On Philanthropy: Hey (Your Name Here), Did You Make “The LIST?”

Some of 2017’s year-end lists are more meaningful than others

Contributed by AFPSEWI
Milwaukee Business Journal
December 9, 2017 issue

Hey, Associated Bank!  Hey, A.C. Buhler Family!  You made The LIST!

Hey, Senator Herb Kohl!  Hey, Rockwell Automation, Patty and John Mueller, and Sheldon and Marianne Lubar!  You made The LIST!

Hey, (insert names of dozens of people you never heard of), you made The LIST too!

Did YOU make The List?

We’re talking (of course) about the Partners in Philanthropy (PIP) list published by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter.  Every fall, each of the chapter’s 325 members has the chance to name two donors to the region-wide list of top philanthropic difference-makers. 

The 2017 PIP list was released during AFP’s National Philanthropy Day awards luncheon, where 500 community leaders gathered on November 20 to celebrate the region’s spirit of philanthropy.

The PIP list (https://www.afpsewi.org/national-philanthropy-day-piplisting) contains donors big and small, famous and obscure, but they all have one thing in common:  they gave to our community in an inspirational way, and led the way for others.

It will soon be “year-end list” season – time to brace for the “Best Movies of 2017,” “The Year’s Biggest Tech Innovations,” “2017’s Breakthrough Gelato Flavors.”  Some lists are more meaningful than others, aren’t they?

Some lists are also more accessible for you and me.  

Want to be on the PIP list next year?  Here’s how:  in the wake of Giving Tuesday, your mailbox is full of solicitations from area nonprofits.  Open a few, write some checks.  You might not make THE List, but I bet the experience will be on YOUR personal list of 2017’s most rewarding moments…

On Philanthropy appears monthly in the Milwaukee Business Journal and is contributed by Doug Diefenbach for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter.