In 1998, the Sand County Foundation in Madison, Wis., and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee created The Bradley Fund for the Environment to make grants based on values of personal liberty, civic responsibility, and limited government.

The Bradley Fund for the Environment is intended to foster ethically sound and science-based environmental programs that are leading-edge solutions to major problems. For the fund, proposals that emphasize private responsibility, create sustaining partnerships, and integrate habitat improvement with human considerations are solicited by the Sand County Foundation on behalf of the Bradley Foundation.

The Bradley Fund for the Environment has become one of the nation’s most innovative, efficient, and effective instruments for empowering citizens to take greater responsibility for their lives and the environment that supports their livelihoods.

Current focus areas include:

• reducing the risk of species becoming listed as threatened or endangered in order to avert catastrophic economic outcomes;
• supporting examples of private landowner engagement in water management practices;
• modeling private and local collaborative conservation efforts that demonstrate alternatives to costly public works or regulatory actions; and,
• advancing policies supportive of voluntary, private landowner conservation.