A Short History of WCF
Since its founding in 1982, the Wisconsin Community Fund has awarded grants to over two hundred and fifty groups in fulfilling our mission of supporting social justice organizing.
Many projects we have funded have been successful, and have benefited communities all over our state.
Most of the organizations that we have supported are small volunteer groups that are working at the grassroots level to address community problems and support disenfranchised people.
Many of our grantees have been 'peer support' groups that are organizing their own constituencies and making positive changes in their communities.
Being a statewide foundation has been more difficult than funding in just one
metropolitan area, but has allowed us to award grants to the most interesting
and valuable projects. 
Groups working for welfare rights, women's issues, labor, Central and South American solidarity, prison reform, to end homelessness, and many other issues have done excellent work during our history.
Some groups we have funded, and coalitions of groups that we have funded, have done outstanding work.
Many have had major victories, especially considering the resources that have
been available to them.
These outstanding groups and coalitions have addressed such issue areas as: Native American rights and culture, family farm preservation, environmental justice, anti-mining organizing in northern Wisconsin, peace and justice, and gay and lesbian liberation.
During
the 1980's, Native Americans challenged the State and Federal governments over
Treaty Rights. Both governments have violated Native American treaties that were
signed early in Wisconsin's history.
One of the most highly publicized battles was over Native right to spearfish, which has been a tradition in Native American culture.
This battle went beyond the courtroom and out to the boat landings, as Native Americans exercised their treaty rights for the first time in a century. The battles got ugly, with rocks, bottles and angry words hurled. Angry whites claimed that Indians would take all of the fish, and tourism would dry up in northern Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Community Fund-awarded grants to Native groups like Anishinaabe Niijii and Wa Swa Gon Treaty Association to counter the smear campaign and the ugly threats. WCF also funded several support groups. Witness for Nonviolence and Midwest Treaty Network witnessed the confrontation, worked to mediate the struggle, and countered the negative stereotyping of Native Americans through public relations efforts.
Eventually, the confrontation subsided. Racist white groups were discredited, and public opinion turned in favor of Native American treaty rights.
In
the late 80's, farm groups banded together to fight a new hormone that chemical
giant Monsanto created to boost milk production.
Farm groups were opposed to Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) for two reasons: it continued the trend toward chemical contamination of food products, and put the family farm at greater financial risk. A surplus of milk already existed, and the cost of buying and administering the drug would drive up milk production costs even further, they argued.
Through an intensive media campaign and a boycott, farm groups convinced the public that BGH was dangerous to consumers and bad for dairy farmers. Wisconsin was a leader in the fight against BGH, and helped to spur the national effort to stop the distribution of the hormone.
Groups like the Wisconsin Farm Unity Alliance and Wisconsin Family Farm Defense Fund fought against the multinational giants. Their struggle was a success, and Monsanto and other manufacturers lost millions trying to promote an unpopular product.
A coalition of Native Americans, environmentalists, sportsmen, and farmers have been waging this battle for decades, and have continued to hold large multinational companies at bay.
The Mining Impact Coalition is the most recent of the many groups that WCF has funded that is working on this important issue. They have helped pass a Mining Moratorium Bill, which forces mining companies to prove that they can do business without harming the economy or the environment. This will be very difficult for the companies to do, since none of them has done it anywhere else in the world. The fight is not over, but the anti-mining groups have won a major battle.
CSWAB's years of struggle have paid off, as the Army announced recently that it is closing the ammunition factory. CSWAB is working with the Army, local authorities, and the US Senator's office to negotiate the future use of the huge tract of land occupied by the plant.
Peace and justice organizations are also near to victory on a campaign that
has lasted two decades. Project ELF is a first strike weapon that communicates
with nuclear submarines worldwide. Stop Project ELF and NUKEWATCH have been
working to close the Project ELF site for almost 20 years, and a victory seems
likely soon.
Activists have opposed the low frequency electricity that Project ELF emits, which has had harmful effects on people and animals in the area. Nevertheless, the larger issue is the increased potential for nuclear war that ELF poses. US Senators and representatives from Wisconsin now oppose the project, and legislation to mothball ELF is in the works.
Wisconsin Community Fund and all of our grantees are very grateful to the thousands of individuals, hundreds of nonprofit groups, and dozens of corporations and foundations that have financially supported us over the years. Thanks for making our work possible.
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1202 Williamson St, Suite D e-mail: info@wcfund.org |
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