Greg Oberland and his wife, Rhonda, started their donor advised fund in 2018 shortly after he retired from Northwestern Mutual as its president.
While the couple had lived in the area for more than three decades at that point, they wanted to have a deeper connection to the community. They knew that the Greater Milwaukee Foundation could help make that happen, given its extensive knowledge of and commitment to the region over the past century.
Greg points to his experience as a donor, and his role as a Foundation Board member since 2019, as taking him on a journey of learning and understanding.
“It has deepened my understanding of issues and exposed me to new ways of thinking about things,” Oberland said. “If we didn’t have a partnership with the Foundation, I don’t think my wife and I would have as strong a focus or ultimately have as big an impact with our philanthropic dollars as we are having.”
Oberland said their relationship with the Foundation has made them much more committed to doing whatever they can to help advance racial equity and inclusion in Milwaukee. They showed that commitment firsthand by making several contributions to the Greater Together Campaign’s ThriveOn Collaboration priority area. They contributed to the redevelopment of the historic Gimbels-Schuster’s building into ThriveOn King, supported the artwork that will be installed within the first-floor community spaces and gave a gift to support Malaika Early Learning Center, the 5-star child care provider and one of ThriveOn King’s anchor tenants.
Oberland said they felt a strong sense of pride to support such an effort through the Foundation’s historic campaign, noting that its overall vision inspired them to give.
“There was a line used early on about how ‘A Milwaukee for all would require all of Milwaukee,’” Oberland said. “I thought that was so spot on. As we are driving toward racial equity and trying to eliminate wealth disparities that exist in this community and want everyone to have that opportunity to enjoy the benefits — it requires everybody to be involved.”