The challenges faced by cities and towns across the country often follow similar patterns but with distinct characteristics that require unique solutions. And localized data can help.
In October 2025, Data You Can Use published the first part of a new report “Wealth in Milwaukee,” which is starting to inform work in the community. The report dives into the distribution of wealth in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Support from partners like the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Zilber Family Foundation, Northwestern Mutual Foundation and others made the work possible.
As the Foundation continues its work to advance economic mobility in the region, “Wealth in Milwaukee” can serve as a guide.
“As we think about our interconnected economic mobility work across education, housing and economic opportunity, I believe the report will provide valuable insight to help inform our strategies,” Janel Hines, vice president of community impact, said.
Cross-country collaboration
Dr. Victor Amaya, Data You Can Use president and executive director, noted there’s one question both funders and nonprofits ask: “Are we making an impact?” often followed by, “Are we creating economic mobility for everyone?”
Prior to the report, there wasn’t enough data on Milwaukee’s economic attainment available to answer those questions in a meaningful way.
“The first step to change is clarity,” Amaya said. “If we can understand where we’re starting from and where we are, then it’s like lifting the mirror to the city. Then we could actually say, ‘Hey, we want to go this way, not go backwards.’ This is something that benefits everyone in our community.”
Data You Can Use partnered with The Data Center, an organization based in New Orleans, to create the “Wealth in Milwaukee” report, which provided the answer Amaya needed - that wealth isn’t impacted by just one variable, but a host of factors including race, gender, level of education, homeownership and others. The report also reinforced that wealth is more than just a calculation of assets minus debts, but a measure of stability, choice and generational opportunity.
The cross-country collaboration came from a National Neighborhood Indicators Partnerships Annual Partners’ Meeting, when a presentation by Lamar Gardere, executive director of The Data Center and the Open Wealth Consortium, caught Amaya’s attention.
Gardere presented research on localized wealth in New Orleans and how the Urban League of Louisiana is using it as a guide in its efforts to close the racial wealth gap.
Wealth is a goal
Using The Data Center’s models, Data You Can Use found that the variables impacting wealth in New Orleans were similar in Milwaukee but to varying degrees.
Rohan Katti, senior program manager at Data You Can Use, noted that being based in Milwaukee allowed Data You Can Use to ground the data in truth and experience, like when his counterpart in New Orleans expressed shock over the low rate of Black homeownership in Milwaukee compared to that in New Orleans.
“I think that kind of opened my eyes to why local wealth estimates are important, because it does differ from locale to locale,” he said. “You can’t address a problem until you diagnose the problem. We’re diagnosing the problem, being able to get those numbers out there and making sure we have the data to back this up. No one is going to solve something if they can’t prove it exists.”
Dr. Kenneth E. Harris Jr. is an associate professor of justice and public policy at Concordia University Wisconsin, a podcaster, a retired police lieutenant and a business owner. In May, he interviewed Amaya and Katti on his former radio show “Truth in the Afternoon with Dr. Ken Harris.”
The report gives people options, he said. They can look at all the things affecting their wealth and choose the one that will best affect it and help them grow and become stable.
“We need very specific markers of what wealth is,” Harris said. “It’s a goal for people to work toward.”
Reframing wealth
While The Data Center and Open Wealth Consortium, of which Data You Can Use is a founding member, intend to bring the model to other cities like Charlotte and Kansas City and the Great Lakes region, it’s also reframing what it means to be wealthy as one’s ability to thrive.
“If you ask me about someone who’s wealthy, rather than talk about their affluence and influence, I’m going to describe them based on their experiences in life – do they have enough resources to not be worried from day to day, that’s what matters,” Gardere said. “When we talk about improving the wealth gap, we’re talking about growing the pie, not taking your part and giving it to someone else.”
He continued, “We want to close the wealth gap so that fewer people’s choices are limited by their resources, so they can thrive at a greater level and improve quality of life for themselves and their entire community.”
The second part of “Wealth in Milwaukee” report will be published later this year.