When Naryan Leazer believes in something — whether a person, program or an organization — he invests in it. As an investment adviser by trade, he knows the power such a contribution can have over time.
“Whether a significant amount or a small amount, I think if I believe in this, what is the best way of believing in it than to give financially,” said Leazer, who works at North Star Resource Group, a wealth management firm.
Over the past 15 years, he has invested his time, talent and ties in the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. In 2023, he invested his treasure by making a legacy promise through the Foundation’s Greater Together Campaign. He named the Foundation as a beneficiary in his estate plan. His legacy fund — the Kylie and Zoe Scholle-Malone Fund — will be half unrestricted and half field of interest, aimed at supporting Black-serving and Black-led nonprofits in the Milwaukee area. It is named after his granddaughters.
Leazer’s relationship with the Foundation has deepened organically over time. It started with its Youth in Service Fund, which spun off to become a separate nonprofit in 2009 called Lead2Change. Leazer was its first board chair. He later served on grant review committees for the Community Connections Small Grants Program and Reasons for Hope MKE Fund. The small grants program, cocreated by the Foundation and partners in 2014, provides grants of up to $600 to support resident-led efforts to improve the quality of life in local neighborhoods. Reasons for Hope provides grants of up to $10,000 to projects that promote peace and build community cohesion.
As both a community member and through his time spent on the various grant committees, Leazer has witnessed the Foundation’s shift toward centering more community voice within its work. He says his involvement in such resident-led programs stems from wanting to create spaces where the community’s voice could be heard.
“If I was at the table, I could represent people or bring others to the table,” said Leazer, who joined the Foundation’s Community Impact Committee in 2018 as its first community representative and was appointed to the Foundation Board in 2021.
What motivated Leazer the most about contributing to the campaign is imagining the impact it can have in the community over time.
“Milwaukee will look vastly different 5, 10, 15 years from now,” Leazer said. “Just knowing that I’m part of that work that drove that change, and that I had an opportunity to participate, is exciting. For me, it is just knowing that this idea of leaving the community better than when you were here or trying to have an impact even while we’re gone.”