[1] The original stated purpose of the Foundation was to fund programs supporting the aged and infirm, orphans, students, victims of floods, famine, epidemics, tornados, and other national emergencies.

[3] Designed by Austrian architect Kaspar Albrecht, it is a tribute to the traditions of the Bregenz Forest region of western Austria.

[8] The building cost $1,500,000 to construct and comprised a grand theater, gymnasium, indoor-outdoor swimming pool, and a youth center.

Originally constructed by the Modern Woodmen of America in the late 1800s, its entire interior was painted in folk art style by the itinerant artist Ernest Hűpeden in 1898–1899.

The Foundation restored the building and entrusted it to Sauk County, Wisconsin, with the Historical Society of the Upper Baraboo Valley acting as custodian.

Following additional infrastructure work, the Foundation gifted the Painted Forest to Edgewood College in 2004.

[11][12] The Foundation also constructed an art studio and study center in Valton and dedicated it to Edgewood College in 2005.

In 1944 the Kohler Women's Club established the Distinguished Guest Series, sponsoring concerts, plays and speakers, such as the Salzburg Marionettes,[13] the Robert Shaw Chorale,[14] and the singer William Warfield.

The Foundation continues to support graduate fellowships at the university's Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID).

[25] In the late 1990s members of the family began transporting Siberian crane eggs between Asia and Baraboo with company jets and continued to do so for a number of years.