Editor's note: Welcome to the premiere edition of the BizTimes Nonprofit Weekly, a free e-mail news bulletin provided by BizTimes Media LLC. This newsletter, which will be sent to subscribers every Friday, provides news and operational insight for executives overseeing nonprofit organizations throughout southeastern Wisconsin, as well as information about the region's philanthropy scene. The bulletin is compiled by BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Alysha Schertz. News tips about the local nonprofit industry and philanthropy can be sent to her at alysha.schertz@biztimes.com or (414) 336-7123. To subscribe to the BizTimes Nonprofit Weekly, visit http://www.biztimes.com/members/profile/subscriptions

Two men from the Milwaukee area are completing the last leg of training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Ironman competition.

Dave Howell, professor of technical communication at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and attorney Daniel Mitchell will complete the Team in Training program on Sept. 13, when they finish the Iron Man Triathalon in Madison.

Eight individuals from the state are competing in the Ironman Triathlon on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

Mitchell is participating in his third Ironman triathlon. He joined Team In Training after the death of his parents.

"My father passed after a courageous six-month battle in 1998 from acute lymphoma. My mother died in 2008 from breast cancer," Mitchell said.

The Ironman competition allows Mitchell to raise money for a good cause while still doing something he enjoys.

"I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers," he said. "These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure."

Howell has also participated in many triathlons, but this is his second Ironman competition.

Howell's mother-in-law has leukemia, so according to him that's a big motivator for his family and friends to raise money for research, and the search for the cure is his motivating factor during the race.

Every person who joins the team in training program receives four to five months of training with a certified coach to help prepare them for an event of their choice. In return, participants work to raise money for research to help find cures for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee has raised it 2009 workplace giving fundraising goal for local nonprofits to $500,000, which is a 10-percent increase over last year's goal.

Workplace fund drives remain a fall tradition in many offices and worksites in greater Milwaukee and around the country. Nearly $100 billion has been raised for nonprofit organizations nationally in the last 30 years through workplace giving.

"Employees desperately want the ability to support the charities that are important to them through their workplace," said John Jansen, Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee executive director. "The best way to build our community is by giving people a personal stake in their community - letting them contribute to its success on an individual basis.  It's been proven that people will give if you let them decide where their dollars will go."

Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee focuses its fundraising efforts on workplace and online giving (milwaukeeshares.org) to provide expanded choices that are consistent with employees' diversity and varied giving interests.

Workplace giving employees now have eight new member organizations they can choose to contribute to, including: Groundwork Milwaukee, Kids Matter, Make a Difference Wisconsin, Public Allies Milwaukee, St. Catherine Residence, St Rose Youth and Family Center, Humane Animal Welfare Society of Waukesha County, and My Home, Your Home.

Three Milwaukee-area youth organizations recently received grants from the Wal-Mart Foundation to expand and enrich education and hunger related programs for school-age children. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Wal-Mart representatives were present for check presentations for the grants. The recipients included: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, $50,000; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, $25,000; and Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, $30,000.

Alex Runner, who works for Common Council President Willie Hines,  Peggy Larson, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater
Milwaukee, County Executive Scott Walker and Lisa B.
Nelson, Senior Public Affairs Manager for Walmart Stores.

RitzHolman CPAs, a Milwaukee-based public accounting firm, recently launched an outsourced accounting service for privately held businesses and nonprofit organizations. Seven of the firm's employees work on its outsourced service team, including two of the firm's partners.

The new service leverages an online service named Intacct, which allows the firm or its customers to input financial documents, bills, receipts, vouchers and other information, which can be examined via a secure Internet connection. The service allows RitzHolman CPAs to examine and process a company's financial statements on an ongoing basis, rather than monthly, quarterly or annually.

"Because this is totally web based, it's possible for a business to post information and we can look at it here (in the office)," said Andy Holman, partner in the firm and a member of the outsource service team. "The information flow is greatly enhanced."

The Intacct service offers a level of detail that is much deeper than other popular accounting programs or online services, said Darci Middaugh, another partner in the firm who also works on the outsourcing team.

"What's new about this (software) is the ability to do things via the Internet and scanning," she said. "We're working with software that allows us to access their records, but the client can also see the records whenever they want to. And we can customize it so they can see what is important to them, information they need to see that is important to them so they can run their businesses on a daily basis."

The firm is currently targeting privately held businesses with fewer than 50 employees in the professional services sectors such as physicians, dentists, attorneys and architects, Holman said. Because RitzHolman CPAs' clients include a significant number of nonprofits, the firm is also marketing the outsourced accounting service to that sector.

"We already have 15 nonprofits doing this kind of stuff, mostly when they have an office person paying the bills who is not comfortable doing payroll entry," Holman said. "They may also have a need for advice on specialty things such as reports to funding sources."

The new service allows businesses and nonprofits the ability to, in essence, have a CPA examining their bills, books and finances on a regular basis without hiring one.

"The cost efficiency for a business or nonprofit gives them an expertise level that they would have a hard time purchasing (by hiring someone)," Holman said. "We bring to the table the knowledge of CPA professionals that can advise them on more (than financials) – we can look at their operations."

The outsourced accounting service will also allow businesses and nonprofits to focus on what they are good at, instead of worrying about financial reporting, bookkeeping and paying bills, Middaugh said.

"Some clients have become so busy handling their accounting that they don't have time to focus on their business any more, and that's not what they want to do," she said. "This is what we do, it's our focus."

The Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend will open its "Isle of Inspiration: Rediscovering Milwaukee's Jones Island" exhibit on Wednesday, Sept. 2. The new exhibition illustrates the rich and largely forgotten history of Milwaukee's Jones Island and runs through Nov. 1.

The exhibition will include contemporary and historical photographs of Jones Island, as well as numerous paintings, etchings and other works inspired by this unique enclave just south of Milwaukee's downtown. 

Now an exclusively industrial area, Jones Island was once home to roughly 1600 Polish Kaszubians, who made their living from the lake, and whose existence was for the most part isolated from "mainland" Milwaukee. 

In 1857, work was completed on a channel dug through its north end, turning the peninsula into an island ideal for Yankee shipbuilders such as Captain James Monroe Jones.

Despite the fact that Captain Jones left his operation behind one year later when a nor'easter flooded the area and sediment from Milwaukee's Kinnickinnic River transformed the island back into a peninsula roughly a decade later, the name Jones Island has remained. 

The Island is now occupied by Milwaukee's Metropolitan Sewerage District, and is home to the Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, a facility so revolutionary in design that it was eventually accorded the status of a National Historic Engineering Site by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The early etchings of Paul Hammersmith and Frank Enders provide calm description of the island. Robert von Neumann's lithographs capture the muscled brawn of the island's fisherman plying their trade. Howard Thomas painted the island over a period of twenty years with his images becoming more abstract, reflecting nationwide trends in art. Other artists such as Max Fernekes, Emily Groom, Harold Thorsten Lindberg, George New, Alfred Pelikan, Franz Rohrbeck, James Schwalbach and Helmut Summ depicted the island as it neared its end as a settlement. Jim Brozek's photographs capture the modern era of the island: no longer a place of residence, yet still a place of work.

A coffee reception and gallery talk presented by assistant director Graeme Reid is scheduled for Friday, Sept.11, at 10:30 a.m. On Sunday, Sept. 13, the Museum will host an opening reception from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Both events are free with admission to the museum. A symposium celebrating the new exhibit will be held on Saturday, Sept 12, registration for the symposium is required.  

The Museum of Wisconsin Art is located in downtown West Bend at 300 S. Sixth Ave.  Public hours are Wednesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 - 4:30 p.m. For more information, call 262-334-9638 or visit our website at www.wisconsinart.org.

Name:  Meghan Koven

Title: executive director

Nonprofit organization: ArtWorks for Milwaukee, Inc.

Nonprofit Address: 1421 N. Water St., Milwaukee, WI 53202

Website: www.artworksformilwaukee.org

Mission of the organization: Provide meaningful employment and training through an apprenticeship program in the arts for Milwaukee-area youth with and without disabilities.

Organizational Goals:

Annual volunteer/fundraising event: 'Night by the River': Inaugural Benefit for ArtWorks for Milwaukee, Inc., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Manpower HQ, 100 Manpower Place, Milwaukee. Silent auction, raffle, beer and wine tasting, hors d'oeuvres, live music, complimentary onsite dance instructor

What makes your organization unique?

"ArtWorks is the only organization in Milwaukee County that utilizes the arts as our method for teaching soft 21st Century soft employability skills to high school students who need them most. We serve Milwaukee County high school students who face the following significant barriers to employability: Underperformance – These students have low GPAs and/or may drop out, despite having the capacity to graduate. At ArtWorks, we teach them that earning a high school diploma is key to finding employment success.Disabilities – At ArtWorks, we teach our apprentices to overcome employment barriers inherent to misperceptions about their abilities Lack of resources and mentors. At ArtWorks, we provide our apprentices with resources and mentoring opportunities with ArtWorks' staff and Lead Artists that can increase their chances of employment success. We use the arts to engage youth that might otherwise be difficult to reach, in a creative, non-traditional way. Our apprentices earn wages for performing meaningful work under the guidance of a Lead Artist. The Lead Artist is hired on a contractual basis to guide them in the creation of visual, literary or multimedia artwork. Our apprentices do not need prior artistic ability to participate in our programs."

What is one key thing needed for leadership in the nonprofit sector? A strong commitment to a culture of collaboration.

Is your organization in search of board members? "Yes. ArtWorks is currently seeking candidates to join our Board of Directors.  In particular we are interested in interviewing applicants that possess experience in: finance/accounting, human resources, post-secondary education, youth workforce development and programming multicultural and/or persons with disabilities (or a family member of someone with a disability) are highly encouraged to apply."

 How can business people/the community help your organization?

Why do you think people should volunteer or become a board member?

"Committing yourself to becoming a part of the solution transcends all obstacles. ArtWorks has a proven model that creates positive change for the youth we serve, a genuine commitment to organizational continuous improvement, and a dedicated Board full of talented and hard-working volunteers. Come & join us!"