Milwaukee Mines ‘Untapped Promise’ of Big Donors to Close Funding Gap

Coming off the recession, nonprofits in Wisconsin’s biggest metro area increasingly turned to individual donors — and particularly big donors — as a source of “untapped promise,” according to a 2016 report by the Public Policy Forum, a regional research group. Organizations are ramping up fundraising programs in part because of drops in public funding and a sense that foundation and corporate giving is flattening.

In 2013, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater began focusing on increasing giving from its season subscribers, including thousands who had been attending performances for decades. “A lot of people were just giving way under their capacity,” says Marina Krejci, chief development officer. The number of major donors has more than tripled, and annual giving has more than doubled to over $1.3 million.

About 60 percent of organizations surveyed by the Public Policy Forum reported they had just completed or were planning campaigns, with seven groups targeting goals of $50 million or more. “The interest in major-gift fundraising is on par now with what we saw during the recession,” says David Malone, a fundraising consultant.

Rob Meiksins, CEO of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, says a lot of small, community-based organizations aren’t enjoying the same post-recession renewal and continue to struggle — in part because they don’t have the profile or connections to tap into the area’s wealth. “The bigs are going to get theirs, but I don’t know that smaller organizations are seeing a windfall.”