Wisconsin REALTORS® Association: What Is the Wisconsin REALTORS® Foundation?

What Is the Wisconsin REALTORS® Foundation?

 Cori Lamont, WRA Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs  |    October 02, 2024
Foundation

The Wisconsin REALTORS® Foundation (WRF) was originally founded to provide scholarship funds for children of REALTORS® who were seeking post-secondary education. However, over time, the WRF’s mission grew into a broader effort to bring REALTORS® together to support charitable initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of life in Wisconsin. 

Your annual membership dues bill includes is a $20 voluntary contribution to the WRF. Almost 35% of members donate the recommended $20 contribution. These contributions allow for more than $125,000 to be allocated to helping the foundation and its efforts. 

But what does the WRF do? The WRF’s recent strategic planning directed the foundation to connect REALTORS® and communities in several different ways, including encouraging volunteerism by REALTORS® in every community within Wisconsin. The goal is to have local REALTOR® associations or REALTOR® members to request funds from the WRF for local initiatives in the WRF’s three key spaces: food, shelter and community. The following information outlines the WRF’s brief history in each of these areas. 

Food 

Over the years, the WRF’s role in the food space has evolved from a solo partnership with Feeding Wisconsin in the beginning to working with local REALTOR® associations to distribute various food products. Since 2018, the WRF has donated more than 1 million meals to Feeding Wisconsin. In addition, the WRF has donated more than 20,000 other food-related products, such as meal packets for children to take home over the weekend or summer breaks. 

One example of a successful partnership with the WRF and local REALTOR® associations occurred in 2022 when the WRF partnered with the Rock-Green REALTORS® Association to distribute a Thanksgiving dinner to every family at one Beloit school. 

Shelter

In 2023, the WRF added a more specific focus on shelter as part of its strategic initiative to get more involved in the needs of communities surrounding shelter. In December 2023, to kick off this initiative, the WRF donated $30,000 to the statewide Habitat for Humanity to help the organization’s efforts in helping “families build and improve places to call home” — a key component of Habitat’s mission. While the WRF focused its financial efforts in 2023 toward Habitat for Humanity, the WRF is open to helping with other local shelter-related needs. 

Community

There is a REALTOR® in every community. Therefore, the WRF’s final area of focus is community. 

Disaster relief

The WRF provides financial support for relief efforts in response to natural disasters in Wisconsin. When the tornadoes struck Stanley, Wisconsin, in 2021, the WRF swiftly responded to the Northwestern REALTOR® Association’s request to match funds to help families impacted by the tornadoes. To ensure the WRF has the funds needed when these effects occur, the WRF segregates a certain amount of funds raised through the voluntary contributions on the membership dues to aid those impacted by natural disasters in Wisconsin.

Local community events

In 2024, the WRF provided funds for the WRA to attend the “A Home for Everyone” conference dedicated to helping find sustainable solutions for affordable housing. In addition, the WRF was a sponsor of the REALTORS® Association of South Central Wisconsin’s housing foundation event, “Handbags for Homes.” 

Discriminatory covenant campaign

Lastly, the WRF will begin its discriminatory covenant awareness campaign in late 2024 to create a connection between local REALTORS® and property owners. Discriminatory covenants are subdivision covenants and deed restrictions that prohibit purchase or occupancy based on race and other protected classes. 

In the 2023-24 legislative session, the WRA helped pass legislation creating a voluntary process for a property owner to record a statutory form with the register of deeds. The legislation does not delete the discriminatory restriction from the land title. To retain valuable historical context about the property’s past, the bill does not delete or erase the language from the land record. When a title is pulled for a title commitment, the form would be reflected rather than discriminatory language. The property owner would incur a $30 document recording fee.

The WRF is providing funding for local REALTOR® associations to help cover the $30 recording fee.  The local association would provide the $30 to REALTOR® members for the property owner to cover the recording fee. 

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