Gretta Kraus looks back on year as LCF’s first Community Engaged Fellow

April 30, 2023

By La Crosse Community Foundation

Longtime La Crosse educators Ron and Jane Rada started the Community Engaged Fellowships initiative last year to provide three one-year fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students. Described as a closely mentored internship, the purpose is to promote community engagement and support philanthropy. La Crosse Community Foundation has been fortunate to work with one of those fellows, Gretta Kraus, this past year. Gretta will graduate soon from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and, we’re certain, will go on to make great contributions to her community and society.  

Community Engaged Fellow reflects on insights, experiences gained

Throughout my time at LCF, I have gained so much new experience and knowledge about the nonprofit world and beyond. I have been able to meet so many community members and stakeholders throughout the county that make a difference in La Crosse every day. It has been an amazing opportunity to participate and sit in on meetings with nonprofit leaders and other important contributors to La Crosse’s world of philanthropy. That being said, the most interesting part of my fellowship was learning how extensive philanthropy and giving are in the community of La Crosse. Prior to starting at LCF, I knew about a couple nonprofits and assumed that there were people who donated annually. However, I had no idea the extent to which people gave back to this area that they often call home. There are so many people dedicated to making La Crosse a better place. On top of that, there are so many employees and volunteers working so hard to make a difference in communities that need it most.

Favorite projects focused on Nonprofit Resource Center

I have worked on a lot of meaningful projects throughout the last year.  One of my favorites was creating the Nonprofit Directory. This directory lives on the LCF website and compiles all active nonprofits in La Crosse County that have received a grant from the foundation in the last three years. It includes contact information and mission statements to connect donors, volunteers, and those in need to the organization and services. They are also tied to a category so users can look specifically at arts & humanities or health & human services, for example.

This directory helped us launch the La Crosse Giving Catalog, another one of my favorite projects. Creating this last year to launch on Giving Tuesday 2022 was a really special project. It was amazing to see so many people giving to nonprofits in need of smaller funding projects. It continues to live on the LCF website alongside the Nonprofit Directory for anyone to donate to any request during the specific quarter.

Taking away new, practical skills

I have also really enjoyed learning how to use website functioning to help with internal database management, content creation, and social media posting. One of the best parts of this fellowship is that there is always so much to do, no matter what your interests are. There are areas that I did not think I would ever get a chance to explore that I was able to see through my time here. I was also pushed out of my comfort zone and able to meet with and speak to community members about certain projects and ideas for the foundation.

Overall, this fellowship program has been an amazing opportunity that I am extremely grateful for. It has provided me with a new set of skills alongside a greater knowledge base about philanthropy, foundations, and nonprofits. It even introduced me to another company that I am able to intern for!

Community Engaged Fellowships a great opportunity

This program is great for any major that has an interest in this sector. Lots of the skills can be applied to other jobs and career interests. In addition, it is very flexible to work on things that you are really wanting to pursue and have an interest in. Lastly (but not least!), the staff at LCF is super great and fun to work with. Everyone is very welcoming and happy to have a fellow working with them in the office. I would definitely recommend this program to fellow students at UWL!