William A. Schambra

William A. Schambrais a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute. Prior to joining Hudson as director of the Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal in January 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 (via williams). 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.

Mediating structures: the early days

William A. Schambra’s opening keynote address at the American Enterprise Institute conference on “The Social Breakdown.”

Populist anger and a sole resort to push back against philanthropic elites

Remarks from a panel discussion on populism at the “Foundations on the Hill” event for foundation leaders and officials in Washington, D.C.

Time for the right to rethink and reconsider all around

Christopher DeMuth’s is a deeply insightful critique to be taken seriously, including by conservative philanthropy.

Arabella and The Atlantic

Considering the proper distance between charity and politics.

Revisiting a one-sided social compact

As establishment philanthropy defends its position in American society, it would do well to tend to more than just one flank.

Think Big vs. Think Small Philanthropy

Philanthropy is evermore concerned with “thinking big.” But are there virtues in “thinking small”—and what can you achieve then?

Revisiting Tocqueville, technology, and the Tittabawassee

As shown in and by Sanford, Mich., starting one year ago, it’s often when massive devastation is visited on a population that it discovers its true character.

Getting lost on the way to root causes

In any real-life revision of the parable so often cited by philanthropists, there’s a strong likelihood that the philanthropists forging their way upstream to the source of the problem will never get there. As with the challenge of homelessness in L.A., they will instead become hopelessly entangled in the real-world obstacles that invariably complicate the drive for simplistic, root-cause solutions.

The price of nonprofits’ political activism, and who pays it

Theda Skocpol and Caroline Tervo tell the story of Indivisible and its donor-driven succumbing to the siren call of “the DC-based nonprofit industrial complex.”

Carnegie’s midnight confession

The appropriate context within which its eugenic past should be considered.