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.


Gratitude

Thank you.

Kyrgyzstan journal

Brief insights from an area of utmost geopolitical, religious, and cultural significance.


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

Fifteen years after publication of his book on the John M. Olin Foundation, its author talks 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.

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

The College Fix founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the benefits of a long-term philanthropic outlook in ambitious projects like transforming the media.


A conversation with Brent Haglund about environmentalism, property ownership, and civil society (Part 2 of 2)

The retired “civic environmentalist” talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the Green New Deal, some successes of conservative environmentalism, and the perils of polarized philanthropic funding of environmental activity.

A conversation with Brent Haglund about environmentalism, property ownership, and civil society (Part 1 of 2)

The retired “civic environmentalist” talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about Aldo Leopold, the Land Ethic, and the Sand County Foundation he led for more than three decades.


Revisiting benevolence, philanthropy, and identity in Civic Gifts

Elisabeth S. Clemens’ book—including its description of the March of Dimes, what would now be properly considered a “working charity,” in the polio crusade—impressively details questions about roles of, and relationship between, public and private sectors in meeting social challenges through American history.

Cause for hope

In the wake of madness or even just in the midst of mere distraction, look elsewhere, and deeper.


The causes and consequences of growing distrust between elites and non-elites

And what can be done about it, including by philanthropy.