Beginning 2025: Naming the Gap and the Stakes
Earlier this year, we were candid with our community: the Achieve Brown County Collective Impact Partnership (ABC) faced a serious financial crisis as we transitioned from capital campaign fundraising to a sustainable annual model. Our donor base was too small and too concentrated, a reason for the transition in the first place, and it left the partnership at risk.
Spring: Reality of the Situation
To buy time, the backbone team cut costs. They implemented a hiring freeze and when there were staff departures, they didn’t backfill the roles which meant job duties were redistributed across the remaining team. All full-time staff were reduced to .8 FTE status, and they eliminated spending in all nonessential areas.
Who is Achieve Brown County?
Throughout this update, “we” is intentionally expansive. “We” means ABC’s backbone and ABC’s partners (board members, educators, librarians, childcare providers, health and human services, higher ed, business and civic leaders, parents and caregivers, donors and volunteers). It means everyone who shows up to align around youth outcomes.
It was a tough season but these cuts didn’t stop the work. Our backbone team still showed up. Our partners still showed up. We all continued to do this hard work, this extra work under uncertainty for what our years of effort could become. We leaned into our partners’ perspective and named our value plainly. We kept having hard conversations. We asked: What disappears if ABC disappears?
Summer: Stabilizing Through Partners, Clarity, and Action
The backbone team shared weekly communications, talking about what ABC partners said would no longer be available in our community if ABC ceased to exist. We shared stories of policy advocacy, continuous improvement, making data accessible, collaborative action, and how we are aligning on shared goals to change outcomes.
By late summer, momentum shifted: new one-year and multi-year pledges arrived; lapsed investors returned; partners shared letters of support and commitment for collaborative work underway. In August, we restored backbone staff to full-time and secured operations through December 31, 2025, while we build a durable plan for 2026.
With gratitude to our 2025 investors
- Anonymous
- Arne Gustafson
- Breakthrough Fuel
- David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund, a fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region
- Elizabeth B. and Philip J. Hendrickson Foundation
- Google.org
- Green Bay Packers Give Back
- Maryanne E. & Tim J. Weyenberg Family Fund, a Fund of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation
- Michael & Leanne Haddad Family Foundation
- Nicolet National Bank Foundation
- Sarah Beckman
- Schreiber Foods
- Scott and Nancy Armbrust Fund, a Fund of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation
- Steve Herro
- St. Norbert Abbey
- Tom & Mary Hedge Family Foundation Fund, a Fund of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation
Fall: Looking Forward, Together
We’re more stable today and clear-eyed about tomorrow. Our donor base must still grow, and more people need to understand that funding the backbone is one of the highest-leverage gifts you can make to systems-level change for our young people.
The backbone staff and Board are now shaping a 2026 plan that matches resources to the partnership’s most important work: early literacy, early childhood, and data-driven collaboration that advances cradle-to-career outcomes. We’re asking hard questions: Which efforts can be partner-led? Where is backbone facilitation essential? What does it truly cost to keep complex work moving?
Closing 2025: Focused on Young People
This year reaffirmed a simple truth: collective impact takes all of us. Funding ABC fuels the partnership’s shared data, shared voice, and shared action, so all young people can thrive in Brown County. If you believe Brown County’s young people deserve systems that work for them, stand with us as we finish 2025 and build for 2026.
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