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Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee Bids Farewell to Longtime Executive Director Leigh Kunde

4/24/2015

News Release: April 24, 2015

Leigh Kunde, who has provided exemplary service and leadership as executive director of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee since 1993, has announced that she will leave her position late this summer.

"It has been an honor to work with nonprofit organizations whose critical missions change lives and improve the quality of life for all of us,” says Kunde. “Since its founding in 1967, the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee has been here to support nonprofits at every stage of their development to be strong and vital contributors and catalysts for change. I am extremely proud of our work together and I have grown professionally from the opportunity to serve. My passion and commitment to support nonprofit capacity and building community will continue moving forward.”

“Through her leadership, compassion, creativity and vision, Leigh has had a profound impact on the nonprofit community in and around Milwaukee over the past several decades,” says Josh Bierbach, chair of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee Board of Directors. “We are so grateful for her service.”

Highlights of Kunde’s tenure as executive director include:

●     Name change from Milwaukee Associates in Urban Development in 1996

●     Annual Spirit of the Nonprofit Sector: Celebration of Diversity event and Nonprofit Excellence Awards, as well as Inspire By Example Awards celebrating volunteerism in Milwaukee

●     Purchase of headquarters building at 2819 West Highland Boulevard in 2002

●     Merger with Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee in 2003

●     Launch of Jobs That Serve nonprofit employment website in 2005

●     Generation of earned revenue at 42-46% of total operating budget since 2005

●     Creation of Finance Center, providing financial management training and services, in 2007

●     Launch of new website at npcmilwaukee.org in 2014

The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee Board of Directors is undertaking a search for a new executive director and plans to have the position filled shortly after Kunde’s departure, which is currently planned for July 31, 2015.

The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee is a membership association serving over 500 nonprofit and corporate members and the nonprofit sector at large. The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee promotes the interests and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector through strengthening organizational capacity, expanding volunteerism and encouraging collaboration. Its programs include training and consulting, Volunteer Milwaukee, financial management, and Jobs that Serve. For more information visit www.npcmilwaukee.org.

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Dismantling Systemic Racism Begins with Discontent

4/21/2015

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Don't miss this dynamic follow-up to Eric Grimes' keynote at our 2014 Conference:

Stewardship of the Moment, Movement
and Momentum for Milwaukee's Black Men and Boys

Thursday, May 7
8:00 a.m. - Noon
Now is the time to best position Milwaukee nonprofits to create significant pathways of opportunity and access for our Black men and boys. Click here for seminar details and
to register.

How Eric Grimes will equip Milwaukee nonprofits to build up Black males

By Molly Willms, NPC Guest Blogger

What has an Italian sports car’s trademark “growl” to do with the disadvantages faced by boys and men of color in Milwaukee?

To the uninitiated, both appear to be unfortunate accidents,
when in fact they exist by design.

That is the theory Eric Grimes – activist, author, speaker and educator – came up with after his girlfriend remarked on a noisy Lamborghini, saying the engine needed to be fixed. It was only later that Grimes learned the “growl” is what makes a Lamborghini a Lamborghini.

“Sometimes we think a growl is a mistake, but sometimes the growl is the signature, Grimes said. “And so we are trying to fix the issue of inequity as if it’s a mistake. What if inequity is a signature of the system?”

Grimes first came to Milwaukee as the keynote speaker at the 2014 Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee conference, “Building Opportunity for Boys and Men of Color.”

In May, he will host a workshop to give nonprofits and individuals some skills, tools and resources to best overcome the disadvantages and inequities faced by Black men and boys in Milwaukee.

Grimes is a senior manager for the New York City-based Campaign for Black Male Achievement and Boston-based Root Cause, a consulting agency for nonprofits and other groups.

Grimes works all over the country, but three current “spotlight cities” for Black Male Achievement are Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee.

For all the staggering inequities face by Black males in Milwaukee – such as disproportionately high incarceration and unemployment rates, among others – Grimes says the city is taking some unique steps in the right direction.

“Milwaukee may be the only city in the nation where the city administration is really organizing and creating departments and staff positions with a particular focus on Black Male Achievement,” Grimes said. “A lot of other cities have talked about the need to focus on that lens, but Milwaukee is actively, through its mayor and through its Black Male Achievement Advisory Council, putting in place mechanisms, paid staff, time, to focus on how this city has a more equitable approach to how it deals with Black men and boys in the city.”

Another positive step, Grimes said, is the work of UW-Milwaukee Assistant Professor Decoteau J. Irby, Ph.D., the co-founder of AAKT Concepts, who emphasizes preserving and restoring dignity as a means to end oppression. Individuals and organizations can measure their actions and attitudes against this “dignity framework” to determine what is working and what needs to change.

The city struggles with the high incarceration and unemployment rate, which can begin with myths and stereotypes about Black males’ behavior, attitudes and skill sets.

Grimes says that the first step to upsetting the norm of Black males on the bottom of every life outcome indicator is upsetting the people who live within the system that allows it.

“People have to understand how systemically embedded that is, that people are okay with Black men and boys committing a level of homicides disproportionate to everyone, being incarcerated at a level disproportionate to everyone… not just in the city, across this nation,” he said. “We’ve become very comfortable with that as the norm, as the growl, as the ‘Lamborghini growl.’ We’re very comfortable with that reality. Until there is a critical level of discontent with this reality, we can't begin to imagine a new one."

The workshop will help community advocates working with Black males “actualize” alternate possibilities, Grimes said, then give them the tools to turn their discontent with the status quo into change for the better.

“If you’re going to ask somebody to stop doing something in a particular way and start doing something new, you have to build the bridge between the old and the new and show them that it can be done,” Grimes said. “That’s what I’m hoping to do in May.”

Eric Grimes’s workshop will run from 8 a.m. to noon on May 7 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. in Milwaukee. Register here by May 1.

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Corporate Corner: U.S. Bank Wins 2015 Inspire by Example Business Award

4/14/2015

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U.S. Bancorp, with $321 billion in assets, is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the 5th largest commercial bank in the United States. The company operates 3,086 banking offices and 5,086 ATMs, and provides a comprehensive line of banking, brokerage, insurance, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services products to consumers, businesses and institutions.

By Debbie Knepke, Corporate and Events Manager, Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee

Volunteerism in Milwaukee County was celebrated through six Inspire by Example awards, given at the 33rd Annual Volunteer Celebration on April 9th by the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee, a service of the Nonprofit Center.

The Inspire by Example Business Award is given to a local company with outstanding employee volunteer engagement. Corporate volunteerism is beneficial to both companies and communities, especially when that volunteer engagement is sustained over time. That’s the approach of this year’s winner U.S. Bank.

U.S. Bank encourages and recognizes employee service and community leadership by providing paid time off for employees to volunteer, through Dollars for Doing and a Matching Gift Program. This commitment to employee volunteerism provides valuable support to local nonprofits. At U.S. Bank it’s ingrained in the culture starting at the top of the organization.

In 2014, the Bank’s Local Development Network participated in an impressive 81 events impacting 55 organizations and engaging 1,300 employees. These efforts provide an opportunity for staff from different departments to volunteer together, build relationships and gain new perspective. The Bank’s unique commitment has been especially important to the Salvation Army, who counts on U.S. Bank to adopt their Toy Shop and provide 165 volunteers who keep things running smoothly.

Whether it’s serving on a board, supporting the Milwaukee Heart Walk, helping the Boy Scouts clean their campground, or making sure that hundreds of students have their school supplies, you’ll find U.S. Bank employees willing to lend a hand. Well done U.S. Bank!

If your business is considering a volunteer project in 2015 - large or small, one-time or ongoing - contact Corporate & Events Manager Debbie Knepke at [email protected].

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Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee Bids Farewell to Longtime Executive Director Leigh Kunde

Dismantling Systemic Racism Begins with Discontent

Corporate Corner: U.S. Bank Wins 2015 Inspire by Example Business Award

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