The annual BizTimes Milwaukee Nonprofit Excellence Awards program will include a panel discussion about how businesses and nonprofit organizations can work together to create more job opportunities for low income individuals and to address the labor shortage challenges faced by many area businesses.
The discussion will focus on how businesses can collaborate with nonprofits to make social change in the community, while also helping companies find employees that they need to fill job openings.
The event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 2, from 7:30-9:45 a.m. at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. Click here to register for the event.
The discussion will be moderated by Kimberly Kane, founder and president of Kane Communications Group.
The panelists will include:
- Bill Krugler, president of Milwaukee JobsWork
- Cheryl Fritz, business development manager for STEP Industries
- JoAnne Johnson-Sabir, owner of The Juice Kitchen and a partner in the Sherman Phoenix project
- Austin Ramirez, CEO of HUSCO International
- Joaquin Altoro, vice president of Town Bank.
Krugler was also a panelist during the 2016 Nonprofit Excellence Awards and commented then on the need for businesses, even those outside of the city of Milwaukee, to engage with the nonprofit community to address workforce issues. “You can’t sit on the sidelines anymore on this,” he said. “If you’re out in the suburbs, you have an aging workforce. You’re going to wake up some day and not know where you’re going to get your next people to hire from. You’ve got a big pool of people in the city that right now aren’t ready to go out and work. You need to get engaged.”
The panel discussion will be followed by the awards presentations. The finalists for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards were announced recently. Jim Lindenberg, a serial entrepreneur who is the owner of Master Z’s, Lindy Enterprises and JML Holdings, the former owner of the Milwaukee Wave and has contributed to numerous philanthropic causes in southeastern Wisconsin, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. WISN-TV Channel 12 news anchor Melinda Davenport will be the emcee for the awards portion of the program.
The presenting sponsor for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards program is Town Bank. The platinum sponsor is Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. The gold sponsor is Mueller QAAS LLC.
