Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Basic facts
Location:	Milwaukee, Wis.
Type:	501(c)(3)
Affiliation:	Conservative
Top official:	Richard Graber, President and CEO
Year founded:	1985
Website:	Official website

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) based in Milwaukee, Wis., and founded in 1985. The foundation's website says it supports "the study, defense, and practice of the individual initiative and ordered liberty that lead to prosperity, strong families, and vibrant communities."

Background

Brothers Lynde and Harry Bradley founded the Allen-Bradley Company—an industrial control and automation company—in 1903. The Allen-Bradley Foundation was established in 1942 and supported local organizations such as schools, hospitals, and civic organizations; by 1985, the foundation's assets were nearly $14 million. In 1985—20 years after the death of Harry Bradley—the Allen-Bradley Company was sold to Rockwell International for $1.65 billion; of that $1.65 billion, $275 million was used to expand the size and scope of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the nonprofit's new name.

Leadership

As of July 2025, the following individuals made up the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation board of directors:

• John Beagle, Chairman
• James Barry III
• Paul Clement
• Patrick English
• Robert George
• Richard Graber
• Victor Davis Hanson
• Cleta Mitchell
• James Arthur Pope
• Reid Ribble
• Eugene Scalia

Work and activities

As part of the foundation's effort to further research and generate interest in promoting their mission, they fund various projects through grants. The Bradley Foundation lists the criteria for project support and funding:

• Projects will treat free men and women as genuinely self-governing, personally responsible citizens, not as victims or clients.
• They will aim to restore the intellectual and cultural legitimacy of citizenly common sense, the received wisdom of experience, everyday morality, and personal character, refurbishing their roles as reliable guideposts of everyday life.
• They will seek to reinvigorate and re-empower the traditional, local institutions -- families, schools, churches, and neighborhoods -- that provide training in and room for the exercise of genuine citizenship, that pass on everyday morality to the next generation, and that cultivate personal character.
• They will encourage decentralization of power and accountability away from centralized, bureaucratic, national institutions back to the states, localities, and revitalized mediating structures where citizenship is more fully realized.

The Bradley Foundation is also known for its awards of Bradley Prizes, which the group says "celebrate the achievements of individuals in areas consistent with The Bradley Foundation’s mission and vision statement, shining a light on the ideas that shape sound public policy and advance freedom." The foundation awards these $300,000 prizes annually. For a list of Bradley Prize recipients, click here.

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Know of one we missed? Click here to let us know.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of the Bradley Foundation's revenues and expenses from 2019 to 2023. The information comes from ProPublica

Bradley Foundation financial data 2019-2023

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2019	$54.9 million	$49.3 million
2020	$82.9 million	$60.5 million
2021	$146.8 million	$71.4 million
2022	$1.9 million	$63.8 million
2023	$31.0 million	$68.9 million

See also

• What is an influencer?

External links

• Bradley Foundation official website
• Bradley Foundation on LinkedIn
• Bradley Foundation on X
• Bradley Foundation on Facebook
• Bradley Foundation on Instagram