Philanthropy Roundtable

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The Philanthropy Roundtable was established by the Bradley Foundation to help facilitate conservative grantmaking. The Roundtable was initially operated under the aegis of the Institute for Educational Affairs (IEA), an organization founded in 1978 by two seminal figures of conservative philanthropy, William Simon and Irving Kristol. The IEA now operates as the Madison Center for Educational Affairs.

The Philanthropy Roundtable claims to be a national association of more than 600 conservative individual donors, corporate giving representatives, foundation staff and trustees, and trust and estate officers. Like many of the right's counter-establishment organizations, it was launched in the late 1970s. In 1991 the then-informal group established a governing board of directors. Membership is open to all philanthropists and the representatives of philanthropic organizations, although most hail from the right wing. The Roundtable's mainstream counterpart is the Council on Foundations.

The Roundtable's member foundations have funded conservative causes ranging from abolition of Social Security to anti-tax crusades and United Nations conspiracy theories. The Roundtable members' founders include scions of America's wealthiest families, including Richard Mellon Scaife (heir to the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune), Harry Bradley (electronics), Joseph Coors (beer), and the Smith Richardson family (pharmaceutical products).

1 Board of directors
2 Funding
3 Projects
4 External links

[edit] Board of directors

Daniel S. Peters, Chairman, Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation
Heather Richardson Higgins, Vice Chairman, Randolph Foundation
Kimberly O. Dennis, Secretary, Searle Freedom Trust
Joseph S. Dolan, Treasurer,The Achelis and Bodman Foundations
James Piereson, John M. Olin Foundation
Chester E. Finn Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Michael W. Grebe, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

[edit] Funding

According to Media Transparency, between 1993 and 2003, the Philanthropy Roundtable received over $4.3 million from such right wing foundations as the Roe, Earhart, John M. Olin, Lynde and Harry Bradley, the William E. Simon, and Randolph Foundations. Grebe's Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation has been particularly generous, giving the Roundtable nearly $1.5 million all of which was earmarked "to support general operations."