Greater Milwaukee Foundation receives $1M grant for relief, recovery efforts during COVID-19 pandemic

MILWAUKEE --The Greater Milwaukee Foundation has received a $1 million grant to its MKE Responds Fund from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the national philanthropy’s $50 million effort to provide humanitarian aid to help some of the families and communities feeling the greatest strain under the COVID-19 health emergency.

“We are honored to be chosen by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for this award and very encouraged to be attracting this significant investment to our community,” said Ellen Gilligan, president and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “This grant is an acknowledgement of the Foundation placing racial equity at the forefront of our work and a reflection of the collective approach our region and partners have embraced to address the pandemic and ensure that our efforts focus on identifying and addressing the systemic inequities that have resulted in the tragically disparate impact of this crisis on communities of color.”

According to a press release, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation organized and is helping lead a cross-sector coalition to strategically, equitably and rapidly respond to the COVID-19 outbreak in our region. This MKE Civic Response Team is developing new systems to identify greatest needs, align resources and coordinate relief efforts around the critical and intersecting priorities of food, housing/shelter, physical health, mental health, early childhood education and K-12 schools to ensure greater Milwaukee’s economic recovery and overall well-being now and in the future.

Learn more about the Foundation’s response to COVID-19 and our community’s collective effort on Responding Together.