The Bradley Foundation
The Dark Money Backbone
Embedded Files
Nearly $1 billion in assets. $1.3 billion in grants since 1985. The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation funds Heritage, ALEC, the Federalist Society, the State Policy Network, and Americans for Prosperity — simultaneously, consistently, and with almost no public scrutiny. It is the financial backbone the entire network depends on. Most Americans have never heard of it. That invisibility is the strategy.
What the Bradley Foundation Is
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is a private charitable foundation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded in 1942. It expanded dramatically in 1985 when Allen-Bradley Company was sold to Rockwell International for $1.65 billion — swelling the foundation's assets from $14 million to over $290 million almost overnight. The foundation had nearly $1 billion in assets as of 2023 and has given $1.3 billion in grants since 1985, with approximately 70% directed to national organizations and 30% to Wisconsin-based groups. Wikipedia
The New York Times has described it as "a leading source of ideas and financing for American conservatives." While the Koch network receives significant public attention, Bradley operates with far less scrutiny despite comparable influence. It funds Heritage, ALEC, the Federalist Society, the State Policy Network, and Americans for Prosperity — simultaneously. It is the connective financial tissue beneath the connective organizational tissue of the Koch network.
What Bradley Has Funded
Bradley's grants reach virtually every major organization documented in this section: the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, the Federalist Society, the State Policy Network, Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, and DonorsTrust — the "dark money ATM" of the conservative movement that redistributes to hundreds of right-wing organizations anonymously. Wikipedia
Leonard Leo received a $300,000 Bradley Prize in 2009 — the same year he was deepening his role as the primary architect of the Federalist Society's judicial pipeline. The Bradley Prize functions as a financial reward and a signal of network priorities. Bradley Foundation
Anti-union campaigns
Bradley has been one of the most aggressive funders of anti-union legislation and advocacy in the country. In Wisconsin, Bradley-funded groups helped orchestrate Governor Scott Walker's 2011 legislation severely restricting public employee collective bargaining — a template subsequently replicated across Republican-controlled states. Wikipedia
Internal hacked documents published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2017 revealed Bradley's multi-state anti-union strategy — including grants to obtain the names of union members and pressure them to leave their unions, and targeted funding in multiple states explicitly aimed at "defunding teachers unions." The documents described an explicit plan to take the "Wisconsin model" of de-unionization national.
School privatization
Education privatization has been a consistent Bradley priority since the 1990s — school voucher programs, charter school expansion, defunding of public school systems, and opposition to teachers unions as both an educational and political strategy. Weakening unions reduces Democratic political funding and organizing capacity. That dual purpose is explicit in leaked planning documents. Wikipedia
Election denial and democratic erosion
Investigative reporting by Jane Mayer for The New Yorker found that since 2012 the Bradley Foundation has spent at least $18 million on groups tied to radical election bills and efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election results — making it one of the largest funders of election denial infrastructure in the country. NPR — Fresh Air interview with Jane Mayer
Bradley board member Cleta Mitchell coordinated much of this funding while simultaneously working as a lawyer with groups seeking to invalidate the 2020 election — and joining Trump on his January 2021 call to Georgia election officials demanding they "find" more votes. Her presence on the Bradley board, and her role in both election denial litigation and Bradley's grant strategy, makes the connection between the foundation's money and the attack on democratic institutions direct and documented. NPR
Conservative media infrastructure
Bradley has funded the development of conservative media infrastructure at the state level — news sites operated by SPN-affiliated organizations that present conservative advocacy as independent journalism, and communications frameworks in targeted states designed to make coordinated national messaging appear locally generated.
The State-Level Strategic Plan
Internal Bradley Foundation documents hacked and published in 2016 revealed a deliberate long-term strategy to shift influence away from the federal level and concentrate on state legislatures — particularly in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon.
The plan called for building coordinated networks of political, media, and advocacy groups in these states — funded by Bradley, coordinated through SPN, and executing the ALEC legislative agenda while appearing to be independent local organizations.
This is the clearest documented example in this entire library of national dark money strategy deliberately designed to appear as local grassroots activity. The strategy is not a theory. It is a leaked document.
The Bradley Prize — Mapping the Network's Priorities
The Bradley Prize — $300,000 awarded annually — functions as a financial reward and a signal of network approval. The full recipient list maps the network's strategic priorities across time: Bradley Foundation
Leonard Leo — 2009 Architect of the Federalist Society's judicial pipeline. Coordinated the nominations of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. Has since raised and deployed an estimated $1.6 billion through dark money networks to fund conservative judicial campaigns.
John Bolton — 2007 Former National Security Advisor and hawkish foreign policy advocate. His appointment signaled Bradley's investment in aggressive American militarism as a governing priority.
Roger Ailes — 2013 Founder of Fox News. Bradley's investment in Ailes reflects the network's early recognition that controlling the conservative media environment was as important as controlling legislation.
Jeb Bush — 2011 Governor and education privatization advocate. His prize reflected Bradley's sustained commitment to dismantling public education through vouchers, charter schools, and the defunding of teachers unions.
Edwin Meese III — 2012 Reagan's Attorney General and Heritage Foundation senior fellow. Meese has been one of the most consistent legal architects of the unitary executive theory that Project 2025 now implements.
Jay Bhattacharya — 2024 COVID lockdown critic and opponent of pandemic public health measures. Appointed by Trump to lead the National Institutes of Health — the agency whose scientific independence he spent years working to undermine.
Christopher Rufo — 2025 The strategist behind the anti-CRT and anti-DEI campaign that has reshaped education policy and corporate practice nationally. His prize in 2025 signals that Bradley considers this campaign — now being implemented across federal agencies — one of its most successful investments.
The pattern across these recipients is not accidental. Judicial capture. Media infrastructure. Education privatization. Legal theory for executive power. COVID contrarianism. Anti-DEI strategy. Each prize reflects where the network chose to invest — and what it has since achieved.
The Radicalization of Bradley
Investigative journalists and observers of the foundation have documented a significant radicalization over the past decade — a shift from a foundation that "believed in the power of ideas" to one that funds election denial and the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. As journalist Jane Mayer writes, "the modern conservative movement has depended on leveraging the fortunes of wealthy reactionaries." NPR
The foundation's nearly $1 billion in assets were accumulated from the sale of a manufacturing company. The name belongs to the Bradley brothers. In important respects, the institution does not.
What Can Be Done ✅
Track the money:
SourceWatch — Bradley Foundation — the most comprehensive database of Bradley grants and recipient organizations
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer — free access to Bradley's annual IRS Form 990 filings disclosing all grants
ExposedbyCMD — real-time tracking of Bradley-funded networks and spending
Wikipedia — Bradley Foundation — documented grant recipients and Bradley Prize history
Bradley Foundation Prizes — the foundation's own public list of prize recipients
Expose recipients in your state:
Use SourceWatch's SPN Portal to identify Bradley-funded think tanks operating in your state
When your state legislators cite research from a think tank, check whether it is a Bradley grantee using SourceWatch
Contact local journalists with documentation of Bradley funding for organizations presenting themselves as independent local voices — most local newsrooms have no idea
Support counter-organizations:
People for the American Way — Right Wing Watch — monitors Bradley Prize recipients and grantees
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — the most detailed tracker of Bradley's Wisconsin operations
Documents in this library: 📄 The Bradley Foundation — Organizational Profile & Threat Assessment
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