The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and its “aligned” donor advised fund funneled a total of $86.4 million to right-wing litigation outlets, national and state policy groups, media outlets, youth groups, and higher education in 2022, according to an analysis of its most recent IRS filings obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).
The Bradley Foundation disclosed $991.9 million in net assets and its sister Bradley Impact Fund disclosed $114.2 million in net assets at the end of December 2022. This represents a decrease of $191 million in net assets for the foundation and an increase of almost $35 million in net assets for its donor advised fund.
Building on the financial success of the Allen-Bradley Company, which developed early resistors for electrical products, brothers Lynde and Harry started the foundation in 1942 to aid needy families in Milwaukee. Decades ago, right-wing operatives weaponized the foundation to assess and expand right-wing “infrastructure” to influence policies, politicians, education, and the courts.
Launched in 2012, the Bradley Impact Fund provides grants to right-wing and conservative organizations identified by the Bradley Foundation using funds collected through its donor network, which includes billionaires like GOP megadonor Diane Hendricks.
$32.5 Million for Right-Wing Litigation Groups
Bradley doled out a total of $32.5 million in grants to right-wing litigation and legal groups in 2022, CMD calculated in analyzing the most recent filings.
Of that, the largest grant of the year — $27.1 million — went to America First Legal (AFL), the litigation outfit launched by Stephen Miller, senior advisor for policy and White House director of speechwriting for former President Donald Trump. The Bradley Impact Fund grant accounted for 61% of the $44.4 million AFL raised in 2022.
“AFL has weaponized the grievance politics embodied by Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement through dozens of federal lawsuits, challenging efforts to remedy racial disparities, support LGBTQ students and expand the pool of early voters,” according to The Washington Post.
AFL is one of seven registered “charities” launched by the MAGA group Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) following Trump’s loss of the election in 2020. CPI grooms Republican members of Congress and their staff on America First priorities and “congressional oversight,” and has been the driving force behind the chaos created by the House Freedom Caucus this year. CPI received $862,310 in contributions from Bradley’s nonprofits in 2022.
Prior to this report, CPI was the largest known funder of AFL, providing $1.3 million in grants (2021–22). CMD also identified $5 million (2021) in contributions through Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, another donor advised fund set up to mask the identities of donors.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which received close to $1.1 million in 2022 through both Bradley funding vehicles, was the second largest recipient of Bradley money in the legal field. Bradley calls WILL the “MVP” of its Wisconsin right-wing network. The $1.1 million represents 23% of the $4.7 million WILL raised in 2022.
In addition to being the go-to for the right-wing’s legal needs in Wisconsin, WILL produces research to support school privatization in the Badger state along with model legislation for far-right school board members.
$25.4 Million for Right-Wing Policy and Advocacy
The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) topped all national right-wing policy and advocacy grant recipients to benefit from the Bradley nonprofits, receiving over $1 million in grants in 2022 for its “Free Enterprise Project.” Bradley sent a total of $17.9 million to support right-wing groups engaged in policy and culture wars across the country, according to CMD’s calculations.
NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Project was established in 2007 to counter “liberal shareholder activism” by filing shareholder resolutions, confronting executives at shareholder meetings, and sponsoring media campaigns. The project is directed by Scott Shepard, an operative in the Right’s manufactured crisis around sustainable investing — or the consideration of environmental, social, and corporate governance factors (ESG) — under the guise of attacking “woke capitalism.”
Many corporations consider ESG factors — along with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — in evaluating return on investments in light of their larger environmental and societal impacts. In its latest strategic plan, Bradley calls ESGs “distortions that inhibit free enterprise” and in 2022, it backed up its distaste by making a number of grants to organizations that are on the frontlines of the fight against ESG.
The State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), an NCPPR ally and a leader in the far Right’s campaign against woke capitalism, also received $522,813 in Bradley contributions in 2022.
Other groups CMD has exposed as key actors in the right-wing’s war on sustainable investing and responsible business practices that received Bradley funding in 2022 include: Advancing American Freedom ($110,000); Alliance Defending Freedom ($824,000); American Legislative Exchange Council ($500,000); Lucy Burns Institute DBA Ballotpedia ($315,500); Consumers’ Research ($50,000); Foundation for Government Accountability ($661,560); Independent Women’s Forum ($305,000); Reason Foundation ($232,000); State Policy Network ($235,000); Texas Public Policy Foundation ($451,350); and The Heritage Foundation ($529,850).
The grant to Heritage included $225,000 designated “to support the Election Law Initiative and Legal Strategy Forums.”
A total of $7.5 million went to 34 state affiliates of the State Policy Network (SPN), in addition to the $235,000 to the national umbrella organization. SPN is a web of right-wing tax-exempt organizations pushing extreme policy agendas in state houses across the country. Its goals include privatizing education, blocking healthcare reform, eviscerating workers’ rights, rolling back environmental protections, and creating a tax system that benefits only the most wealthy.
The largest recipient of all Bradley grants to SPN in 2022 is the Freedom Foundation, which received $887,175 to further its efforts as one of the most aggressive anti-union groups working to get Americans to leave their unions. It once operated only in a couple of western states, but in 2021 expanded its operations to all 50 states.
$10.3 Million for Higher Education
In 2022, the two Bradley nonprofits sent $10.3 million to colleges, universities, and other groups working in the realm of higher education, CMD calculated. The Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education (FEHE) received the largest amount: $2.7 million. Of this, $800,000 from the Bradley Foundation was designated “to support educational institutes, centers, and programs at universities.”
FEHE lists Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and nine other universities within its network.
The largest grant ($900,000) to a specific institute of higher education went to Georgia State University’s Research Foundation for an unknown purpose.
$9.8 Million for Right-Wing Media
The two Bradley funding vehicles contributed over $9.8 million in 2022 to prop up right-wing media, CMD found.
The largest Bradley grant in this category went to American Independent Media (AIM), which received $2.5 million from the Impact Fund. The group doesn’t have a web presence but is run by John Tillman, who also chairs the Illinois Policy Institute (the SPN affiliate in Illinois), along with the American Culture Project and the Franklin News Foundation, which publishes The Center Square.
AIM apparently also operates under the names Restore American Communities Safely and Citizens Against Voter Fraud, but these only appear to exist as Facebook pages, as the Columbia Journalism Review noted.
The $1.8-million grant Project Veritas received from the Bradley Impact Fund was the second largest right-wing media distribution in 2022. The group once led by James O'Keefe is known for its heavily edited, deceptive videos of mainstream media and left-leaning groups.
O’Keefe was fired last February and its new CEO Hannah Giles just resigned on Dec. 11 because she “stepped into an unsalvageable mess — one wrought with strong evidence of past illegality and past financial improprieties.”
$8.3 Million for Youth Movement Building
The Bradley Foundation and Bradley Impact Fund donated $8.3 million to six groups focused on building a stronger right-wing youth movement, with the vast majority of the funding going to insurrectionist Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
TPUSA received $7.8 million — the second largest amount of all 2022 Bradley grant recipients — from the Bradley Impact Fund. The right-wing youth group has been aiming to "win the American Culture War and to inspire our kids [to] love America again" through its events and chapters at high schools and colleges.
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