The Big Impact is a crowdfunded pitch event that changes the way people engage with philanthropy.

Help us support community, place-based, and entrepreneurial projects that shape our city. Pre-selected projects will be pitched by the Co:Lab cohorts, interested in utilizing the funding to carry out their neighborhood projects.

The Co:Lab program is a deeply engaging and experiential opportunity for a select group of Milwaukeeans to apply their diverse skills, build new connections into the city, and work together to produce a high-impact solution for a real community issue. This year’s featured neighborhoods are Clarke Square, Lindsay Heights and Riverworks.

Attendees pay a fee of $25 to attend the event and vote for their favorite project. The winning pitch will go home with all of the money raised through ticket sales. A cash bar will be available.

(Please note, this event is non-refundable. If you purchased a ticket and can no longer attend, your ticket fee will be applied to the winner’s fund.)

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The areas of opportunity that the Co:Lab teams are working on are as follows:

Clarke Square

With the highly robust real estate market in Walker’s Point approaching from the East and the appreciating residential real estate market from Silver City influencing it from the West, Clarke Square is poised to benefit, but also to wrestle with related challenges in the near future. How might the neighborhood establish a brand identity for the segment of the National Avenue corridor between Cesar Chavez Drive (historically S. 16th St.) and Layton Boulevard (historically S. 27th St.) in order to leverage its current and emerging assets for their highest and best community benefit?

Lindsay Heights

The connectivity of North Avenue and Fond du Lac Avenue provides an active thoroughfare for many residents and visitors to pass through the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. How might the neighborhood leverage the volume of passersby to creative intentional stickiness and a reason for folks to stay?

Riverworks

In recent years, the Harambee and Riverwest neighborhoods have re-positioned themselves as a district for creatives and makers, including the investment in the new co-working space, The VIBE. How can The VIBE start to break down the barriers for the Harambee and Riverwest neighborhoods and help connect the neighborhoods together, creating a more accommodating space for events and entrepreneurs?

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This event is part of YPWeek Milwaukee presented by Concordia University Wisconsin.

YPWeek is a week long platform for discovery, adventure and meaningful conversations about the issues that matter among young professionals. This interactive conference brings together key leaders in the community, at purposefully chosen locations that integrate the unique cultural assets with meaningful learning or social interaction. The activities engage the next generation in experiences that are important to you as a YP while educating your employers on the important role these functions play in retaining you as their workforce.

Concordia University Wisconsin and its 9 educational centers are home to undergraduate and graduate, traditional, and non-traditional students from 46 states and 35 foreign countries. The University offers more than 80 programs in-person and online. Programs include not only Wisconsin’s largest MBA program, but a variety of master’s degree programs and doctoral degrees in Education, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, and Nursing Practice. YPWeek participants can apply at no cost to CUW graduate programs using the waiver code “CUWYPAPP.”