and advocacy initiatives, council members help us ECFR to Europeanise the national conversations in the EU capitals on the EU's foreign policy priorities and challenges. The council meets once a year as a full body to discuss how to advance its objectives. In addition, groups of council members form various geographical and thematic task forces, which provide ECFR staff with advice and feedback on policy ideas and assist with ECFR's activities within their own countries. The council is currently chaired by Carl Bildt (co-chair), Lykke Friis and Norbert Röttgen. The other members of the board are Ian Clarkson, Sylvie Kauffmann, Ivan Krastev, Andrzej Olechowski, Andrew Puddephatt, Javier Solana, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Funding ECFR is a private not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. It was originally established with the support of Open Society Foundations, Communitas Foundation and Fundación Para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE). About half of ECFR's funding comes from foundations, one third from governments and the rest from corporations and individuals. Open Society Foundations is the main donor to ECFR, funding with its grants one third (£2,345,566 in 2017) of ECFR's total income (£7,278,122 in 2017). Other donors include major organizations mainly from Europe and the Western world such as the foundation (£710,753 or ~10% total funding in 2017), European and the Japanese governments, NATO, leading corporations such as Daimler AG and Microsoft as well as wealthy individuals. Communications ECFR regularly publishes comment and analysis pieces on foreign policy issues on its website. ECFR also publishes podcasts in English and German, and occasional podcasts in French, Italian and Spanish. ECFR has a Twitter feed. Awards and recognition ECFR was named "Best New Think Tank in the World" for 2009 and 2010 by the University of Pennsylvania's annual Global "Go-To Think-Tanks" report. ECFR has received Prospect Magazine's "Think Tank of the Year Awards" in 2015 (EU International Affairs Think Tank of the Year), 2014 (UK International Affairs Think Tank of the Year), and 2010 (British-based think tank dealing with non-British affairs Think Tank of the Year). In 2011, the academic responsible for compiling the University of Pennsylvania rankings, Dr James G. McGann, wrote in a book on global think tanks: "The fact that ECFR attempts to pursue policy advice and research through a pan-European focus means that it is free from the national restrictions of operating with one particular state framework in mind. In this sense, it