Origination & Design
Emanating in the year 2000, the notion that linking the business community directly to talented, young male achievers through a structured agenda of academic performance and professional development has become a factual success story of immense proportion. There were other traditional career development strategies in place but none that solidified a tangible, robust connection to emerging, employed, and established professionals in occupations across the spectrum - technology, healthcare, finance and wealth management, religion, law, the arts, in every field of human endeavor. These professions, a representative sampling of positions our graduates have now achieved and brands where they have landed, are as broad-based as the territory they now influence worldwide. There are now hundreds of degreed MKE Fellows who have vaulted into the workforce as influencers and thought-leaders and provided a verified blueprint and framework which has become an advancement model for national replication.
Overview & Purpose
Succinctly, the Fellowship Open (and MKE Fellows model) can best be described as a verified conduit to professional accomplishment and community leadership. Responding to need with swiftness and acuity through proactive programs like Five Pillars Tutoring, Lead Generation, Sports Analytics Club Program (SACP), MKE Fellows, and an incredible four-year college graduation rate, Wisconsin and the nation’s future prosperity is within reach with backing from leaders like you.
After 25 years of community and youth empowerment efforts, proven, measurable professional advancement for African American males in Wisconsin has materialized as anticipated. The MKE Fellows initiative has emerged as a nationally-acclaimed model of youth engagement, adopted by United Way International, endowed by the National Basketball Association Foundation, supported by the PGA of America, and more than 40 corporations, charitable philanthropies, and major business organizations that continue to sew into and sustain this phenomenal program through the Fellowship Open. With your help, our goal is to double the number of MKE Fellows enrolled in the initiative in five years.
Request for Support
On the occasion of our Silver Anniversary, we invite your renewed partnership in continuing to fortify, enable, and empower the next generation of leadership, driving progress and prosperity even further through the expansion of life-altering professional options for young people of color. You can join the list of historical supporters including Hall of Fame legends, Olympians, and World Champions who hold places of revered significance in the Fellowship Open 25-year legacy - Hank Aaron, Oscar Robertson, Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, LeRoy Butler, Senator Herb Kohl, Willie Davis, Junior Bridgeman, Jerome Bettis, and many other visionaries, role models, and leaders. Financial support for the Fellowship Open is essential in supplying the life blood we need to sustain our communal efforts. Credibility, reliability, community trust, measurable results all serve as sound substantiation for your investment consideration.
Case for Support
The trajectory-changing careers being generated through the MKE Fellows initiative encompass corporate identities like BlackRock, Google, the NFL, Wells Fargo, and many other business, civic organizations, and Fortune 500 companies nationwide. Literally hundreds of MKE Fellows with similar outcomes provide documented proof of our design’s authenticity and validity. Of critical importance is the immediate demand for young professionals of this caliber in career fields across the spectrum.
The MKE Fellows currently support 200 students annually matriculating at over 30 colleges and universities nationwide. The program is managed by a small, streamlined but highly-engaged staff. The strategic design was implemented to facilitate purposeful, personal interaction with each and every individual MKE Fellow in the program. Student involvement with mentors, business leaders, and career advisors provides a rigorous and productive structure which for over a decade now has delivered a transformative academic and professional development experience to young students of color that has been recognized nationally.
Invitation to Engage
In our 25th year, our commitment is to double the number of MKE Fellows served to 400! Over the next few years, the impact on our civic landscape - and in particular families and youth in the most underserved communities - will show demonstrable improvement in addressing the most difficult and distressing quality of life challenges, as these new leaders procure positions of influence. As seen in social media posts and news accounts daily, the need for talented, prepared, committed, young leaders is urgent. We are confident that by doubling the number of MKE Fellows, diversity and inclusion will be a real platform with palpable results.
Your financial assistance in attaining this ambitious goal is vital. We will reach out to you to follow up.
Thank you.
John W. Daniels, III President
