William A. Schambra

William A. Schambra is the director of the Hudson Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. Prior to joining the Hudson Institute in January of 2003, Schambra was director of programs at the Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee. Before joining Bradley in 1992, Schambra served as a senior advisor and chief speechwriter for Attorney General Edwin Meese III, Director of the Office of Personnel Management Constance Horner, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan. He was also director of Social Policy Programs for the American Enterprise Institute, and co-director of AEI's "A Decade of Study of the Constitution."

From 1984 to 1990 Schambra served as a member of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, to which he was appointed by President Reagan. From 2003 to 2006 he served on the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Schambra has written extensively on the Constitution, the theory and practice of civic revitalization, and civil society in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Policy Review, Christian Science Monitor, Nonprofit Quarterly, Philanthropy, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Crisis. He is the editor of several volumes, including As Far as Republican Principles Will Admit: Collected Essays of Martin Diamond.

RECENT POSTS BY WILLIAM A. SCHAMBRA

• Foundations and the social contract

  The mention of the term “social contract” in the panel description — unhappily for you all — sent me rooting through some musty old tomes from my graduate courses in political theory, which I took at Northern Illinois University, the Harvard of DeKalb County, just 50 miles west of this hotel.… MORE >>

• Robert Nisbet and our continuing quest for community

  Last week, Bob Woodson of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise took a group of conservatives to visit one of the grassroots groups he works with in Anacostia, a particularly tough part of DC just a few miles from here.… MORE >>

• In the fight over big vs. small government, philanthropy has forgotten the poor

  Philanthropy’s standing with the policy makers in Washington, D.C., has reached an all-time low.… MORE >>

• Faith-based initiatives: The Founders’ intent

  As conservatism begins to wrestle with the problem of attracting non-traditional groups to its banner in the wake of the elections of 2012, it should take a second look at President George W.… MORE >>

• June’s elections offer a warning shot for progressive nonprofits

  When Wisconsin’s governor Scott Walker turned back the effort to recall him by winning 53 percent of the vote this month, his victory did more than ensure that the state’s cutbacks in government-worker wages, benefits, and collective-bargaining rights would remain in place.… MORE >>

• Conservative philanthropy and the larger view

  With the recent passing of Hilton Kramer, co-founder of The New Criterion… MORE >>, it is worth recalling the role conservative philanthropy played in the establishment of that influential journal of criticism in the arts and culture.

• Philanthropy’s responsibility to democracy

  My marching orders from the conference organizers went something like this: be provocative, but try not to be offensive.… MORE >>

• James Q. Wilson and “broken windows” philanthropy

  “We have to do more than offer Band-Aids and, ideally, work on more than symptoms.… MORE >>

• Do conservatives care about the poor?

  When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney notoriously announced that he is “not concerned about the very poor” because “we have a safety net there,” he overlooked forty years of conservative efforts to do more for the poor than just providing a meager federal safety net.… MORE >>

• Think big, act small: The how’s and why’s of conservative philanthropy

  I’ve been asked to say a few words about conservative philanthropy and the way it conducts itself.… MORE >>