Michael E. Hartmann

The Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Strategic Giving at the Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. 

For almost 20 years, Hartmann served in various roles on the program staff of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, including as its Director of Research. Before joining Bradley, he was Director of Research at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. He has been a consultant to other foundations and education-reform organizations, as well.

Hartmann is a past Visiting Fellow of the Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington, D.C., for which he researched and wrote Helping People to Help Themselves: A Guide for Donors. He is co-author of CRC’s The Flow of Funding to Conservative and Liberal Political Campaigns, Independent Groups, and Traditional Public Policy Organizations Before and After Citizens United, hailed as “an unprecedented study” by RealClearPolicy.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, Hartmann has published law-review articles on the constitutionality of school vouchers and aspects of welfare reform, as well as on the First Amendment and intellectual-property rights.

He has written for National Affairs, City Journal, Law & Liberty, National Review Online, The American Conservative, RealClearPolitics, RealClearPolicy, RealClearBooks, RealClearReligion, the Washington Examiner, Philanthropy, Philanthropy Daily, and HistPhil.

Reach Michael at mhartmann@givingreview.com.

America and the Art of the Possible, and philanthropy

Part of post-frontier America’s failed “managerial elite.”

Michael E. Hartmann / 4 min read
Revisiting contemporary philanthropy as part of a First Estate “clerisy”

Newly out in paperback, Joel Kotkin’s book on the coming “neo-feudalism”—comparing current class conditions to those of the Middle Ages—correctly characterizes the current status and a current role of foundations.

Daniel P. Schmidt & Michael E. Hartmann / 5 min read
Philanthropy and The Myth of Left and Right

Applying an analytical framework in another, related context.

Michael E. Hartmann / 4 min read
Benedict
Revisiting Pope Benedict’s thought on reason and faith

An excerpt from our 2020 conversation with Samuel Gregg, during which he discusses Benedict and “the civilizational challenge of our time.”

Daniel P. Schmidt & Michael E. Hartmann / 5 min read
charity-industrial
Big Philanthropy and the benefits—and limits—of the bygone “Grand Bargain”
Michael E. Hartmann / 9 min read
Three vie to chair powerful House Ways and Means Committee

Jurisdiction includes nonprofit tax law and its oversight.

Michael E. Hartmann / 2 min read
Philanthropy in Control

Adam Rutherford’s new book about eugenics reminds us again of those progressive foundations that supported it—and that it’s long past time for a full and fair accounting of them for what they funded and fomented, and why.

Michael E. Hartmann / 6 min read
Ken Paxton’s questions of Mark Zuckerberg-funded CTCL show investigative power of state attorneys general
Michael E. Hartmann / < 1 min read
A conversation with Archdiocese of Boston schools superintendent Thomas W. Carroll (Part 2 of 2)

The educational administrator talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about Catholic education, the importance of remaining faithful to its core mission of eternal salvation, and the educational and societal benefits of school choice.

Daniel P. Schmidt & Michael E. Hartmann / 2 min read
A conversation with Archdiocese of Boston schools superintendent Thomas W. Carroll (Part 1 of 2)

The educational administrator talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about Catholic education and identity, creating a community of learners and believers, and the challenge of raising money for its mission in the current culture.

Daniel P. Schmidt & Michael E. Hartmann / 2 min read

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