Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Neighborhood Walking Tours
Our long-standing walking tours explore Milwaukee's unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Other regular walking tours included Downtown, Downtown Sculpture, River walk tour, Bay View, Brady Street , the Third Ward, North Point Mansions and Milwaukee sculpture. We added a new tour using the city's streetcar in 2019. Our winter season runs from October to May and offers a Skywaukee tour, allowing visitors to explore Milwaukee from the vantage point of the skywalk system.
Student Tours
Student tours are tailored for third through fifth grade curriculum and starts with a guided tour of downtown that focuses on local history, civic government, architecture and geography. The program includes a classroom curriculum packet that continues the learning experience. Our student tour guides are volunteers who have completed a thorough guide-training course. Many are retired educators who continue to share their love of teaching with Milwaukee's children. Last year more than 1,200 students participated in tours. The tours are especially appealing to MPS and other schools with limited field trip budgets; they are priced at $5 per student for the tour and curriculum packet.
Spaces & Traces
oric Milwaukee is also well known for presenting the Spaces & Traces Annual Neighborhood Open House. Over the past 39 years, hundreds of volunteers have helped thousands of tour goers become more familiar with the unique characteristics of dozens of historic areas in Milwaukee's richly textured neighborhoods. Tour attendees have been educated about the "historical traces" of areas as varied as the Third Ward, Yankee Hill, Lincoln Avenue, Bay View, Rufus King, Newberry Boulevard, Sherman Park, and Story Hill as well as the areas along the rivers in downtown, Brady Street, Riverwest, and Walker's Point. The 2019 Spaces & Traces took place May 11 in the Wauwatosa Highlands neighborhood. The event drew 1,700 attendees—a record number for a Spaces & Traces tour. The May 2020 Spaces & Traces tour will take place in Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods May 9.
Doors Open Milwaukee
Doors Open Milwaukee is a two-day public celebration of Milwaukee’s art, architecture, culture and history. This premier event offers behind the scenes tours of more than 150 buildings throughout Milwaukee’s downtown and diverse neighborhoods. Doors Open also offers lectures and in-depth tours featuring prominent local artists, architects, historians, and community leaders. The program is FREE, making this a uniquely inclusive event, accessible to families, seniors and individuals, regardless of income level.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Association of Architectural Organizations 2022
External reviews

Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
We conduct post-event surveys, including for our larger architectural events, Doors Open and Spaces & Traces. We email attendees a link to Survey Monkey and also make hard copy surveys available. Feedback is discussed at the staff and board level. We strive for continuous improvement.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We added more descriptive listings of handicapped accessibility to our Doors Open event guide. We added full Spanish English availability to our new web site. We created new app tours in both English and Spanish.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC
Board of directorsas of 02/07/2023
Mr Tim Cotter
Walker Dunlop
Term: 2020 - 2023
Tim Cotter
Walker & Dunlop
Sarah Greenberg
Greenberg Strategies
Stewart Dempsey
Walnut Hill Ltd.
Brian Hatzung
Zimmerman Architectural Studios, Inc.
Margaret Howland
Above View Inc.
Karin Censky
Michael Best
Madeleine Gordon
Kohl's
Kirsten Thompson
City of Milwaukee LIbrary
Gregory Davis
One 5 Olive
David Griggs
One 5 Olive
Ahmad Omari
National Business Furniture
Kenneth Wirth
Johnson Controls
Steve Kessel
Community volunteer
Jennifer Buchanan
WE Energies
Mason Khan
Rockwell Automation
Shaneeka White
Associated Bank
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/25/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.