Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
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| Private charitable foundation | |
| Founded | 1942 |
| Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States |
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Key people
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Dennis J. Kuester Chairman David Vogel Uihlein, Jr. Vice Chairman Richard Graber President and CEO |
| Website | bradleyfdn |
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a charitable foundation with more than $800 million U.S. dollars in assets. The Foundation supports arts, education and health organizations in Wisconsin with an increasing focus on the goals of American conservatism.
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. This was followed by 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 $14 million to over $290 million. In 1986 the Foundation gave away $23 million, more than it had in the previous four decades. 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%.
The organization was founded in an attempt to preserve and extend the principles and philosophy of the Bradley brothers. 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. The foundation does not limit its donations to organizations focused on domestic policy, but has also funded groups like the Center for Security Policy that focus on security and foreign policy.
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