Daniel P. Schmidt

The Giving Review co-editor Daniel P. Schmidt retired in 2017 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee as its Vice President for Program. He joined Bradley in 1985 and worked there as a Program Officer, Senior Program Officer, Vice President for Operations, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and in 2001 and 2002, Acting President.

During his more than three decades at Bradley, Schmidt helped it become one of the country’s most-influential and -effective conservative policy-oriented foundations. Among other things, he oversaw creation in 1989 of the Bradley Commission on History in Schools; the annual Bradley Symposium in Washington, D.C.; and the 2008 Bradley Project on America’s National Identity.

Before joining Bradley, Schmidt was Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Marquette University, where he had earned his Ph.D. in History and taught Russian History and Western Civilization.

Schmidt currently serves on the boards of directors of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation in Chicago, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Seton Catholic Schools network, and Messmer Catholic Schools in Milwaukee.

He has written for National Affairs, National Review Online, City Journal, RealClearPolicy, RealClearBooks, RealClearReligion, Philanthropy Daily, HistPhil, and the Capital Research Center.


David McCullough, R.I.P.

Remembering “the voice of history.”

A conversation with Force of Nature author Gisèle Huff (Part 2 of 2)

As her memoir is released, the Holocaust survivor and philanthropy professional talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy and education reform, the need for reform of philanthropy itself, and the benefits of a universal basic income.


A conversation with Force of Nature author Gisèle Huff (Part 1 of 2)

As her memoir is released, the Holocaust survivor and philanthropy professional talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about her family history, education, and the American dream.

A conversation with Terry Considine (Part 2 of 2)

The former Bradley Foundation chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about short- and long-term grantmaking strategies, the politicization of philanthropy and donor freedom, the imbalance between left and right among major givers, and what conservatives should try doing about it.


A conversation with Terry Considine (Part 1 of 2)

The former Bradley Foundation chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about his decades’ worth of experience in real-estate investing, politics, and philanthropy.


Revisiting our conversation with journalist and author John J. Miller (Part 2 of 2)

As his book on the John M. Olin Foundation is released in paperback, we feature its author talking to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about Olin himself, his decision to “sunset” the foundation, the reasons for its success, and whether—and if so, how—other conservative givers could replicate that success now and in the future.

Revisiting our conversation with journalist and author John J. Miller (Part 1 of 2)

As his book on the John M. Olin Foundation is released in paperback, we feature The College Fix founder talking to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the benefits of a long-term philanthropic outlook in ambitious projects like transforming the media.


Remembering Memorial, modestly

Levels of ambition, including philanthropic, the impossibility of a “New Man,” and the consequences of trying to create him.

Visions, tradition, and Fiddler on the Roof’s Tevye

As Tim Stanley recalls it in his new book, Tevye says “You may ask, how did this tradition get started. I’ll tell you. I don’t know.” And another, unsettling question: without tradition, will there be anything left?