Foundations award grants in Waukesha County

Nov. 03, 2011

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 03, 2011 0

Waukesha - Two foundations announced grants benefiting Waukesha County organizations this week.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation awarded $448,000 while the Waukesha County Community Foundation announced $106,711 in grants.

La Casa de Esperanza's Volunteer Income Tax Preparation program was awarded $100,000 by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, part of its seven-year investment of $700,000 for the La Casa program. The service offers free income tax preparation and access to other resources for low-income working families and individuals in a one-stop site. In the last tax season, La Casa provided more than 1,500 tax returns and generated more than $3.2 million in tax refunds.

Among other recipients of the Milwaukee foundation grants were a two-year, $37,200 donation to the Hope Center, $25,000 to the Pregnancy Support Connection and $28,900 to improve management effectiveness and efficiency for eight nonprofit agencies.

The Waukesha County Community Foundation provided grants to 16 charitable organizations. The largest was $10,000 to Goodwill Industries of Southeast Wisconsin for its Workforce Connection Center in Waukesha, which provides supportive employment services to those with barriers, and $10,000 to NuGenesis Farm, a nonprofit farm focusing on disease prevention through education, research and organic food. It also provided $8,000 to the Mukwonago Community Library for display cases and $7,000 to the Food Pantry of Waukesha County for handicapped accessible automatic doors.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.