Jack Miller Center

Civility Nonprofit

Background

Beginning in 2024, The Jack Miller Center (JMC), a conservative civics education nonprofit, has released a number of civility-related educational resources, including “Civil Discourse, Then and Now” (2024); they have also hosted relevant events like “Political Polarization, Civil Discourse, and the Classroom” (2025). In addition, they have published blog articles promoting pluralism, such as this one from 2025, entitled “Civics Needs Pluralism.” A number of former JMC fellows now lead university civic thought centers—including at least five scholars associated with UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership alone.

Notable People

Jack Miller

Jack Miller Center Founder

Miller founded the Jack Miller Center and Jack Miller Family Foundation. He is a millionaire who founded (and later sold) Quill Corporation. Miller has documented ties to the Koch Network.

Hans Zeiger

President of The Jack Miller Center

Zeiger is a former Republican State Senator (WA). In May 2023, Zeiger advocated on behalf of the Jack Miller Center in support of Ohio’s SB 117, the bill to create state-mandated civics centers (see entry for Ohio State University). In January 2024, he published an essay in Law & Liberty magazine, advising higher ed donors on how they should respond to “the ugly resurgence of antisemitism on campuses in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, and some administrations’ inaction.” One of his recommendations was that funders should support civic thought and leadership centers endorsed by the conservative advocacy group ACTA, which “share a commitment to educating students for informed citizenship in a free society by…teaching American heritage, and ensuring free inquiry into a range of intellectual viewpoints.”

Richard Avramenko

Director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University

Avramenko is closely tied to JMC as a member of its academic council and part of its founding civics initiative faculty. He is a vocal critic of what he sees as leftist bias in higher education. For example, he appeared on a March 2025 podcast episode entitled “Reviving Classical Education: Richard Avramenko on Breaking Marxism’s Grip on Campus.”

Lee J. Strang

Inaugural executive director of the Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at Ohio State University

Strang is a member of the Jack Miller Center’s academic council and was a 2018-19 fellow at Princeton’s conservative James Madison Program. He is an anti-abortion scholar who testified in favor of Ohio’s “heartbeat bill” in 2011 and 2019, and authored a 2021 amicus brief in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision. In 2023, he helped Ohio legislators argue for an increased voting threshold to pass ballot initiatives, as part of an effort to preempt ballot initiatives that protect access to abortion (after the Dobbs ruling). Since 2012 Strang has taught constitutional interpretation summer lectures for the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Blackstone Fellowship program. According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is a conservative Christian law firm that pursues anti-abortion and anti-LGTBQ litigation. (ADF was an advisory board member to the far-right “Project 2025.”) Strang is also board president of Northwest Ohio Classical Academy, a controversial charter school that is explicitly tied to Hillsdale College; Hillsdale produced the revisionist, Trump-linked 1776 curriculum, which historians say distorts American history in order to advance a particular ideology.

Notable Funders

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation/Bradley Impact Fund

~$2.45 million (2020-2024)

According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch, the Bradley Impact Fund is a donor-advised fund “aligned with” the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation that makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing organizations. The fund is a major donor to conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom, as well as climate change denial groups like the Heartland Institute. Current and former Bradley Foundation board members, including Victor Davis Hanson and Art Pope, have documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Bradley’s giving.

John Templeton Foundation

~$1.91 million (2021-2025)

Established by billionaire investor John Templeton. The foundation was led from 2015 to 2025 by his granddaughter, Heather Templeton Dill. It is now headed by the former CEO of Christianity Today, which describes itself as a “globally minded evangelical magazine.” Templeton makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing advocacy organizations such as State Policy Network and Mercatus Center, and Atlas Network (all three of which are described by Greenpeace as “Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Groups”). The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Templeton’s giving.

Sarah Scaife Foundation

$850,000 (2020-2024)

Established by the late billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch, Scaife is “one of the largest foundations focused on supporting right-wing causes.” The foundation is a major donor to conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, as well as climate change denial groups like Global Warming Policy Foundation and the nativist/anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Scaife’s giving.

The Charles Koch Foundation/Stand Together Trust

$100,000 (2024)

Established by billionaire oil fortune heir, Charles Koch, the foundation has been a major funder of right-wing infrastructure for several decades. Koch invests millions into the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups, including climate change denial organizations such as CO2 Coalition. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Koch’s giving.

Thomas W. Smith Foundation

$100,000 (2020)

Founded by Thomas W. Smith, a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute with documented ties to the Koch Network. The Smith Foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups, including Manhattan Institute, State Policy Network, and Atlas Network. It also supports the climate change denial organization CO2 Coalition. James Piereson, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is listed as a compensated “Trustee/Director” on the Smith Foundation’s 2025 tax filing. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Smith’s giving.

Achelis & Bodman Foundation

$50,000 (2022)

Achelis & Bodman Makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, and PragerU (which SPLC describes as a “far-right propaganda” group). The foundation also gives to climate change denial organizations such as CO2 Coalition. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Achelis & Bodman’s giving.

John William Pope Foundation

$25,000 (2023)

Chaired by Art Pope, whom Greenpeace describes as “a major funder of groups that deny climate change.” The foundation makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing advocacy groups like the Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, and the Federalist Society. The Pope Foundation is included on IPS’s top ten funders of climate disinformation groups from 2020 to 2022. The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Pope’s giving.

Edelman Family Foundation

Listed as 50,000-99,999 (2025)

Founded and led by billionaire hedge fund founder Joseph Edelman and his wife, Susan H. Lebovitz-Edelman. The foundation makes significant grants to conservative and Zionist groups such as Tikvah Fund, Manhattan Institute, American Jewish Committee (which has been a prominent supporter of anti-BDS laws), and FAIR (an anti-CRT group which SPLC describes as “a key voice amplifying anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience”). In September 2024, Joseph Edelman publicly resigned from his position as a trustee on the Brown University governing board in protest of the university's decision to hold a vote on divesting its endowment from companies linked to Israel. Edelman argued that considering a divestment vote was “morally reprehensible” and a concession to movements seeking the “destruction of the state of Israel.” For reference, see the Edelman Family Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.

See also: Heterodox Academy.