Your gift helps Odyssey students and graduates with both their educational and personal expenses while they attend college. Additionally, your support makes possible Odyssey Junior, exciting whole families about education and their future, and Odyssey Beyond Bars, bringing transformative education to Wisconsin’s prisons. See below for our various funds so you can choose the one(s) you most want to support.
Immediate Assistance
Friends of Odyssey Family Fund
This flexible fund supports Odyssey’s greatest needs and offers wraparound services for all six of our programs, including basic living expenses, unanticipated emergencies, and tech access.
Odyssey Project Fund
This fund supports academic programming for all six of our programs, including tuition, instructors, textbooks, and other expenses.
Odyssey Beyond Bars Fund
This fund supports Odyssey’s academic programming and opportunities for learners in Wisconsin prisons.
Endowment Funds
Odyssey Future Fund
This endowment fund supports Odyssey’s adults and youth academic programs, helping to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
Onward Odyssey Fund
This fund was created by Odyssey supporter Sharon Stark in remembrance of the life and legacy of her husband, Peter Livingston. This endowment fund helps Odyssey alumni and their families overcome barriers as they continue on in their educational journeys.
Odyssey Beyond Bars Future Fund
This endowment fund supports the Odyssey Beyond Bars program, helping to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
Craig Werner Odyssey Scholars Fund
This endowment fund support students enrolled in the Odyssey course, those continuing in college after Odyssey, children enrolled in Odyssey Junior, and students enrolled in Odyssey Beyond Bars.
Additional information
If you would like to mail your gift, please send a check made payable to UW Foundation and indicate which fund you are supporting in the memo line:
Mail to:
UW Foundation
US Bank Lockbox 78807
Milwaukee, WI 53278-8807
To set up monthly donations to Odyssey, click on any of the links above to support the Odyssey Project Fund, the Friends of Odyssey Family Fund, the Odyssey Beyond Bars Fund, or the Odyssey Future Fund.
University of Wisconsin Foundation’s Tax ID number is: 39-0743975. Please be sure to specify which fund you would like your donation to be applied to for any gifts made to UW Foundation.
Donate via your IRA
Those who receive an IRA may satisfy their required minimum distribution (RMD) for the year and reduce their taxable income by donating to the UW Odyssey Project! Contact your IRA plan administrator for help setting this up. The IRA funds can be directly transferred to either the Odyssey Project Fund or the Friends of Odyssey Family Fund. Please make sure to specify which fund you would like to support when initiating this process. To make an IRA charitable rollover gift, contact your IRA custodian and request that an amount be transferred directly to the UW Odyssey Project. For support, please call Jenny Pressman at 608-287-8216, or contact your IRA plan administrator or financial advisor.
Other Ways to Support Odyssey
Invite us to Speak to your Group
Odyssey depends on grassroots support! Volunteers can help us to spread the word by inviting us to speak to a business, church, service club, or group of friends. Whenever possible we invite an Odyssey student to attend and to share their own story.
Fulfill wish lists
For Odyssey Junior (enrichment classes for the children of Odyssey students and alumni), we can use art supplies, puzzles, games, notebooks, children’s books, etc. We have compiled these items into one “Wish List” on Amazon. We also could use gift cards for families (gas cards, dept stores like Target, grocery stores) to use as prizes and for emergencies.
Host a Benefit
Odyssey supporters have hosted benefits in their homes and other community spaces, inviting friends to learn about our program, meet students, and support Odyssey. Program staff can help with invitations and other logistics.
Volunteer with Odyssey
Have other ideas for supporting Odyssey students? There are many ways to volunteer with the Odyssey Project! Please fill out the volunteer interest form, visit our volunteer page, or contact volunteer coordinator Gwendolyn Coale at gwendolyn.coale@wisc.edu.
Questions?
Jenny Pressman
Position title: Director of Development and Community Partnerships
Email:
jenny.pressman
Phone: 608-287-8216
Join our mailing list
Use this form to join the UW Odyssey Project mailing list. Sign up to receive just emails, just print mailings, or both.