G/L Community Fund

The G/L Community Fund was originally established in 1995 as the G/L Community Center Trust Fund, with the goal of helping create a permanent community center for Milwaukee’s LGBT community.

According to the organization’s website at the time, the fund was created from the settlement of Beer Town Badgers Inc. Its stated purpose was to help establish and maintain “a community center for the public to have a general meeting place for gays, lesbians, and other organizations in need of meeting place facilities.”

Once a community center became a reality, the organization shifted its focus and adopted the name G/L Community Fund. Rather than pursuing a single large community-center project, the fund began supporting smaller LGBT organizations and grassroots efforts throughout the Milwaukee area, often providing modest individual grants and donations.

By 2022, the G/L Community Fund described its mission as supporting social change on behalf of gay and lesbian people in southeastern Wisconsin, with particular emphasis on grassroots organizations and underserved groups that lacked the resources to conduct major fundraising campaigns or were unable to secure grants from larger foundations.

The fund worked with organizations affiliated with the Southeastern Wisconsin Coalition, distributing 100 percent of funds raised for coalition members each year. Donors could also designate gifts to organizations outside the coalition, provided the fund had the necessary contact information.

Unrestricted donations were used to provide grants and other financial support to community organizations and programs. The fund specifically sought to assist small LGBT groups in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Organizations could submit letters of intent at any time, with the board of directors reviewing grant requests quarterly.

Throughout its history, the organization emphasized a volunteer-driven model, operating without paid staff and with minimal overhead. Its focus evolved from the ambitious goal of creating a centralized LGBT community center to providing direct financial support to the smaller organizations and community programs that helped sustain southeastern Wisconsin’s LGBT community.