Giving Partnership Addresses Poverty and Basic Needs

A pair of family-owned companies in Northeast Wisconsin formed a giving partnership to help people struggling to secure basic life needs such as food, housing and health care.

The Basic Needs Giving Partnership, a joint initiative of the U.S. Oil Open Fund for Basic Needs and the J. J. Keller Foundation Inc., provides support to prevent people in episodic crisis from becoming people in chronic need.

The partnership evolved out of the U.S. Oil Open, an annual golf outing established in 1986 by U.S. Oil Co., Inc. in Combined Locks to raise money for Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and children. Twenty years later, the Schmidt family became focused on addressing the community’s most critical needs and consolidated their charitable funds within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation into one new endowment fund at each community foundation. In 2008, The Basic Needs Giving Partnership expanded to the Oshkosh area through the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.

U.S. Oil Co. fully funds the expenses of its annual golf outing, ensuring that all of the contributions raised from the U.S. Oil Open are available to reach people in need. As a result, every dollar contributed by sponsors and golfers goes directly into endowed funds within the Oshkosh, Green Bay and Fox Valley community foundations. J. J. Keller Foundation in Neenah matches the grant-making budget in each of these funds, doubling the grant dollars available for basic needs programs.

"When you have collaboration between organizations that are trying to accomplish the same goal, you can make it twice as effective with twice the funding," said Mary Harp-Jirschele, executive director of the J. J. Keller Foundation.

Community foundations have expertise to facilitate a strong grants process, therefore strengthening the outcomes of the giving partnership. Each community foundation receives all proceeds raised through the U.S. Oil Open, supports initiatives that take a long-term view in helping people prevent and move out of poverty and encourages collaborative solutions supported jointly by the non-profit, public and private sectors. Grant decisions are made by advisory committees comprised of experts on the community’s needs.

Since its inception, the U.S. Oil Open has raised over $9 million for communities in Northeast Wisconsin. This past summer the open was supported by nearly 600 businesses, foundations and individuals and over $1.2 million was raised. The 24th annual U.S. Oil Open for Basic Needs on August 12, 2009 promises to make an even more significant difference in the lives of those less fortunate.

“The Basic Needs Giving Partnership stems from two families that have connected on our commitment to giving for basic needs, our focus on collaboration among funders and nonprofits, and to making a measurable impact on the community we care about,” says Sarah Schmidt of Schmidt family / U.S. Oil Co. Inc.