Parks Fundraising Campaign Raises $530,000 Far Faster Than Expected

Beers at South Shore Terrace. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

A fundraising campaign for Milwaukee County Parks that began April has already exceeded its goal.

The Milwaukee Parks Foundation and Molson Coors announced the “Cheers to our Parks” campaign has raised $530,000 in the six months since it launched. The campaign began with a $250,000 donation and the foundation hoped to raise another $250,000 over the course of two years.

The parks foundation, created in 2019 to fundraise for the public parks system, oversaw the campaign, which also included volunteer events and opportunities for county residents to become involved in the future of their local parks. The campaign announced that the first $500,000 was just the initial phase of the campaign, and that Molson Coors plans to continue its partnership with the parks fundraising efforts.

Raising funding for the parks system was the campaign’s primary goal. But organizers also expressed hope that it would help catalyze a movement for supporting the local parks system. Given the success of the fundraiser, the movement seems alive and well.

The funding raised will be provided to the parks system for priority projects in parks and neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment over the years.

The parks system, in general, is underfunded relative to its footprint. A casualty of of the county’s long-running budget challenges, the parks department’s workforce has shrunk and it has a backlog of roughly $500 million worth of infrastructure projects to tackle over the next decade, though county officials do not anticipate these projects will all be addressed.

The department and the county have had to get creative about finding revenue for the parks system. Currently the department generates approximately half of its annual operating revenue through fees and amenities, like the county beer gardens. The “Cheers to our Parks” campaign was announced at the South Shore Park beer garden, which is one of the system’s top performing beer gardens, bringing in approximately $1 million in revenue annually.