About Fair Wisconsin

Fair Wisconsin and the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund

Fair Wisconsin has two divisions:

Fair Wisconsin is a statewide organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

We carry out this mission through education, legislative advocacy, grassroots organizing, coalition-building and electoral involvement. These efforts are designed to educate the general voting public, sensitize the media, promote a politically active and effective organizational membership, and better inform policy makers on issues of concern to our members.

The Fair Wisconsin Education Fund (FWEF) aims to educate the public about the consequences of anti-LGBT discrimination and foster civic engagement around issues of importance to LGBT equality.

Fair Wisconsin and FWEF were originally known as Action Wisconsin and the Action Wisconsin Eduction Fund. In March 2006, Action Wisconsin first launched Fair Wisconsin as the political campaign that worked to fight a constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions for gay couples that appeared on the November 2006 statewide ballot. Following the election, with input from statewide supporters, leaders of Action Wisconsin and AWEF decided to officially change the names of both organizations to Fair Wisconsin and FWEF.

Action Wisconsin was founded in 1994, and the Action Wisconsin Education Fund was founded in 2002.

This website collectively refers to the two organizations under the name "Fair Wisconsin." Although there is some overlap in the work done by each organization, certain activities Fair Wisconsin does to promote civil rights must be done by one organization and not the other. This is primarily in the area of lobbying. Fair Wisconsin engages in direct legislative advocacy. As an organization that is eligible to receive contributions that are tax-deductible by the contributor, federal law limits the extent to which the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund may engage in lobbying activities. Therefore, most of the lobbying activity done by Fair Wisconsin and discussed in this website is done by Fair Wisconsin. By contrast, much of the communication efforts, grassroots outreach, and civic engagement programs described in this Web site are done by the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund.

You may make a contribution to either Fair Wisconsin, the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund or both. Become a member of Fair Wisconsin or make a tax-deductible gift to the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund.

See our 2008 Annual Report.