Opportunity Grants open the door for smaller nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin that are building healthier communities one public program at a time.

We are so excited to announce the first round of Opportunity Grant awardees! These six projects are creative and responsive to current issues. The innovative programs invite human connection and conversation about food, clothing, and personal histories. Video-poetry, podcasts, oral histories, farm gatherings, fashion shows, and communal meals! Stay tuned in the coming months: We will be sharing more about how these efforts evolve and stories emerge to help us all better understand our neighbors and our state.

Is your nonprofit's project next?

Another Opportunity Grant deadline is November 1st.

If you have questions about eligibility and requirements,
we invite you to attend a virtual Q & A Session to learn more!

Q&A Session DATES:
Wed. August 28th at 12:30 pm
Wed. September 4th at 12:30 pm

Introducing Six Public Humanities Projects in Brown, Dane, Milwaukee, Polk, and Portage Counties:

$4,000 to Skanikulat, Inc. for a project called "Wisdom Talks: A Oneida Perspective Podcast"

Skanikulat is a burgeoning Oneida, woman-led non-profit. They received an Opportunity Grant to develop four conversational podcast episodes dedicated to bridging the gap between Oneida and other Indigenous traditional knowledge and contemporary issues and challenges. By exploring topics through personal experiences and humor, the women hosts and guests will investigate resilience, community building, Tribal sovereignty, self-determination, Oneida language, matriarchy, and climate justice. The podcast aims to empower individuals with insights that inspire critical thinking and a deeper appreciation of Indigenous values.

4,000.00 to Central Rivers Farmshed for a project called "Hinkigowi We Feast Together"

“To have community we must share a meal.” Hinkigowi, We Feast Together brings this core value to the forefront in this Native foodways project. They received an Opportunity Grant to bring native and non-native communities to the table to share a meal completely sourced from Native food producers and harvesters. Native American students and community members will be involved in prepping and cooking the dinner, while Rubina Martini, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation as well as Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, researches and visits central Wisconsin Native producers to gather ingredients. Participants will not only deepen their understanding and appreciation of Native foods but also learn how to explore food from their own local communities to learn more about their own identities. Two panelists that work in Native agriculture will also share their cultural connections and answer questions about growing food.

$3,876.00 to ArtWorks for Milwaukee for a project called "EA Slow Fashion Project Curriculum Development"

ArtWorks for Milwaukee was awarded an Opportunity Grant to research and create a new and innovative environmental arts curriculum for their teen internship program. The impacts of clothing production, consumption, and disposal are major drivers of climate change and labor violations across the world. Using a topic that teens can readily relate to, this new curriculum will be informed by top leaders in the slow fashion movement as well as a Milwaukee slow-fashion activist, tailor, and designer. The resulting curriculum will empower teens to repair and restore garments through tailoring and sewing skills while shifting behaviors and attitudes around what inspiring and sustainable fashion can be.

$1,000.00 to Polk County Historical Society for a project called "Stories of the Past: The Balsam Lake Oral History Project"

Polk County Historical Society was awarded an Opportunity Grant to start a small collection of oral histories from people who grew up or spent a significant amount of time in Balsam Lake in the 20th and early 21st centuries. This oral history project will allow the Polk County Historical Society to gather a deeper history of Balsam Lake, as their existing collection of material is surprisingly sparse. These oral histories from different racial and ethnic residents will form the basis of a future display to showcase the host town of the Polk County Museum. The oral histories will focus on changes that happened to the town, how it grew, how businesses changed hands, and how the demographics of people coming and going might have influenced how Balsam Lake became the “lake” town it is today.

$3,850.00 to Arts & Literature Laboratory (ALL) for a project called "Midwest Video Poetry Fest 2024"

An Opportunity Grant will support the Arts + Literature Laboratory’s 2024 Midwest Video Poetry Fest, a growing Wisconsin festival with an international community and one of only four in the United States. The festival features the best video poems from the Midwest and around the world, including past adaptations of works by poets such as Emily Dickinson and Federico García Lorca, breathtaking animations, experimental and surrealist works, dynamic spoken word performances, and much more. Each evening will feature live video and performance collaborations followed by screenings of short poetry films from around the world. The festival removes poetry from being a solitary endeavor and instead shows how poets can collaborate with visual images and words to inspire curiosity and empathy.

$3,960.00 to Wild Path Collective for a project called "QT-BIPoC Days at Wild Path"

Wild Path Collective was awarded an Opportunity Grant for a range of culturally meaningful programming that increases access, re-connection and familiarity of QT-BIPoC people with rural land stewardship. Using storytelling and dialogue, in addition to myth, poetry and nature sightings, Wild Path Collective facilitators and culture bearers will guide participants through educational experiences in regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, medicinal plant work, land walks, and skillshares. A Queer Farmers Convergence will also create space for 60+ emerging Queer, Trans, and BIPoC farmers and land stewards to gather around the specific intersections of racial, gendered, and sexuality-based obstacles to land access, as well as the joys of building networks together.