Diversity Statement | www.cct.org

The mission of The Chicago Community Trust is to improve the lives of the people in metropolitan Chicago. We believe that the diversity of our community is a fundamental strength of our region. Our mission is best fulfilled when we embrace diversity as a value and a practice.

We maintain that achieving diversity requires an enduring commitment to inclusion that must find full expression in our organizational culture, values, norms and behaviors. Throughout our work, we will support diversity in all of its forms, encompassing but not limited to age, disability status(1), economic circumstance, ethnicity, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation.

Leading by example we aspire to make diversity a core and abiding strength of the nonprofit sector.

Policy Framework

The Chicago Community Trust recognizes that its effectiveness will be enhanced and its mission well served when the practice of diversity is reflected in all aspects of the organization, and specifically when:

Board Membership

The Executive Committee of the Trust reflects the rich diversity of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Donors

The Trust shares its commitment to diversity as a value and a practice with its current and potential donors and it encourages donors to consider and embrace these values.

Employment

The staff of the Trust reflects the communities of metropolitan Chicago. Staffing at every level of the organization should reflect the diversity of the metropolitan region. The Trust anticipates that its demonstrated commitment represents an organizational standard for the nonprofit sector.

Grant Making

The Trust's grant making is representative of the community it serves and each potential and current grantee demonstrates a commitment to diversity as a value and a practice. A demonstrated commitment is reflected in staffing, board composition, vendors and program partners and organizational philosophy. It is important for an organization to have staff representative of the populations served and staff demographics are one of the factors considered in grant decisions.

Vendors

The Trust’s vendor community demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion as a practice. This commitment is reflected in governance practices, hiring practices and organizational philosophy. Preference is given to vendors with a proven record of this commitment to diversity.

Statement to Grant Seekers on Diversity and Inclusion

The Chicago Community Trust believes that the diversity of our community is a fundamental strength of our region. Our mission to improve the quality of life for the residents of our region is best fulfilled when we embrace diversity as a value and a practice. As the community foundation serving metropolitan Chicago, the Trust believes that the board and staff composition of grant recipients should reflect the diversity and demographics of the community being served, and include diversity among its leadership at the board and senior staff levels to ensure the diverse perspectives needed at these decision-making levels. Therefore, the Trust encourages applicants to make leadership diversity an important goal of their organization. Specifically, the Trust requires all grant applicants to either adopt the Trust's Diversity Statement or have a similar policy adopted by their boards. In addition, the Trust asks that applicants provide demographic data on board and staff as well as clients/beneficiaries of a project. Applicants are encouraged to provide a rationale or action plan to address lack of diversity in their organization. In aggregate form these data provide an important profile of minority inclusion in the nonprofit sector.

1. The term "disability" means, with respect to an individual, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating and working. (Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990)