DEER is a place-based investment initiative working to close Milwaukee's life expectancy gap, starting in three neighborhoods: Washington Park, Silver Spring, and Walker's Square / Muskego Way.
DEER is built around a focused place-based strategy with a defined time horizon and clear public stakes. Our approach marries trust-based philanthropy with metric-driven results, funding community-identified projects mapped against a defined social determinant framework.
Collaboration is the key to our success. DEER doesn't just move money around, it brings people and resources together: securing investment, taking fundraising off partners' plates, connecting people doing similar work, and keeping everyone honest about what's actually working. Every investor also commits to leveraging their own talents and services to resource these neighborhoods directly — see how that works in our Neighborhood Investment Process.
For decades, disconnected programs have chipped away at the edges of this gap without closing it. DEER exists because the neighborhoods living this reality don't have years to wait on solutions that aren't built to last, at the scale the problem actually demands.
DEER is community-led first, built alongside institutional partners who share that same commitment to the neighborhoods, the long haul, and following through.
Your support helps build lasting change in Milwaukee's neighborhoods.
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