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.


Peter Thiel: “money doesn’t work that well”

ICYMI: on Bari Weiss’ podcast last week, billionaire talked about effectiveness of giving in contexts of politics and nonprofits.

Donors in Hell to Pay

Michael Lind’s new book about the working class and labor unions adds to his thought about what big givers are doing in both politics and philanthropy, whom they’re ignoring, and the results.


Follow the money

Conservative donors need to take a hard look at where their dollars go.

Revisiting philanthropy in The Dictatorship of Woke Capital

Newly out in paperback, Stephen R. Soukup’s straightforward explanation of increasing “wokism” in the country’s for-profit sector necessarily includes the roles of some who are in the nonprofit sector, too.


A conversation with Catholic philanthropist Timothy R. Busch

The successful entrepreneur and Napa Institute founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his grantmaking, the importance of a focus on mission, and the continuing relevance of the work of Michael Novak.

A conversation with billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein (Part 2 of 2)

The Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about his upcoming PBS documentary series examining the history and meaning of some of America’s iconic national symbols.


A conversation with billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein (Part 1 of 2)

The Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about what he calls “patriotic philanthropy.”

Revisiting “The Charitable Deduction in American Political Thought”

Learning again from a still-relevant event a decade ago at the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal.


A conversation with Loyola Law School’s Ellen P. Aprill (Part 2 of 2)

The nationally prominent legal expert in the taxation of nonprofits talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the taxation of higher-education endowments, comparing and contrasting the rationale for it to that for taxing private-foundation endowments, and explores some tax ramifications of other, newly emerging forms of giving.

A conversation with Loyola Law School’s Ellen P. Aprill (Part 1 of 2)

The nationally prominent legal expert in the taxation of nonprofits talks to Michael E. Hartmann about her career, the different revenue-raising and regulatory roles of the IRS, the non-revenue-related role of state attorneys general, the tax treatment of private-foundation endowments, and the challenges of following complicated IRS rules for small foundations.