Tax deductible. No calories.

Make a contribution to the Wisconsin Film Festival’s Real Butter Fund!

Use the form on this page to use a credit card, or make checks out to the “Wisconsin Film Festival” and mail to:
   Wisconsin Film Festival
   821 University Ave.
   Madison, WI 53706

If you send a check, please include this very simple PDF form (name, address, etc.) to help us comply with University guidelines.

Contributors to the Real Butter Fund may be listed by name in the Wisconsin Film Festival program, or on this web site. You may choose to have your name not listed.

If you are considering making a major contribution to the Wisconsin Film Festival, please contact the Festival’s operations director Allen Ebert (608-890-1118 | email) or UW Foundation representative Eric Greiling (608-890-1223; email).

What is the Real Butter Fund?

It’s a way for folks to help support the Festival through voluntary donations. These funds are applied to many of the Festival’s expenses and are for the butterment…er…betterment of the Wisconsin Film Festival.

The Festival is presented by the UW Arts Institute, part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. (We think it’s the largest campus-based film festival in the country; read more about the Festival’s background here.)

It is a nonprofit educational program. Any contributions to the Real Butter Fund are considered donations to the UW–Madison. Charitable gifts that are not made in exchange for goods or services—which is the case here—are deductible as charitable contributions if you itemize your tax returns.

This fund is associated exclusively with the Wisconsin Film Festival, so your donation is guaranteed to be used only for this event.

Why does the Festival need to raise outside money?

Supporters like you are so important because the entire annual Festival operating budget needs to be generated anew each year.

Some funding comes from applications for foundation and community grants, contributions from University partners (programs who share their own funding with us to help bring films to the Festival), and sponsorship from local businesses who are committed to keeping the Festival vibrant. The rest comes from ticket revenues.

We run a really lean operation with very little overhead. Smart accounting policies within the University govern how we spend. We work very hard to make sure we’re squeezing every dime as far as it will go. You can have confidence that your support will be used wisely and respectfully.

Couldn’t you just raise ticket prices?

As an educational event, it’s important to keep the Festival open and accessible to as many people as possible. At a time when tickets to entertainment, sports, and arts events are becoming more expensive, we want to ensure that price is not a barrier to seeing extraordinary movies.

You can really make a difference in keeping this event affordable for everyone in our community.

Why is it called the Real Butter Fund?

This is Wisconsin. Real butter represents everything that is good and great about our state’s dairy traditions (read about the “oleo margarine wars” here). The Real Butter name was inspired by a mobile that hung above the popcorn counter at the former Strand Theater on East Mifflin Street in Madison. The mobile was salvaged before the building closed in 1990, and now hangs in the Wisconsin Film Festival office.

It’s popcorn, it’s movies, it’s Wisconsin. It’s good.

After the successful completion of this online donation, you’ll receive an email which will act as your receipt. Please double-check the accuracy of your email address!

Any questions? Please contact Allen Ebert, festival operations director (608-890-1118 | email).

To comply with the University of Wisconsin’s guidelines about charitable donations, required fields are marked with a star ().