With the need for services increasing across southeastern Wisconsin, Catholic Charities is looking to increase the scope and impact for the people it serves.
To help facilitate that expansion in the next few years, Catholic Charities has named Dan Lenz as the organization’s new director of development. He began at the agency Oct. 1.
“Dan’s leadership experience, collaborative approach and commitment to our mission will greatly help us expand our reach and donor support,” said Catholic
Dan Lenz joined Catholic Charities as its new director of development Oct. 1. (Submitted photo)
Charities President and CEO Paul Eberle.
Lenz brings more than 35 years of experience in business leadership, relationship building and sales management. Most recently, he served as market president of iHeartMedia Milwaukee, overseeing its six-station Milwaukee operation. His background also includes senior sales leadership and small business ownership.
He will report to Eberle and work closely with Jackie Rekowski, Director of Mission Advancement, and the Catholic Charities leadership team.
Following a major restructuring at iHeartMedia in the spring, Lenz, 60, was pondering his future and came up with the term “purposeful employment.”
“I told Paul I’d love to be able to do something that’s very purposeful and hopefully be able to give back to the community,” Lenz said.
Lenz will be tasked with furthering the Catholic Charities mission — which includes serving neighbors in need in the 10 counties of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and showing God’s love and reflecting the dignity of each individual.
“A big part of that puzzle is obviously generating some additional revenue in the form of donations, partners and sponsorships,” Lenz said. “Working with new donors, and introducing them to Catholic Charities and all the great things that we do, and asking for their involvement and donation. I think an important part, too, is organizations or individual donors that haven’t partnered with us or donated over the last couple of years, going back and revisiting them and seeing how and why, and just opening up those lines of communication again.”
Faith and service to others are ingrained in the Lenz family, including his wife, Meg, and their three adult children — Danny, Grace and Luke. They are members of Christ King Parish in Wauwatosa.
Luke, 24, was born with down syndrome, and Meg helped introduce a curriculum in a few area parishes, including Christ King, called SPRED, a special religious education for individuals with disabilities.
“It’s a way of helping these individuals understand what the Church is all about, understand who God is, and help them understand everything about the Catholic faith in a different sort of way,” Lenz said.
Partly because Luke had to see so many specialists growing up, Lenz is proud that his other two adult children have become a physical therapist (Danny) and a speech therapist (Grace).
“You learn so many different things from somebody like Luke,” Lenz said, “because his perspective and how he sees his world and how he sees his life is very day by day. Might I say even hour by hour? He lives for the present and he lives for now. We leaned on our faith; we leaned on the Christ King community for support.”
A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications, Lenz has volunteered with Wauwatosa Special Olympics and coached grade-school basketball. He also enjoys playing golf, especially with his son-in-law, aspiring PGA Tour pro Harrison Ott.
