It’s been described as one of Madison’s best-kept secrets, which seems strange considering the Madison Club Charitable Foundation, now in its 13th year, has raised more than $1 million for local nonprofits.
“I’m not sure that the public really understands the amazing impact that the Madison Club Charitable Foundation and its annual Charity Gala has provided,” says Floyd Rose, president of 100 Black Men of Madison, which is the most recent recipient of funds from the gala. “Not just for 100 Black Men but also if you go back and look at other past recipients. It says a lot about our community in a positive way.”
That’s been the point all along, notes Krista Laubmeier, director of marketing and membership for The Madison Club.
“The Madison Club established its foundation in 2005 as a way to rally our membership around important community projects that needed some extra help,” Laubmeier explains. “With the Madison Club’s strengths in food and events, a gala-style event was a natural extension of our resources and has been a very successful model for us.
“It is amazing how many interesting and important projects are happening in our area,” Laubmeier continues. “Most nonprofits have a relatively small staff and limited resources. When private organizations and businesses can come alongside a nonprofit and give them a hand in any way, the nonprofit is naturally able to stretch farther and accomplish more.”
Charity Gala beneficiaries2005: The American Cancer Society ($25,000) The Foundation has also hosted a number of smaller fundraisers in support of area nonprofits, including:
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The Madison Club Charitable Foundation always had the goal to raise money and help area nonprofits financially, but Laubmeier says the Foundation has discovered that one of the greatest benefits has been the heightened awareness and attention that comes their way from having an event outside of their usual donor base. “It is really rewarding to play a part in connecting a nonprofit organization with new donors and resources.”
For 100 Black Men, the experience has confirmed that what the organization is trying to do is something that the community supports, notes Rose. “We have been around for about 23 years now, and I believe that these funds will propel us to a much greater level of providing solutions than we were able to previously offer because of the advanced scale of these resources.”
As the beneficiary of the funds raised at the 2016 Gala held Nov. 5, 100 Black Men of Madison received $154,000, the single largest sum raised to date by the Foundation at its annual event.
The funds will go toward Project SOAR, 100 Black Men’s effort to mentor black male students ages 12–17 in the Madison School District. The project, which stands for Student Opportunities, Access, and Readiness, is designed to lower truancy rates and raise high school graduation rates.
“We will use the funds within the calendar year to hopefully extend our reach to more than 1,000 disadvantaged students,” says Rose. Specifically, he notes the funds will be go toward Project SOAR’s career and success academies, tutoring, one-on-one mentoring, and post-high school scholarships.
How it works
Between January 1 and February 15 each year, the Madison Club asks its members to nominate local nonprofit organizations that fit the criteria of that year’s selection process.
For the past two years, Laubmeier notes, the Foundation has focused on supporting organizations that have a direct impact on the achievement gap in education, and that will remain the platform for the 2017 Gala, as well.
All of the nominations are reviewed by the Charitable Foundation’s Board of Directors. Each application is discussed and voted on within that group, and there is an opportunity for top contenders to meet with the board before a selection is made.
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“Once an organization is selected as our beneficiary, the Madison Club staff works closely with the winner to develop a strategy for fundraising, ticket sales, auction and sponsor procurement, and all of the other logistics associated with hosting a big event,” explains Laubmeier. “The Gala has benefitted a wide range of organizations. Some groups have had a committed volunteer base that is available to work on the event, but we have also helped a number of groups that have never had a large fundraiser.
“For those in that latter group, our Gala has given recipient organizations a big assist and safety net for putting together their first larger event.”
The Madison Club Charitable Foundation has also hosted some smaller-scale fundraisers in the form of dinners or parties on a number of occasions, Laubmeier notes. These events were created in large part to assist organizations that applied for the Gala but weren’t selected.
For example, in 2009 MATC applied for the Gala so it could start a fund to award very small scholarships to students who needed one-time assistance with things like bus fare and textbooks — very small monetary amounts that could make a big impact on whether the student would be able to continue in school that semester.
“Though MATC wasn’t selected for the Gala that year, the Foundation board loved their proposal and we saw a lot of potential for collaboration,” Laubmeier notes, “so we decided to host a celebrity chef dinner for them featuring Stephanie Izard, who had just won Bravo’s Top Chef in 2008 and was about to open her now award-winning Girl & the Goat restaurant, and Dan Fox, then Madison Club executive chef and now owner of Heritage Tavern.
“Stephanie, Dan, and about 15 students from MATC’s culinary program worked together at the Madison Club to make a spectacular dinner for guests of the event. It was a really great night that raised nearly $16,000 for MATC’s scholarship fund.”
The Charitable Foundation’s goal every year is to raise at least $100,000 of net proceeds for the recipient organization via the Gala, and the Foundation runs efficiently to accomplish that. On average, more than 80% of total income generated at the Gala goes directly to the charity, according to Laubmeier.
The Gala is held every fall. This year’s Charity Gala will be Saturday, Nov. 4.
The Madison Club Charitable Foundation is now taking applications through February 15 (www.madisonclubfoundation.org for RFP and nomination form).
The event is a formal gala with champagne, a multi-course meal prepared by the Madison Club’s culinary team, silent and live auctions, as well as other fundraising games. Tickets are $175 per person and the event is open to the public.
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