Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation

Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation - Our Story

In its April 1969 edition, The Wisconsin Pharmacist magazine reported on Mr. Larry Jolin, RPh, of Sturgeon Bay winning the White Laboratories National Award first prize which included a $1,000 Government Bond for Mr. Jolin and a $500 contribution to a pharmacy education function of Mr. Jolin’s choice. He selected “the new Wisconsin Pharmacy Education Foundation which [was] being set up by WPhA to provide various benefits to pharmacy students and pharmaceutical education in Wisconsin.”

The Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation was established in 1969 by the board of the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Association (WPhA; W. Allen Daniels, Executive Director) as a 501C-3 without stock and not-for-profit corporation. Its purpose was to receive gifts, donations, and bequests, on behalf of then-WPhA in a tax favorable manner. Goals for this income were vague and included specific purposes determined by the donor or loans, advancements or grant scholarships and gifts as determined by the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

By the late-1970s the activity of the Foundation had waned; as leadership of the association changed and evolved, the Foundation was forgotten, quite literally.

On a quiet Friday afternoon in the early 1990’s, a new Executive Director – just 27 years old at the time – pondered what was in an old, heavy safe in the association building. The association had little financial resources at the time; enough to employ the Executive Director and a part-time administrative assistant. What could be in this massive safe?

Turns out the safe contained, among documents, a savings account passport book with the records of a bank account balance that exceeded the assets of the association itself! That 27-year-old Executive Director was Chris Decker and that bank account was for the Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation.

In 1996, after Chris’s encounter with the mysterious safe, the Foundation launched a substantial and very successful fundraising effort, the Building for the Future Campaign under the direction of Jim Pogodzinski. This campaign made it possible that the association could move into headquarters building we meet in today without the burden of a mortgage. The goal of the headquarters was to have a location to house the activities of the Foundation as well as substantial educational efforts underway at the time, including the Wisconsin Center for Pharmaceutical Care initiative and Compliance Improvement Programs. PSW provided the necessary and appropriate administrative support to complete the Foundation’s activities and projects. In turn, the Foundation provided PSW with a source of non-dues revenue.

Between 1998 and 2000, the activities of the Foundation were scaled back dramatically in part due to the anticipated reduction in scheduled financial commitments to the Building for the Future Campaign and reduced financial performance of Foundation investments.

In 2001, a task force was formed for the purpose of reactivating the Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation. The task force brought forward a recommended revised mission and vision statement, structural revisions, and proposal for ongoing operations management. It was stated at that time that the task force expected the Foundation to act as a catalyst for practice advancement and change in support of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin.

Since this time, we are familiar with additional successful fundraising campaigns and strategic grants including:

• The Leadership Pharmacy Conference Endowment to support a leadership training program for pharmacists early in their careers; grants from the Foundation now fund this conference annually
• A strategic investment made by the Foundation in the development of what would become the Wisconsin Pharmacy Quality Collaborative, a vibrant network of pharmacies that continues today, paved the way for enhanced pharmacist-provided care and new payment models
• The Building Our Tomorrow campaign, under Steve Rough's leadership, which raised more than half of a million dollars in pledges and gifts generated in conjunction with a full remodel of the PSW headquarters, pulling in technology advancements to enhance the educational services of PSW; grants from the Foundation now support PSW innovation projects
• And additional fundraising efforts of family and colleagues across the nation to pay tribute to Chris Decker and Difference Makers like him through scholarship and leadership networking. Those gifts are recognized through an outdoor patio space at PSW and a scholarship that is awarded annually by the Foundation to pharmacy students.

This story of the Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation has been woven alongside the state’s professional association throughout the past 50 years.