Capital Research Center Reviews Its $1.4 Million Benefactor, Discovers a Philanthropic Genius
WASHINGTON — The Capital Research Center spends most of its time telling the public which foundations deserve suspicion. Yesterday it found one that deserves applause: the one that pays its bills.
On October 22, Capital Research Center re-published “Revisiting the Bradley Foundation’s role in helping build the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium,” a warm 2019 tribute to the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation’s supposed rescue of the Milwaukee stadium deal in 1996. The author, Daniel P. Schmidt, spent more than three decades at Bradley and retired as its vice president for program. He co-edits The Giving Review with Capital Research Center senior fellow Michael E. Hartmann, who spent almost 20 years at Bradley, including as its director of research.
What the updated article never mentions is that Bradley sent Capital Research Center $1.4 million in general operating support over tax years 2020 through 2024, according to Bradley’s own IRS filings. That makes Bradley one of CRC’s largest funders, and its second-largest private foundation donor in that span after the Sarah Scaife Foundation.
The tribute is not subtle. Schmidt credits Bradley with “aggressive, imaginative, risk-taking venture philanthropy,” calls it “decisive” and “administratively agile,” and approvingly quotes Bud Selig ranking Bradley among “the biggest and most respected foundations in the country.” Bradley’s then-president, readers learn, “stirringly said” things about Brewers games on the radio.
The best part is what CRC chose to applaud. This is an organization that built its entire brand second-guessing how foundations spend money. Yet the article celebrates Bradley because there were “no months of investigating, evaluating, and planning,” “No consultants, no collaborative convenings,” and no “detailed charts with data” about “return on investment.” Due diligence, it turns out, is only for other people’s donors.
Then there is the ideology. CRC says it stands for “a free market economy and limited constitutional government.” The project it is celebrating is a pro sports stadium whose public share was covered by a 0.1 percent sales tax in five counties that ran for 24 years and raised about $609 million. And Bradley’s contribution, which its president hailed as “Hard cash, American, $20 million,” was by the article’s own account a low-interest loan.
Bradley should be the one blushing
Of course, Capital Research Center is doing what grantees do. The question is why Bradley, one of the country’s best-known conservative foundations, keeps paying for an operation with this record:
- Capital Research Center bragged about supporting “2000 Mules.” In a donor solicitation still on its website, CRC says Dinesh D’Souza was “relying heavily on Capital Research Center reporting” for the film, and CRC president Scott Walter appeared on screen for an interview. The film’s publisher embarrassingly pulled it and apologized in 2024 to a Georgia voter it falsely depicted committing fraud. Months later, D’Souza was shamed into apologizing too.
- CRC employed a woman who openly identified with the “groyper” movement. Capital Research Center investigative reporter Ashley Rae Goldenberg used the Twitter name “Ashley Rae Groypenberg” with a groyper avatar drawn in her likeness, according to Right Wing Watch. She praised the groyper movement for refusing to apologize for accusations of racism. On the day Ahmaud Arbery’s killers were arrested, she tweeted “Vigilantism is good, actually.” A concern about her conduct was raised with a Capital Research Center colleague in January 2020, but she still appeared on the organization’s website in May of that year. CRC finally scrubbed her from its staff page only after Right Wing Watch published in May 2020.
- CRC conspired with the Trump administration to go after a non-profit for speech they didn’t approve of. In 2025, Capital Research Center released a report it claimed would “equip the Tump administration with what they need in order to take action” against a progressive group, and the Trump DOJ tried to do just that. However, Capital Research Center’s President was ultimately forced to admit that their report did not actually show any funding for terrorism.
That is the outfit Bradley has handed $1.4 million over five years. Perhaps they should reconsider if these are the kind of “results” they want their name attached to.
“Capital Research Center finally reviewed a foundation and found nothing to criticize. Funny how that works,” said Jeremy Funk, Senior Advisor to the Congressional Integrity Project. “Bradley may think it’s a good use of philanthropic dollars to fund a baseball stadium, but do they also think their money was used well in the 2000 Mules project? What about the money spent arming the Trump administration to crack down on speech from another non-profit?”
Learn more about Capital Research Center’s major funders at https://www.whofundscrc.org/
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