Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation

Background

The Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation is a family foundation established in 1985.¹

Barre Seid is a former chairman and CEO of Tripp Lite, a manufacturer of power and connectivity products for computers and electronics. Based on publicly available tax forms, the Seid Foundation was a significant funder of conservative causes prior to 2010. In later years, the foundation appears to have focused on other philanthropy.

Sources have speculated that Seid has shifted some of his funding through less transparent vehicles, like Donors Capital Fund. When internal Heartland Institute documents outlining its programs and fundraising activities were leaked in 2012 ,² there was speculation that Seid could be the “Anonymous Donor” listed in those documents as the supporter of many Heartland Institute climate change denial activities.³

That Barre Seid could be the mystery donor was corroborated by February 2012 and October 2012 reports compiled by computer scientist John Mashey. According to Mashey, “The combination of IRS Form 990s, February documents, and other information proves his identity, as the numbers simply do not work otherwise.”⁴ ⁵

Stance on Climate Change

The Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation has provided more than $1 million to the Heartland Institute, a notorious group at the forefront of denying that human activities have caused climate change:⁶

Heartland Institute
1998	$150,000
1999	$25,000
2000	$250,000
2001	$110,000
2002	$150,000
2003	$154,689
2004	$176,788
2007	$21,500
Grand Total	$1,037,977

Funding

Below is a partial list of notable recipients of funding from the Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation, based on data retrieved from the Conservative Transparency project and original research by DeSmog.⁷

See the attached spreadsheet for additional information on Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation funding by year (.xlsx).

Recipient & Year	Total Contributions & Contributions by Year
George Mason University	$3,132,000
1998	$10,000
2000	$690,000
2001	$400,000
2002	$550,000
2003	$562,000
2004	$325,000
2005	$575,000
2006	$20,000
Heartland Institute	$1,037,977
1998	$150,000
1999	$25,000
2000	$250,000
2001	$110,000
2002	$150,000
2003	$154,689
2004	$176,788
2007	$21,500
U.S. Term Limits Foundation	$790,000
1998	$240,000
1999	$100,000
2000	$400,000
2003	$50,000
Americans For Limited Government Foundation	$750,000
2005	$750,000
Palmer R. Chitester Fund	$660,575
2004	$410,000
2005	$250,575
Legislative Education Action Drive Foundation	$500,000
2004	$500,000
Cato Institute	$427,618
1998	$104,286
1999	$95,000
2000	$123,332
2001	$50,000
2002	$25,000
2003	$25,000
2005	$5,000
Parents in Charge Foundation	$400,000
2005	$400,000
Competitive Enterprise Institute	$343,190
1998	$25,000
2000	$25,000
2001	$55,000
2002	$30,000
2003	$30,000
2004	$25,700
2005	$152,490
Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation	$323,900
1998	$50,000
1999	$50,000
2000	$50,000
2001	$50,000
2002	$50,000
2003	$50,000
2004	$5,900
2007	$18,000
Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation	$250,000
1998	$20,000
1999	$15,000
2000	$35,000
2001	$35,000
2002	$30,000
2003	$35,000
2004	$40,000
2005	$30,000
2006	$10,000
The Education & Research Institute	$200,000
1998	$50,000
2000	$50,000
2001	$100,000
State Policy Network	$150,000
2006	$150,000
Lincoln Legal Foundation	$122,500
1998	$5,000
1999	$30,000
2004	$87,500
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education	$100,000
2005	$100,000
Education Freedom Fund	$100,000
1998	$100,000
Center for Individual Rights	$70,000
1998	$10,000
1999	$10,000
2001	$50,000
Intercollegiate Studies Institute	$55,000
1998	$20,000
2000	$10,000
2001	$10,000
2004	$10,000
2005	$5,000
International Society for Individual Liberty	$50,000
2005	$50,000
Advocates for Self-Government	$50,000
2005	$50,000
Philanthropy Roundtable	$47,116
1998	$2,500
2000	$2,500
2001	$5,000
2002	$2,500
2003	$2,500
2005	$10,000
2006	$22,116
Institute for Humane Studies	$40,000
2005	$15,000
2006	$25,000
Collegiate Network	$30,000
2002	$10,000
2003	$10,000
2004	$10,000
Illinois Family Institute	$27,500
1999	$25,000
2004	$2,500
Congress of Racial Equality	$25,000
2006	$25,000
Donors Capital Fund	$25,000
2005	$25,000
Capital Research Center	$25,000
1998	$24,000
2003	$1,000
Oklahoma Family Policy Council	$20,000
2004	$20,000
Public Service Research Foundation	$17,500
1998	$2,500
2000	$2,500
2001	$5,000
2002	$2,500
2003	$2,500
2004	$2,500
Ethics and Public Policy Center	$15,000
2005	$15,000
National Legal and Policy Center	$15,000
1998	$2,500
2000	$2,500
2001	$5,000
2002	$2,500
2003	$2,500
National Taxpayers Union Foundation	$12,500
2000	$2,500
2001	$5,000
2002	$2,500
2003	$2,500
Fund for American Studies	$10,000
2005	$10,000
David Horowitz Freedom Center	$10,000
2005	$10,000
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research	$10,000
2005	$10,000
Alliance for School Choice	$10,000
2001	$10,000
Young America’s Foundation	$7,500
1998	$2,500
2000	$2,500
2001	$2,500
The Heritage Foundation	$5,000
2005	$5,000
Alliance for Justice	$5,000
2009	$5,000
Institute for Policy Innovation	$5,000
2005	$5,000
American Spectator Foundation	$5,000
2005	$5,000
Henry Hazlitt Foundation	$5,000
2002	$5,000
Grand Total	$9,884,876

990 Forms

Key People

According to its IRS Form 990 forms, the foundation’s directors and offices remained largely the same year-over-year:

Barbara Landis-Seid — Vice president from 1998 to 2003, and secretary from 2004 to at least 2018. Wife of Barre Seid.
Barre Seid — President and treasurer 1998 to present
Joan Frontczak — A director from 2004 to at least 2018. According to her LinkedIn profile, Frontczak has worked as executive assistant to the chairman of Trippe Manufacturing since 1992.⁸
Joyce B. Markle — Vice president from 1998 to 2003
Steve Baer — Director from 2004 to 2006

Actions

2010

Barre Seid has been credited by a number of sources as being behind an attempted ideological takeover of Shimer College,⁹ a small Chicago-area Great Books college. Shimer received over $800,000 between 2007 and 2008 from Seid’s foundation. In 2008, after a year-long process, the school announced three candidates for the position of president. All three were rejected by an anonymous donor now understood to be Barre Seid. The fourth candidate, Thomas Lindsay, was brought forward by Patrick Parker, a friend of Seid and longtime Shimer trustee.¹⁰

In 2009, Thomas Lindsay became the school’s president. Soon after he began packing Shimer’s board of trustees with new members possessing significant conservative connections, such as ties to Barre Seid.¹¹ ¹²

The new trustees included Carson Halloway and Matthew Franck of the National Review; Michael McDonald, founder of the conservative Center for Individual Rights; conservative pundit Ann Coulter; and Bob Chitester, the head of Free to Choose Media. Other notable members of the “takeover faction” included Heartland Institute‘s then-president Joseph Bast as well as Eric O’Keefe of the Sam Adams Alliance and U.S. Term Limits, a Seid-funded organization.¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷

The “takeover faction” proposed significant changes to the Shimer mission statement, including replacement of references to “active citizenship” and “informed, responsible action” with references to “ordered political liberty such as we enjoy in American democracy.” These changes, among others, alarmed Shimer students, faculty, alumni, and staff members.

The fight for control of Shimer became an open struggle that received national press coverage, including a Wall Street Journal article¹⁸ that Shimer staff and students described as “a misleading, tendentious screed about the current events at Shimer.”¹⁹

Hundreds of Shimer alumni signed a petition calling for Lindsay’s resignation. On April 18, 2010, the Shimer Assembly, a voting body made up of all students, faculty, and administrative staff at the college, passed a unanimous resolution of no confidence in Lindsay’s leadership. Shimer’s Board of Trustees narrowly voted to fire Lindsay in April, effectively stopping the ideological takeover.²⁰

Trippe Manufacturing Co. — The contact number below for the foundation appears the same as for Barre Seid’s company, Trippe Manufacturing Co.²¹ Trippe Manufacturing Co. is commonly referred to as Tripp Lite.²² In 2021, Eaton Corporation plc acquired Trippe Manufacturing Co.²³

Contact & Address

According to the foundation’s 2018 IRS Form 990, the foundation’s address and phone number are:

1111 W 35 St, 12th Floor
Chicago Il 60609-1404
(773) 869-1111

Note: This also appeared to be the address for the company Tripp Lite, a company producing electronics power and protection equipment.

@TrippLite by Eaton on Twitter – Ireland-based power management company Eaton announced its acquisition of Tripp Lite in 2021.

Other Resources

Seid Foundation – Sourcewatch

Resources

1
“Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation,” Foundation Center profile. Accessed May 4, 2022.
2
Brendan DeMelle. “Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine,” DeSmog, February 14, 2012.
3
“The case for Barre Seid as the Heartland Institute’s Anonymous Donor: Summation,” Daily KOS, March 6 2012. Archived Janary 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/etTIz
4
John Mashey. “Fakery 2: More Funny Finances, Free Of Tax,” DeSmog, October 25, 2012.
5
John Mashey. “Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax,” DeSmog, February 14, 2012.
6
Jason Samenow. “Heartland Institute launches campaign linking terrorism, murder, and global warming belief,” The Washington Post, May 4, 2012. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/C9Rww
7
“Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation,” Conservative Transparency. Accessed January 30, 2020.
8
“Joan Frontczak,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 30, 2020. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
9
“The Conservative Menace,” Chicago Reader, December 10, 2009. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/UAnDX
10
“Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation,” Conservative Transparency. Accessed January 30, 2020.
11
“The Conservative Menace,” Chicago Reader, December 10, 2009. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/UAnDX
12
“Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation,” Conservative Transparency. Accessed January 30, 2020.
13
“The Conservative Menace,” Chicago Reader, December 10, 2009. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/UAnDX
14
“Who’s Buying Shimer?“ Chicago Reader, February 25, 2010. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/bgXO3
15
“Shimer Trustees Honored,” Somewhat Reasonable (Heartland Institute Blog), February 3, 2011. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/xtz7Y
16
“Shimer’s Board of Trustees,” Shimer Alumni Alliance, January 26, 2010. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/pSdYL
17
“Barre Seid’s Obsession,” Daily Kos, November 18, 2010. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/IWRfB
18
“On the Barricades at Shimer,” The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/DCPLP
19
“Shimer College Fact Check: Wall Street Journal article,” Shimer College and the Future, March 12, 2010. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/KqI8h
20
“Shimer College thwarts right-wing takeover attempt,” Daily Kos, April 21, 2010. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/wip/vd0PR
21
Homepage, Tripp Lite. Archived January 30, 2020. Archive.ph URL:https://archive.ph/wip/FrxPA
22
Dun&Bradstreet Business Directory, Trippe Manufacturing Co. Archived February 22, 2023. Archive Today URL:http://archive.today/SJkXS
23
“Eaton Corporation plc completed the acquisition of Trippe Manufacturing Company.” MarketScreener. Archived February 22, 2023. Archive.today URL:http://archive.today/BZdQA

DeSmog

DeSmog