Milwaukee’s Present Music Establishes Endowment Fund

Present Music Photo By Luke Weber

The Present Music Board of Directors recently announced the establishment of an Endowment Fund for Present Music at the Milwaukee Foundation.

The foresight and initial funding for the Present Music Endowment Fund was made possible by a matching grant from Richard and Suzanne Pieper. Matching funds were also given by the Estate of H. Koken and drawn from cumulative Present Music budget surpluses. The Present Music Endowment Fund at the Milwaukee Foundation will allow individuals to include Present Music in their estate plans.

“We had been talking about it for a long time,” commented Present Music’s Board President, Ron Jacquart. At a lunch two years ago, Richard and Suzanne Pieper suggested that Jacquart put $10,000 dollars into a fund at the Milwaukee Foundation, promising that they would match that same amount themselves. Board members raised $2,000, but the remaining $8,000 came as the result of a serendipitous oversight on the part of a Florida insurance company.

Mr. Jacquart, the owner and President of Closing Services of Wisconsin, probated Howard Konen’s estate in 1977. In July 2000, he received a letter from Prudential Insurance. The company had just discovered a life insurance policy in Mr. Konen’s name that had never been paid out, and was now worth almost six times its original value. Mr. Konen has no living heirs, and so Prudential allowed CSOWI to clear the insurance proceeds without re-opening the probate if they would write the checks to charity. Part of the money went to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and to the Homeless Food Program of the Cathedral of St. John, and the rest went into the Present Music Endowment Fund.

The Fund currently sits at $20,000, and the Board of Directors has agreed not to take income from it until it reaches $100,000, at which point it will be used to help with operating expenses. In the meantime, interest from the endowment will be reinvested.

“Present Music will celebrate its 20th season next year,” Jacquart commented, “and it has really struggled over the last 19 years.” Jacquart believes that the endowment will ensure that the group can continue their work, work that he considers an asset of the Milwaukee community.