Greater Milwaukee Foundation Grants More Than $30M in 2012

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation awarded $30,009,075 in grants in 2012, according to preliminary financial reports. That marks its second highest grantmaking year since before the Great Recession began in 2008. In 2008, the Foundation made $31.4 million in grants.

“As our community’s foundation, we are focused on the long-term growth of our
investments, which allows donors to support the organizations important to them
now and forever,” said Ellen Gilligan, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “With
the economic ups and downs over the past few years, many of these organizations have really been challenged and our donors are committed to building their capacity. Thanks to our diversified portfolio, we are able to help donors grow their funds, meet the challenges these organizations face and, in the process, strengthen our community across a wide variety of areas.”

The Foundation compares its investments to two key benchmarks, the Morningstar Moderate Allocation and the S&P 500. It continues to perform well over the long-term and its four primary investment pools ended the year with gains which exceeded the two benchmarks and provided for fund growth.  The Foundation investment pools returned more than 13 percent in 2012.

The largest portion of grants, 82 percent or $24 million, came from donor advised funds.

Overall, 28 percent of the grants made in 2012, or about $8.5 million, supported health and human services-related programs. Education was the second largest funding area, with 19 percent, or $5.6 million, in grants to education-related projects and programs.

• Arts and culture:               $4,676,276
• Community development:  $1,687,430
• Child/youth/family:           $1,106,180  
• Education:                       $5,602,404
• Employment & training:       $687,787
• Environment:                    $4,691,799
• Health & human services:  $8,503,155
• Youth development:             $744,988
• Other                              $2,309,056