created with two of his three children, called Finger Lakes Feast, was published in 2012 and widely reviewed.

[29] Zinsmeister returned to Washington to serve as vice president at the Philanthropy Roundtable, an association of donors, where he produced more than a dozen books, 40 magazine issues, 50 podcast episodes, and many other products.

Books he has edited in recent years include two examining the country's best programs for job re-training [34] and helping difficult populations like the homeless, released prisoners, former addicts, and welfare recipients succeed in the workforce.

He has uncovered much nearly unknown American philanthropic history, including essays on medical research, the importance of anonymity to private giving, even the existence of "national-security philanthropy" in the U.S.—by which donors have made crucial contributions to defense of the nation.

[42] His biographies of great philanthropists include profiles of Julius Rosenwald,[43] George Eastman,[44] Alfred Loomis,[45] Benjamin Rush, the Tappan brothers, and Oseola McCarty.