Milwaukee has many networking groups for various professions, industries, locations and even some ethnic-specific groups.
But until now, the city has not had a group for business owners and professionals within the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community.
QShare Business Network, a new networking group for LGBT business owners, professionals and those who want to appeal to the LGBT community, will hold its first meeting on Wednesday, May, 21, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Bella Café, 189 N. Milwaukee St., in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.
Cities such as New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Miami, Tampa, Cincinnati and Madison have similar chapters, and it was time that Milwaukee developed a place where business owners and professionals within the LGBT community could connect with each other, said Denise Cawley, director of the QShare group.
Cawley also is a partner in Circore Creative LLC, a Milwaukee marketing and advertising services firm.
“In other communities, you can go to a (gay) pride event and meet with high-level people,” Cawley said. “The networking is fantastic. And if you go to other gay events (in those communities), the businesses that sponsor those are the ones that want to identify themselves as gay-friendly.”
While QShare’s first meeting will be held in downtown Milwaukee, the group hopes to draw from Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Waukesha and Racine counties, Cawley said. The group wants to have owners of small businesses and professionals who work for large corporations as members, both gay and straight, she said.
One of the main goals behind forming the QShare network is finding ways to build relationships with business owners and companies that are interested in being known as gay-friendly, Cawley said.
“If you are a member of this population, you don’t want to end up with a referral to someone who is homophobic,” she said. “And some companies want to network with the LGBT community but have no way to access them.”
Some of the businesses that join QShare might benefit from goodwill business from the LGBT community, Cawley said.
“I think there’s a real opportunity here,” she said. “There’s the moveable middle (in the straight population) who would reward businesses that were members of such groups. And the gay and lesbian population is more loyal than many other sorts of groups, and for businesses that would align themselves (with the community), there’s a chance to bring in goodwill business.”
The QShare Business Network also has another aim: to raise money for charity.
Members of the organization will pay dues, like other networking groups. However, most of those dues will be donated to charity, because of the group’s expected low overhead costs.
“(Members) give a $25 per month minimum and at the end of the year, the group gives away 75 percent of that,” Cawley said. “And the group votes on how it gives it away.”
The QShare Business Network will be an offshoot of the Cream City Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group for the LGBT community, Cawley said. By affiliating itself with the Cream City Foundation, the QShare network will not need its own board of directors, bookkeeping or web site maintenance, she said, and will be able to focus on networking.
“We won’t have to have someone volunteer to keep up the web site or run the books,” Cawley said. “The Cream City Foundation already has those. We get to be a project of the foundation, which is the second oldest gay and lesbian fundraising organization in the country. They’re extremely well-known and respected in gay causes.”
Having QShare as a part of the Cream City Foundation might make it more appealing to potential members, Cawley said, because the group will not need volunteers to work as administrators.
“I’m a busy person and a mom,” she said. “I have very little time. And this is the fastest way to get the group together, spending the least amount of time for the greatest good.”
The Event
What: First meeting of QShare Business Network, a business networking group for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.
Where: Bella Café, 189 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee.
When: Wednesday, May 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Who: Maria Cadenas, director of the Cream City Foundation, at (414) 225-0244 or director@creamcityfoundation.org, or Denise Cawley at Denise@circore.com.
