This article studies the characteristics of the Ivy League think tanks to fill up the vacancy in preceding research.

The paper explores dozens of the Ivy League think tanks’ missions, personnel, finances and governance and analysis their characteristics through websites, using the Global Go to Think Tank Index Report (TTCSP Report) as an authoritative source of information for selecting think tanks.

The most important characteristic of the Ivy League university think tank is that the policy research of think tank and the discipline construction of university support and promote each other. Besides, this study results show other common features among the Ivy League think tanks, including being rooted in academic research, taking advantage of alumni, and striving to maintain research and operation independence.

This paper first puts forward the criteria for judging whether an institution is a think tank and finds the representative Ivy League think tank on this basis. Then, the article presents typical characteristics of Ivy League think tanks. The next research will focus on exploring the policy influence of think tanks.