Bradley Foundation
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Company type | Private charitable foundation |
---|---|
Founded | 1942 |
Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Key people | Terry Considine Chairman David V. Uihlein, Jr. Vice Chairman Michael W. Grebe President and CEO |
Revenue | 54,916,115 United States dollar (2019) |
Website | bradleyfdn.org |
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a conservative foundation with about half a billion US dollars in assets. According to the Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, it gives away more than $30 million per year. The Foundation has financed efforts to support federal institutes, publications and school choice and educational projects.
History
The Foundation was established in 1942, shortly after the death of Lynde Bradley. However it was not until twenty years after the death of his brother Harry Lynde Bradley, in 1965, that the Foundation expanded in size and began to focus on public policy.[1] This followed the 1985 acquisition of Allen-Bradley by Rockwell International Corporation, with a significant portion of the proceeds going into the expansion of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which saw its assets rise from $14m to over $290m.[2] In 1986 the Foundation gave away $23m, more than it had in the previous four decades.[1] Whereas in 1980 only 2.5% of grants were related to public policy, by 1990, under the leadership of Mike Joyce (formerly at the John M. Olin Foundation) it was 60%.[1]
The organization was founded in an attempt to preserve and extend the principles and philosophy used by the Bradley brothers.
During their life they were committed to preserving and defending the tradition of free representative government and private enterprise. According to them, "the good society is a free society. The Bradley Foundation is likewise devoted to strengthening American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles and values that sustain and nurture it."
The foundation supports limited government, conceived of as a dynamic marketplace where economic, intellectual, and cultural activity can flourish. It states that it defends American ideas and institutions. Next to that it recognizes that responsible self government depends on informing citizens and creating a well informed public opinion. The foundation tries to accomplish that by financing scholarly studies and academic achievements, most especially by scholars coincidentally named Bradley. [3]
The Bradley Foundation's former president, Michael S. Joyce, was instrumental in creating the Philanthropy Roundtable. The goal of the Roundtable's founders was to provide a forum where donors could discuss the principles and practices that inform the best of America's charitable tradition. Currently, there are more than 600 Roundtable Associates.
In the early 1990s the foundation helped support The American Spectator, which at the time was researching damaging material on President Bill Clinton. The Bradley Foundation has provided funding for the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). PNAC brought together prominent members of the (George W) Bush Administration (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz) in the late 1990s to articulate their neoconservative foreign policy, including sending a letter to President Bill Clinton urging him to invade Iraq.
Governance
Current members of the board of directors of the Bradley Foundation are: Dennis Kuester, George Will, San W. Orr, Jr., Terry Considine, Michael Grebe, Thomas Smallwood, Bob Smith, and David Uihlein.
Bradley Prize
The Bradley Prizes is a major grant to individuals who are "innovative thinkers". According to the foundation the Bradley Prize is to "formally recognize individuals of extraordinary talent and dedication who have made contributions of excellence in areas consistent with The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation’s mission." As many as four Prizes of $250,000 each are awarded annually. It has been described as a conservative "Genius grant", like that given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Latest grantees
These are among the latest grants awarded to conservative organizations:
- 2008 grant of $25,000 to FreedomWorks[4]
- 2008 grant of $25,000 to Americans For Prosperity[4]
- 2007 grant of $100,000 to Heritage Foundation[5]
- 2006 grant of $100,000 to Heritage Foundation[6]
- 2010 grant of $125,000 to Heartland Institute[7] for Environment and Climate News.
- 2011 grant of $50,000 to Heartland Institute[8] for Environment & Climate News.
- Projected 2012 grant of $50,000 to Heartland Institute[9] revealed by "Deniergate" scandal.
Past and present grantees
List of grants and cumulative amounts given from 1985-2002.[10]
National organizations
These are a few of the many donations that have been granted by the Foundation.
Over $10 million
- Alliance Defense Fund
- American Enterprise Institute
- Heritage Foundation, for support to the Domestic Studies Policy Program and Bradley Resident Fellows Program.Project on Federalism and the states: $853,125[11]
Over $5 million
- Freedom House, to support Freedom in the World Survey.[11]
- National Affairs, to support publication of The Public Interest and The National Interest: $350.000. [11]
Over $2 million
- Federalist Society, Los Angeles, California, To support general operations: $568,750.[11]
- David Horowitz Freedom Center
Over $1 million
- Brookings Institution
- Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, Delaware, to support general operations: $90,000. [11]
- Institute for American Values, New York, New York, To support general program activities: $100,000. [11]
- Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
- Institute for Educational Advancement, Pasadena, California, to support general operations: $180.000. [11]
- Institute for Justice
Over $500,000
- Black Alliance for Educational Options, Washington, DC, to support general operations: $200,000. [12]
- American Spectator Educational Foundation
Over $100,000
- Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability
- Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
- Heartland Institute, Chicago, Illinois, To support School Reform News and a Chicago-specific school choice initiative: $50.000. [12]
- Third Way Foundation (see Third way)
- Progressive Foundation (see Democratic Leadership Council)
- University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, To support the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s project “Doing Choice Right”: $170.000. [12]
- Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School for the Net Dialogue project [4]
$100,000
Less than $100,000
- Children First America
- Council for the Spanish Speaking, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to support the Summer Youth Program $5,000. [11]
- Potomac Foundation
- Human Rights Foundation $35,000 [13]
$25,000
- Jefferson Educational Foundation, Washington D.C.
Unknown
- Center for Education Reform
- Child Abuse Prevention Fund
- Corporation for National and Community Service
- Thomas B. Fordham Institute
- Middle East Media Research Institute
- Cato Institute
- Citizens for a Sound Economy
- Institute on Religion and Democracy
- Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf
- Committee for the Free World
- Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
- Institute for Humane Studies
- New Citizenship Project
- Project for the New American Century
- Middle East Forum
Local charities
Over $5 million
Over $1 million
- Madison Center for Educational Affairs (the result of a 1990 merger between the Institute For Educational Affairs and the Madison Center)[14]
Over $500,000
Over $100,000
Unknown amount
- Association of Midwest Museums
- Epilepsy Association of Southwest Wisconsin
- Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
- Milwaukee Public Museum
Public officials
Jurists
Writers
References
- ^ a b c John J. Miller (2003), "The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation", in How Two Foundations Reshaped America, Philanthropy Roundtable
- ^ Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, The Bradley Brothers
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ a b http://www.bradleyfdn.org/pdfs/Grants2008/08EconomicGrowth.pdf Bradley Foundation website
- ^ "part1b" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-10-22.
- ^ "Bradley Foundation website, 2006 Annual Report, pg 33" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-10-22.
- ^ "Heartland Institute 2012 Fundraising Plan, pg 24" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "Heartland Institute 2012 Fundraising Plan, pg 24" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "Heartland Institute 2012 Fundraising Plan, pg 24" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "Media Matters Action Network". Mediatransparency.org. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h [2][dead link]
- ^ a b c [3][dead link]
- ^ http://www.bradleyfdn.org/pdfs/Grants2009/09-Bradley-Grantees.pdf
- ^ "Buying a Movement." People For the American Way. pfaw.org[dead link]
External links
- Official website
- Profile at Bloomberg Businessweek
- The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, profile at Media Transparency
- The Feeding Trough: The Bradley Foundation, "The Bell Curve" and the Real Story Behind W-2, Wisconsin's National Model for Welfare Reform., Phil Wilayto, 1997
- Response from Michael Joyce, foundation president, to The Feeding Trough
- The Bradley Foundation: Bush's faith-based initiative, Phil Wilayto, Z Communications, April 2001
- From local roots, Bradley Foundation builds conservative empire, Daniel Bice, Bill Glauber and Ben Poston, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 20, 2011, includes database of grants since 2001