“WILS fostered relationships with inspiring people that have lasted a lifetime for me. I cultivated relationships with other alumni who continue to motivate me and who have an energy for life and for positively impacting their community. Through continued volunteer involvement with WILS I have also developed relationships with people throughout our state working to improve our world through social justice organizations, politics, and business.”

-Sarah P., WILS 1994

How can I support WILS?

WILS would not be so successful without the support of generous donors like you. The annual seminar is an experience which we’d like to keep open to as many students as possible so there is never a cost to our young leaders or their schools to attend our program. Our organization is 100% volunteer run, which enables us to keep our administrative costs extremely low. Your assistance is truly valued to grow and enhance the strength of our organization.

  • Student Sponsorships: Since WILS is free of charge to all student leaders and schools, sponsorships are one of the main ways students have the ability to experience the seminar. The cost to sponsor a student to attend WILS for three days is $250.  You can donate online here or if you’d like to donate by check, you can mail it to:

WILS, P.O. Box 237, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0237

  •  Club Sponsors: WILS would not be possible without the support of Kiwanis, GFWC, and Optimists Clubs across Wisconsin and the Upper Michigan. Clubs can find the Club Donation Form Here. 

How is WILS Supported?

  • WILS is funded entirely through charitable contributions. All monies are contributed by private individuals, corporations, and service organizations (Kiwanis, GFWC,  Optimists, etc.)
  • All speakers, members of the WILS Board of Directors, Seminar Planning Committee, and Seminar Staff are volunteers.
  • All money raised by WILS is used for the express purpose of holding our annual seminar.
  • The cost to sponsor a student to attend the WILS seminar for three days is $250. Although WILS is entirely run by volunteers, the sponsorship fee is needed for lodging, meals, transportation to sites for community service, a WILS t-shirt, printing, copying, postage, and other supplies.
  • By sponsoring local students to attend, organizations can make sure that their money is spent on the youth of their area.
  • Your sponsorships have made it possible for over 5,000 students to attend the WILS seminar over the past 40 years. 

How Else can I help WILS?

  • Volunteer: All of our seminar staff, speakers and panelists are unpaid volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering at WILS, please contact Olivia at [email protected]
  • Partnerships: WILS partners with a variety of programs that donate a percentage back to WILS. More information, as well as links to our partner sites are available below. Please save these links in your browser if you frequently use any of our partner sites.
  • Donate Supplies: There are many items and services needed to put on our seminar, including mailing supplies, T-shirts, postage, program books and other printing costs, transportation and meals. You can help by underwriting these expenses or directly donating the services or supplies. Our sponsorship booklet has more details.

Looking for a way to support WILS at stores you already frequent? RaiseRight is the answer! Through the RaiseRight program you can buy gift cards to over 400 popular retailers at face value and WILS gets a donation from each purchase. It’s that easy and locations include grocery stores, gas stations, book stores, and large department stores like Target and Kohl’s along with a ton of popular restaurants.

By enrolling and purchasing gift cards through RaiseRight you can support WILS every time you buy. When you’re ready to enroll just use our WILS Key Code: “6B93FL6E29328” to give WILS a percentage of your order total, while costing you nothing!

 

Buying a lot of gift cards for friends or family for gifts? How about supporting WILS at the same time! Using RaiseRight for your own shopping can benefit your budget and WILS too! By buying gift cards for yourself, you can control your spending habits by allocating money in advance and not allowing yourself to over spend your budget in the moment.

Using RaiseRight in this way is easier than ever. Now you can print your gift cards at home. No more waiting for your cards in the mail! Please consider using this free way to give back to WILS!