Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (LHBF), formerly known as Allen-Bradley Foundation, was established in 1942, describing itself as "a private, independent grantmaking organization based in Milwaukee." . According to the foundation's 1998 Annual Report and a 2011 report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation gives away more than $30 million per year. In November 2013, One Wisconsin Now and the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the Bradley Foundation had given over $500 million to conservative "public-policy experiments" since 2000.

Harry Bradley was one of the original charter members of the far right-wing John Birch Society, along with another Birch Society board member, Fred Koch, the father of Koch Industries' billionaire brothers and owners, Charles and David Koch.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “from 2001 to 2009, it [Bradley] doled out nearly as much money as the seven Koch and Scaife foundations combined.”

Recipients of Bradley Foundation Grants
For a full list of grants, see the Contributions of the Bradley Foundation page, which is based off of and links to the foundation's 990 tax forms from 1998-2011.

In 2011, a total of $34,948,552 in grants was awarded, along with $6,937,472 recorded for future payments.

According to Right Wing Watch, the Bradley Foundation has given grants to highly controversial individuals:


 * "Bradley has supported and in some cases, had to defend controversial right-wing recipients of their grants, particularly Charles Murray and Dinesh D'Souza.


 * "Charles Murray - Murray, author of "The Bell Curve," which argues that intelligence is predicated on race, and "Losing Ground," whose thesis is that social programs should be abolished. Murray's work was so controversial and objectionable that the right-wing Manhattan Institute, supported by Bradley and for which he worked, asked him to leave. However, the Bradley Foundation stood by him because Murray, according to former Bradley President Michael Joyce, "is one of the foremost social thinkers in the country." Bradley extended Murray's $100,000 per year grant when he went to the American Enterprise Institute.


 * "Dinesh D'Souza - D'Souza, in his book, The End of Racism, attempts to absolve Whites from discrimination against Blacks during slavery, claiming that Blacks were too uncivilized to be a part of society anyway."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Exposé
A 2011 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article outlined how the Bradley Foundation spent more than $350 million over ten years, including $234 million on conservative causes and $79 million on higher education to universities around the United States.

The report found that 32 percent of the $350 million total was spent in Milwaukee out of a total of 38 percent spent in Wisconsin, with another 23 percent being spent in Washington, D.C., and the rest spread amongst the rest of the country.

The top 30 grant recipients received a combined $155 million, including:


 * Charter School Growth Fund - $16.525 million
 * Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE) - $12.8 million
 * Encounter for Culture and Education - $10.75 million
 * Hudson Institute - $7 million
 * American Civil Rights Institute - $6.775 million
 * American Enterprise Institute - $5.664 million
 * Marquette University = $5.54 million
 * National Strategy Information Center - $4.393 million
 * David Horowitz Freedom Center - $3.725 million
 * Wisconsin Policy Research Institute - $3.61 million
 * Heritage Foundation - $3.38 million
 * Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace - $3.37 million
 * Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies - $3.25 million
 * University of Chicago - $3.15 million
 * Manhattan Institute for Policy Research - $3.15 million
 * Institute for Educational Advancement - $3.06 million
 * Freedom House - $3.06 million
 * Ethics and Public Policy Center - $2.94 million
 * American Tort Reform Foundation - $2.9 million
 * Institute for American Values - $2.565 million
 * Philanthropy Roundtable - $2.33 million
 * Intercollegiate Studies Institute - $2.1 million

Funding the American Legislative Exchange Council
According to the foundation's 990 tax forms, between 2009 and 2011 the Bradley Foundation gave $270,000 in contributions to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Funding School Choice Expansion
A report released by non-profit activist group One Wisconsin Now in April, 2013 details the Bradley Foundation's massive efforts to funnel money into school privatization programs nationwide. According to the report, since 2001 the Bradley Foundation has spent over $31 million "supporting organizations promoting education privatization, academics providing favorable pro-privatization pseudo-science, media personalities promoting the privatization agenda and lobbying organizations advocating for privatization legislation." CEO of the Bradley Foundation, Michael Grebe, has also served as campaign co-chair for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has worked to expand voucher school funding in Wisconsin by 32 percent. Grebe led transition efforts and chaired Walker's campaign committee for the 2012 recall election. The report estimates that between 2014 and 2015, $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars will go toward private voucher schools in Wisconsin.

Funding for Charter Schools
The Bradley Foundation is a top funder for groups affiliated with charter schools nationwide. Its top recipient is the Charter School Growth Fund, a group that provides start up money for new charter school nationwide.

The second largest recipient for the group was Partners Advancing Values in Education, another charter school advocacy group.

Funding of Voter Suppression Billboards
In 2010 and 2012, billboards went up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a few cities in Ohio that displayed the message "Voter Fraud is a Felony!" The original billboards in 2010 had a picture of a black man behind bars, but the billboards were changed after public outcry. Shortly before the 2012 election, public pressure mounted in Milwaukee demanding that the funders of the billboards be disclosed, and that the billboards come down. Clear Channel Outdoor, the advertising company that owned the billboard space, finally agreed to take the billboards down. One Wisconsin Now, a progressive advocacy organization, revealed that the Einhorn Family Foundation was behind the billboards, and a few days later Michael Grebe, the president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation, confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it had provided $10,000 to the Einhorn Family Foundation in 2010 that had in fact been used for billboards.

Funding Islamophobia in the United States
Research from the Center for American Progress (CAP) indicates that LHBF has funded various organizations and individuals contributing to an anti-Islamic hysteria in the United States. Between 2001 and 2009, LHBF has contributed $5,370,000 to various Islamophobic groups, including the Center for Security Policy, the Middle East Forum, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Funding the Wiscsonsin Policy Research Institute and the MacIver Institute
From 2008 to 2012, the MacIver Institute, a relatively new and increasingly influential think tank that is also a State Policy Network member (Wisconsin is one of few states to have two SPN member think tanks, but all 50 states have at least one), received $635,000 from the Bradley Foundation According to One Wisconsin Now and CMD, in 2012, "SPN awarded the MacIver Institute a 'Network Award' for 'its excellent work in defense of free markets.'

The Bradley Foundation gave the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), (also a member State Policy Network), a $2.8 million start-up grant in 1987, and by 2010 it had given the institute a total of $16.5 million. The Bradley Foundation’s Michael Joyce launched his attack on progressivism in the Winter 1994 issue of Wisconsin Interest, a publication of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

The following chart--published in November 2013 by One Wisconsin Now and the Center for Media and Democracy--compares the agendas of the McIver Institute, WPRI and other Bradley foundation funded organizations:

See original table

The Bradley Foundation funds challenges to civil rights and racial equality
With the financial support of the Bradley Foundation, Ed Blum of the Project on Fair Representation, was able to organize the challenges in both the Shelby County v. Holder and Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court cases. In the Shelby County case, "the Court effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, which had required states with a history of legalized racial discrimination to get pre-approval from the federal government before making changes to either voting laws or procedures". Blum's efforts were less sucessful in the Fisher v. University of Texas case which challenged university affirmative action programs and was deferred to a lower court. The Bradley Foundation used the Donors Trust, a right-wing "dark money ATM", to funnel at least $100,000 to The Project on Fair Representation for legal fees.

The Bradley Foundation has a strong history of attacking voting rights and promoting voter ID laws. In 2012, the Foundation paid for billboard ads stating "Voter fraud is a felony!" placed only in colored neighborhoods. The Bradley Foundation also funded the employment and legal representation of James O'Keefe "whose heavily-edited undercover videos hyped voter fraud allegations and helped take down ACORN, which had helped millions of low-income people register to vote". True the Vote, a vote-monitoring organization accused of voter suppression received $35,000 from the Bradley Foundation in 2011. The Foundation also funds conservative think tank groups Center for Individual Rights, American Civil Rights Institute, and the Center for Equal Opportunity.

An ALEC Ally in Wisconsin
Within days of Walker’s 2010 election, he met the board and senior staff of the Bradley Foundation at Milwaukee’s elite Bacchus Restaurant. Two weeks later, the Bradley-funded MacIver Institute published an editorial calling for Walker and the legislature to end collective bargaining for public employees and attack private unions by making Wisconsin a “Right to Work” state.

The MacIver Institute received $360,000 from Bradley in its first three years of existence, and ran a series of pro-Walker "It’s Working!" ads with Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has also been funded by Bradley.

Among other things, Bradley has focused its funding efforts on programs to divert tax dollars from public schools to private entities via "voucher" programs that undermine public education. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bradley poured $20 million into the effort to bring so-called "school choice" vouchers to Milwaukee, and has spent countless sums supporting groups that aim to expand the program across Wisconsin. These anti-public education initiatives are also advanced by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

According to the Bradley Foundation’s annual reports, it gave $145,000 to ALEC in 2009 and 2010 for initiatives including ALEC's "Budget Reform Education Project," the "Donor Freedom Project," and the “Budget Reform and Transparency Project.” (The Foundation’s 2011 Annual Report was not yet available as of May 2012.) ALEC also thanked the Bradley Foundation in its 2011 “State Budget Reform Toolkit” for funding the publication, which promotes a number of templates that have been embraced by ALEC members in Wisconsin.

Ties to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
In addition to the ties to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker noted above, LHBF CEO Grebe conducted interviews personally at the cabinet level of the Walker administration and served as chair of the "Friends of Scott Walker."

In 2010, the MacIver Institute, which is funded by the Bradley Foundation, posted an op-ed pushing for a repeal of collective bargaining rights. The article read: "Two simple but fundamental steps to kick start the Wisconsin economy and get our state budget mess resolved would be to repeal collective bargaining for public employees and to make Wisconsin a right to work state, giving private sector workers the choice of whether they want to pay union dues in their workplace."

The MacIver Institute and Americans for Prosperity spent millions defending Walker in his 2011 recall election. Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-brother-funded political group, received $600,000 from the Bradley Foundation from 2004 to 2010.

The Center for Union Facts, an anti-union organization that is part of lobbyist Rick Berman's family of front groups, received $1.55 million between 2007 and 2010 from the foundation and spent heavily to support Walker and smear teachers unions with an anti-union website during the fight over collective bargaining rights in 2011.

In February of 2013, Walker proposed his 2013-2015 budget, which contains plans to massively expand Wisconsin's school voucher program. Congruent with the efforts of the Bradley Foundation and ALEC, this would provide state subsidies for students to leave public schools in exchange for private schools, effectively re-appropriating substantial government public education funding to the private sector.

Public Endorsements
"The reason that I am so happy that my friend Mike Grebe is here and Mike Joyce and others from The Bradley Foundation is because 'Foundation America' must be a part of the revitalization of our communities as well. And the Bradley Foundation has always been willing to see different solutions. They have been willing to challenge the status quo. They say where we find failure, something else must occur. And the foundation not only has been kind and generous with its donations, the foundation also has been willing to help people think anew, and I appreciate you all coming. I am honored you're here and thanks for your good work." – President George W. Bush, speaking at the Bradley Foundation-supported Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ, Milwaukee, July 2002.

Infiltration of Academic Institutions
According to Right Wing Watch:


 * "Bradley has made right-wing inroads in academia by establishing chairmanship positions, undergraduate and graduate programs, fellowships, and whole departments at many prestigious universities including: Boston College, Boston University, Bowling Green State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Catholic University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, George Mason University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Kenyon College, Marquette University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California- Berkeley, University of California- Los Angeles, University of California- San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, and Washington University- St. Louis."

Prize Recipients
As described on the Bradley Foundation website, "Bradley Prizes 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. Up to four Prizes of $250,000 each are awarded annually to innovative thinkers and practitioners whose achievements strengthen the legacy of the Bradley brothers and the ideas to which they were committed."

2013

 * Yuval Levin, founding editor of National Affairs journal and Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
 * Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of FOX News as well as the chairman of Fox Television Stations.
 * Paul D. Clement, partner at Bancroft PLLC, 43rd Solicitor General of the United States from June 2005 until June 2008.
 * Mitch Daniels, member of Purdue Board of Trustees, former governor of the State of Indiana, former CEO of the Hudson Institute and former president of Eli Lilly and Company's North American Pharmaceutical Operations.

2012

 * Nicholas Eberstadt, chair in political economy at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., senior advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle, commissioner on the U.S. Key National Indicators Council, and member of the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum.
 * Edwin J. Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, chairman of the Board of Visitors at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy.
 * Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation and chairman of Heritage's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
 * William H. Mellor, co-founder, president, and general counsel of the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia.

2011

 * Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida; founder, chairman, and president of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
 * Richard A. Epstein, professor at New York University School of Law, fellow at the Hoover Institution, professor emeritus at The University of Chicago Law School.
 * Harvey C. Mansfield, professor of government at Harvard University, and fellow at the Hoover Institution.
 * Allan H. Meltzer, professor of political economy and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

2010

 * Michael Barone, political analyst for The Washington Examiner, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and a syndicated columnist and commentator for the Fox News Channel.
 * John B. Taylor, professor at Stanford University, fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, and fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
 * Bradley A. Smith, professor at Capital University Law School, chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, and fellow at the Goldwater Institute.
 * Paul Gigot, vice president and editorial-page editor of The Wall Street Journal.

2009

 * William Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post columnist, and FOX News analyst.
 * Arnold C. Harberger, professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and professor emeritus at The University of Chicago, former president of the American Economic Association, the Western Economic Association, and the Society for Cost-Benefit Analysis.
 * Martin Gilbert, historian, prolific author.
 * Founders and Leaders of The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, "an organization of law students, lawyers, and others interested in the law dedicated to advancing an understanding of the principles underlying American law and furthering their application."

2008

 * Gary S. Becker, fellow at Stanford University, professor at University of Chicago.
 * Victor Davis Hanson, fellow at Stanford University and Hillsdale College, professor at California State University, Fresno.
 * Alan Charles Kors, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Foundation for Individual Rights.
 * Robert L. Woodson, Sr., president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise in Washington, D.C.

2007

 * Abigail & Stephan Thernstrom, co-authors on a number of works, Abigail is the vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Stephan is a history professor at Harvard University.
 * John Bolton, senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research in Washington, D.C., former ambassador and author.
 * Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, president of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
 * James Q. Wilson, professor at Harvard University, the University of California-Los Angeles,and most recently at Pepperdine University.

2006

 * Fouad Ajami, senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and co-chair of its Working Group on Islamism and the International Order.
 * Hernando de Soto, founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru.
 * Clint Bolick, Director of the Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.
 * Shelby Steele, research fellow at the Hoover Institution who specializes in the study of race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action.

2005

 * George F. Will, syndicated columnist
 * Ward Connerly, anti-affirmative action, founder of American Civil Rights Institute
 * Heather McDonald, Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute
 * Robert P. George, professor, former presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

2004

 * Leon Kass, bioethicist at the University of Chicago, selected by President George W. Bush to chair the 18-member President's Council on Bioethics.
 * Charles Krauthamer, author, former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics.
 * Thomas Sowell, economist and author.
 * Mary Ann Glendon, former president of the International Association of Legal Science, and currently serves as President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Board of Directors

 * Michael W. Grebe, President & CEO. Formerly served as controversial Governor Scott Walker's campaign chair and and on his transition team after he was elected in 2010, and was also state GOP chairman in the late 1980s.

Program

 * Daniel P. Schmidt, Vice President for Program
 * Dianne J. Sehler, Director of Academic, International, and Cultural Programs
 * Michael E. Hartmann, Director of Research and Evaluation
 * Alicia L. Manning, Director of New Citizenship Programs
 * Janet F. Riordan, Director of Community Programs
 * William J. Bergeron, Librarian
 * Dionne M. King, Program Assistant

External Relations

 * Robert E. Norton II, Vice President for External Relations
 * Karen S. Pacioni, External Relations Assistant
 * Finance and Investment
 * Cynthia K. Friauf, Vice President for Finance
 * R. Michael Lempke, Vice President for Investments
 * Mandy L. Hess, Controller
 * Laura Davis, Accountant

Administration

 * Terri L. Famer, Vice President for Administration
 * Yvonne Engel, Grants Administrator
 * Diane M. Lask, Receptionist/Clerical Assistant
 * Gazelle A. Arga, Office Assistant
 * Dennis H. Grueneberg, Operations

Former staff

 * Michael Joyce

Contact Details
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation P.O. Box 510860 Milwaukee, WI 53203-0153 Phone: 414 291-9915 Fax: 414 291-9991 Web: http://www.bradleyfdn.org

Related SourceWatch Articles

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 * DonorsTrust
 * State Policy Network
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