For Tom Florsheim Jr., business is a family affair.
He’s the chairman and CEO of Weyco Group, a Wisconsin-based shoe company that owns their namesake Florsheim brand as well as BOGS, Nunn Bush and Stacy Adams. Tom is the fi fth generation of the family in the shoe business and worked for many years with his father, Thomas Sr.; his brother, John, is the company’s president and COO.
Over the years, his philanthropy has followed suit. He and his brother run the company’s private foundation. Florsheim and his wife, Jennifer, started a fund at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and over the past five years, he has recruited his brother, sister-in-law, and his parents to start their own.
“The Foundation is on the forefront of understanding how to invest in communities in a way that creates sustainable change that can have a positive impact now but also on future generations,” said Florsheim, who was one of the committee members for the Foundation’s Greater Together Campaign, a comprehensive fundraising campaign that raised $726 million.
The Florsheims started their donor advised fund shortly after he joined the Foundation’s Board in 2018. He appreciated the connections the Foundation had in the region and believed the impact it could have on any given issue would be greater than any one individual could have on his or her own.
Previously the couple had a fund with a national provider of donor advised funds that they used to support mostly social causes and education. The Florsheims are longtime supporters of Milwaukee College Prep and University School of Milwaukee, which Tom and their children attended. They also support College Possible and Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where Jennifer was a board member.
“We both want to feel as though we have helped improve Milwaukee,” said Jennifer, who added that their children will become successor advisers to the fund to help carry out their legacy.
As Florsheim became more involved with the Foundation as a donor and Board member, he talked to his family about his experience. He and Jennifer granted to many nonprofits through their fund, coinvested in the Foundation’s strategic priorities, and recently became legacy donors. They’ve also attended many Foundation events over the years. Tom was on the Foundation’s Impact Investing Committee and Philanthropic Service Committee for several years and now chairs its Investment Committee and is on the Nominating and Governance Committee.
“From being exposed to these different areas, your knowledge grows of what the Foundation is doing,” he said. “The more that I’ve gotten involved with the Foundation, the more I really like what they are doing.”
He specifically shared with his family the Foundation’s vision of advancing a Milwaukee for all. “My family is very on board with all of that,” he said.
His parents, Thomas and Nancy, who also have an account at the same commercial firm of donor advised funds, created a Foundation fund in 2019. They continue to add to it, supporting areas such as the Foundation’s Early Childhood Education Fund, which fuels the work of the MKE ECE Coalition. The coalition is comprised of the Foundation and dozens of local experts, practitioners, and parents who advocate for increased public investment and systems change in early childhood education.
“There is a lot of info that you can gain from the Foundation, and I think my parents really like that aspect,” said Florsheim, who added that his mom is an avid reader of the Foundation’s publications.
Florsheim’s brother, John, and his wife, Lindy, opened the Florsheim Yeager Family Fund in early 2024. They have a shared strong interest in early childhood education and impact investing—which provides access to capital for small businesses, community development, and more—and have supported the Foundation’s strategic priority funds in those two areas.
Tom said he and his brother’s involvement as Foundation donors has influenced their work with the Weyco Group Charitable Trust, the company’s philanthropic arm. It annually grants $250,000 to organizations that focus on education, art, youth, and vulnerable populations, among others.
“I think the Foundation will help anyone interested in philanthropy have a better understanding of it and therefore allow them to spend their dollars in a more meaningful way,” Tom said.