Five cornerstone community organizations are sewing their dollars together to support Milwaukee Succeeds’ vision of improving educational outcomes for every student in Milwaukee.
The organizations – Bader Philanthropies, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Herb Kohl Charities, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, and United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County – have formed a funding collaborative with a promise to gift $5 million to Milwaukee Succeeds over the next four years.
Now almost four years old, the “cradle-to-career” community education initiative works to allocate resources to high-impact strategies that will enhance education. Milwaukee Succeeds, steered by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, is anchored by four broad goals covering kindergarten readiness, school readiness, career readiness, and social and emotional health.
Since its inception, the community initiative has made advancements in 10 of 11 educational benchmarks, including boosting proficiency rates in reading and math.
The initiative is now eyeing a set of goals to accomplish by 2020. With collaborative funds, Milwaukee Succeeds organizers will largely focus on rolling out pilot strategies that address systemic change.