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.


A conversation with The Gathering founder Fred Smith (Part 2 of 2)

The Christian philanthropist, author, blogger, and Sunday-school teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the state of public discourse in America today, religion and philanthropy, friendship, and C. S. Lewis.

A conversation with The Gathering founder Fred Smith (Part 1 of 2)

The Christian philanthropist, author, blogger, and Sunday-school teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about The Gathering’s beginnings and learning in the context of a relationship.


A conversation with The New Class War author Michael Lind (Part 2 of 2)

The professor, writer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the politicization of philanthropy and advises grantmakers to have a long-term outlook and consider supporting membership organizations and “extra-parliamentary institutions.”

A conversation with The New Class War author Michael Lind (Part 1 of 2)

The professor, writer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about philanthropy and nonprofitdom as part of the managerial elite’s threat to democracy, the difference between the overclass and the upper class, and the proper relationship between grantmaking and politics.


Creeping corporate Kadetism?

Revisiting the risky confidence and nihilistic moral certainty of an intelligentsia—this time, of Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, and Delta.

Like actual jackpots, Jackpot loses a little luster after a winning beginning

Michael Mechanic’s forthcoming book well-describes “how the super-rich really live,” then promotes a progressive social-justice agenda that would supposedly prevent wealth from “harming us all.”


A conversation with the Fordham Institute’s Chester E. Finn, Jr. (Part 2 of 2)

The education scholar, activist, and philanthropist talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the current states of philanthropy, school choice, and history and civics education.

A conversation with the Fordham Institute’s Chester E. Finn, Jr. (Part 1 of 2)

The education scholar, activist, and philanthropist talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about his mentor Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the current state of conservatism.


A conversation with the Federalist Society’s Eugene B. Meyer (Part 2 of 2)

The legal organization’s president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the different attributes of today’s law-school students, the state of conservatism in general and its current internal debate about “fusionism” in particular, and what and how conservative policy-oriented philanthropy should consider funding moving forward.