APPLETON — Krista McDuffee credits the Financial Wellness Center at Fox Valley Technical College for keeping her in school and focused on her new career goal of becoming an occupational therapy assistant.

Earlier this year, McDuffee, 41, sought out the center because a job layoff within the banking industry had overwhelmed her. The center, a free community resource on FVTC's Grand Chute campus, provides financial counseling and financial literacy workshops.

"I want to be able to fix broken people," McDuffee, a full-time student who works on campus, said Monday. "I don't want to have to quit school because my money situation gets out of hand and I have to bail."

The center, a collaboration of FVTC, the FVTC Foundation and Financial Information & Service Center (FISC) with involvement from Community First Credit Union, has received a three-year Basic Needs Giving Partnership grant totaling $282,166. The center, which opened in January, has received $91,879 this fiscal year.

U.S. Venture Open, northeastern Wisconsin's single largest one-day charitable event dedicated to fighting poverty, generates funds for the Basic Needs Giving Partnership. The event, which kicks off today with a reception, has raised about $12.6 million since its inception in 1986.

The 26th annual event continues Wednesday with golf outings at five northeastern Wisconsin golf courses: North Shore Golf Club, Menasha; Mid Vallee Golf Course, De Pere; Wander Springs, Greenleaf; Fox Valley Golf Club, Kaukauna, and Oneida Golf and Country Club, Green Bay.

Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France bicycle race and founder of the LiveStrong Cancer Support Foundation, will speak during a Wednesday evening program at Van Abel's restaurant in Hollandtown.

"We're trying to help people who are experiencing an episodic crisis to keep from becoming a person in chronic need," said Sarah Schmidt, U.S. Venture Open director.

Since 1986, northeastern Wisconsin nonprofits have received about $8 million in grants through the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs and the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, Schmidt said. The Basic Needs Giving Partnership started in 2007-08 when the J. J. Keller Foundation decided to match the grant-making budget of the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs.

The foundation's commitment to the Basic Needs Giving Partnership has totaled $2.8 million over the past four years. In June, its board approved a new three-year commitment to the partnership totaling $2.4 million, or $800,000 a year through 2014.

"The Keller family is very proud to be collaborating with the Schmidt family on this effort," said Mary Harp-Jirschele, the foundation's executive director. "Both have home-grown businesses that have flourished and yet they have never forgotten their small-town roots that made them successful. Both are dedicated to giving back to their communities, and the Basic Needs Giving Partnership is just one way they do that. It's a match made in heaven."

An advisory committee at the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation allocates the funds.

This fiscal year, the Basic Needs Giving Partnership granted $1 million in the Fox Valley, Green Bay and Oshkosh. Fox Valley nonprofits received $566,181.

The grants support programs that respond to immediate needs and also consider long-term solutions to community problems. Among the collaborative beneficiaries are the Out-of-School-Time Partnership, which offers after-school programming for high-need youth; and the Living with Assistance Program, which supports low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities who live independently.

The Financial Wellness Center's grant provides for resources including staffing, supplies and marketing efforts, said Patti Jorgensen, FVTC's vice president of student and community development.

"It's completely allowing for our existence," she said.

Marijo Upshaw, leader of financial services with Goodwill Industries of North Central Wisconsin, the umbrella organization for FISC, said the center's goal is to reach people before a crisis occurs.

"We really want to empower people and create an environment where financial wellness is top of mind for the faculty, staff and students," she said.

Financial counseling helped McDuffee choose a debt consolidation plan and build a budget for her family of four.

"It was totally another support system I didn't know was there," she said.