Mission Cream City Foundation mobilizes philanthropic resources by harnessing the pride, passion, and commitment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies to advance the human rights and respond to the human needs of LGBT people in Southeastern Wisconsin.
Cream City Foundation mobilizes philanthropic resources to:
Vision Cream City Foundation envisions the full realization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender human rights in Southeastern Wisconsin.
We are a 501(c)3 Tax Exempt Organization HistoryCream City Foundation was founded in 1982 and is celebrating over 27 years of giving to LGBT communities. Cream City Foundation was originally spun-off from the Cream City Business Association, a Milwaukee based association of LGBT business owners formed to promote LGBT entrepreneurship and business support for LGBT communities. Initially begun with $500 in seed money, Cream City Foundation has grown to provide over $700,000 in grant dollars to many organizations and projects that are working to improve the quality of life for LGBT people.
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Values
Cream City Foundation upholds these values in our daily work with each other and our community, recognizing that the causes of poverty, injustice, and lack of opportunity are interrelated and interlocking.
Inclusion – We strive to honor the diversity within the LGBT and ally populations, and our work addresses multiple forms of discrimination that may be experienced by our LGBT community members.** Stewardship – We pledge to our donors that all money, whether gifted directly to the foundation or held in a donor advised fund, will be invested and granted in a manner consistent with our mission. Integrity – We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards and are fully transparent and accountable to all of our constituents. We treat all people with dignity, courtesy, and respect. Partnerships - Cream City Foundation works in partnership with individuals, corporations, foundations, service providers, advocates, and lawmakers to identify effective solutions consistent with our mission to achieve meaningful change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations. Commitment – Cream City Foundation will be thoughtful, dependable, philanthropic leaders actively engaged in fund raising, grant making, and leadership consistent with our mission. We strive to be visible and available to our community. **Discrimination includes, but is not limited to, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, age, class, gender, gender identity or expression, marital or parental status, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, immigrant status, political affiliation or belief, legal status, unfavorable military discharge, height, weight or HIV infection. Our Philosophy
Cream City Foundation is a community based foundation focused on funding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) programs and organizations working towards social change in southeastern Wisconsin.
We believe that philanthropy has an immense influence on creating long-lasting social change in our communities - including the elimination of homophobia and gender identity discrimination. We invest with our grantee partners to change attitudes and institutions such that they cease to create the very problems that charity tries to alleviate - we call this structural change philanthropy. Cream City Foundation also works closely with local and national funders to promote structural change philanthropy and create a giving and philanthropic cooperation to ensure our funding has its maximum impact in our communities. Part of our strategy also includes building visibility of our local LGBT communities through specific initiatives, such as GayNeighbor.org, in addition to our grant making; provide philanthropic education and giving tools; and expanding the philanthropic tools available for those interested in funding LGBT issues. Below find a quick visual map of our strategy.  |
