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The Wisconsin

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version of C-SPAN

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has gone dark.

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Because I know that

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you were hoping for

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$10 million

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in state funding

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but that had to have

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those matching funds

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as you just talked about

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from donations.

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But was that ever

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a realistic goal

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and how are you

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working around that?

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Are you able to get some

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of that state

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funding without having

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to do the match?

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Looking back now

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obviously

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hindsight is 20/20 vision

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but we did not

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anticipate the difficult

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philanthropic environment

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a year-and-a-half ago

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when we first

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began to

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solicit

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funds for the endowment.

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That was

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a failure, frankly.

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The competition

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for large-dollar gifts

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was not in the cards

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for WisconsinEye.

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We made almost 50 requests

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well-cultivated

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well-developed

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proposals

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to individuals, businesses

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and foundations

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totaling $9.2 million

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and all were declined.

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So that was a

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huge setback for us.

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Now, looking forward

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the hope is that

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by state action

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those dollars that

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had the match requirement

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can be released

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in some portion

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in whole

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or in part

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to help WisconsinEye

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move forward.
