Grants

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Our Grantmaking Strategy

For more than 100 years, The Chicago Community Trust has convened, supported, funded, and accelerated the work of community members and changemakers committed to strengthening the Chicago region. From building up our civic infrastructure to spearheading our response to the Great Recession, the Trust has brought our community together to face pressing challenges and seize our greatest opportunities. Today, that means confronting the racial and ethnic wealth gap.

Explore Our Discretionary Grants

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Showing 5321–5328 of 4354 results

  • Grant Recipient

    QUAD COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION NFP

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $100,000

    Quad Community Development Corporation, NFP is respectfully submitting this grant funding application for consideration under the CCT Community Wealth – Neighborhood Development Champions program. QCDC has been operating in its community area as a community and economic development not-for-project agency since 2023. It is without question, that QCDC is a Champion. Our leadership, commitment, strategic planning, program execution, and advocacy for economic mobility, housing development, small businesses, and the overall quality of life speak for itself. QCDC is requesting continued support from the Trust as we build to expand our work into real estate development, explore new collaboration opportunities, and most importantly continue to support and strengthen our current and prior work. In this application, we are proposing new three Measures of Progress that relate to real estate development, program expansion, and continued agency capacity building. Past financial support from the Trust has been critical to our successes and we humbly seek approval so we may continue the partnership as good stewards of your financial resources.

  • Grant Recipient

    Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $100,000

    For 85 years, the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) has been committed to community-driven economic development by the people and for the people. We represent a neighborhood of 44,000 people on Chicago’s Southwest side, 61% of whom identify as Hispanic or Latine. The stockyards used to be a huge economic driving force in the neighborhood, but now after decades of business closures and systematic disinvestment, our community is once again on the rise with new developments and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. BYNC is excited to be leading this community-driven economic development, but we need support to do so. The Neighborhood Development Champions grant will allow BYNC to focus on these five high-priority initiatives that move economic development plans forward, increase public participation, and ensure inclusive economic growth: 1. Make significant progress on large-scale economic development projects (4630 S. Ashland and United Yards) 2. Develop and maintain partnerships with neighborhood small businesses that drive economic opportunity and wealth creation 3. Implement priorities of the Economic Inclusion Agenda, including Quality of Life improvements 4. Invest in staff capacity to deliver on economic development priorities 5. Manage community engagement efforts to ensure equitable and sustainable economic development BYNC looks forward to partnering with the Chicago Community Trust to foster economic opportunity, build community wealth, and continue to transform the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

  • Grant Recipient

    The Chicago Community Foundation/Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $100,000

    The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) submits this proposal for continued funding to provide support to the elected District Councils, engage the public in the police accountability space, and take on related work needed to successfully implement the recently enacted Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance. The coalition will additionally undertake work alongside the ECPS coalition, philanthropy, and accountability partners within the City to increase the salary and expand the budget for district councilors to accurately reflect the workload necessary to execute the expectations of the office successfully.

  • Grant Recipient

    AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $100,000

    Since Austin Coming Together (ACT) was established in 2010, our mission has been to improve education and economic development outcomes in Chicago’s Austin community by working alongside a network of 50+ social service providers on improving conditions in the area. Austin has a majority Black population with rising numbers of Latine residents and has been historically overlooked and underresourced. This grant will allow ACT to amplify our work specifically in economic development during a time of organizational growth. ACT is a co-developer of The Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, a project that is transforming the former Emmet Elementary School into a central location for resources and on-site training in living-wage careers like advanced manufacturing. To deliver on these objectives, we have established a holistic model to approach serving residents along a spectrum of outcomes from economic stability through wealth creation and this funding will help us implement it. The guiding principles of the holistic model are to: focus on the individual; infuse humanity in all we do; commit to meet a person where they are and inspire; address all related barriers; help a person imagine goals they never thought possible; help residents remain in Austin and thrive; use our collective experience with who we serve as our primary source of research at the outset; design for possibility, not necessarily services that exist. In preparation for moving our team into the Aspire Center, which is anticipated to happen in Spring of 2025, we have been creating an operations plan for scaling our services. Being present in the Center will require us to expand our team, which in turn will allow us to impact more Austin residents than ever before. Activation of the 3-acre site at Madison and Central, a main commercial intersection in Austin, will convert the corner that sat vacant for a decade into a state-of-the-art Center with tenants who will provide employment resources and other valuable services. For our entire existence, ACT has always been purposeful about innovative, thoughtful responses to the needs of the Austin community – and our approach to operating at the Aspire Center is no different!

  • Grant Recipient

    The Chicago Community Foundation/Safe Chicago Network

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $500,000

    Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), a division of Metropolitan Family Services, leads efforts to reduce community violence by convening local and citywide organizations through its Communities Partnering for Peace (CP4P) and READI Chicago. MPI serves individuals at the highest risk of violence by providing community-centered, trauma-informed interventions. Communities Partnering for Peace (CP4P) Founded in 2017, CP4P is an innovative coalition model for violence prevention that brings together 15 hyperlocal community-based organizations (CBOs) across 28 of Chicago’s most violence-impacted neighborhoods. CP4P’s team of credible messengers—street outreach workers with deep local knowledge and trust—provides essential services, including street outreach, case management, hospital response, and community engagement events. CP4P reaches those most at risk of gun violence with a restorative, trauma-informed approach to violence prevention and intervention. READI Chicago READI Chicago focuses on individuals at the highest risk of involvement in gun violence, providing transitional jobs and comprehensive community violence intervention services. The program aims to reduce participants' likelihood of being victims or perpetrators of gun violence, support pathways to positive opportunities, decrease criminal justice system involvement, and build community infrastructure for safety and opportunity. Together, CP4P and READI Chicago create a coordinated ecosystem of support and opportunities, addressing violence through prevention, intervention, and community empowerment. MPI’s work is essential to transforming Chicago’s communities and advancing public safety for all residents.

  • Grant Recipient

    Garfield Park Community Council

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $100,000

    As the needs of our community continue to change, Garfield Park Community Council is applying for funds to grow our capacity and organizational resources to meet them. Chief among these is hiring new employees that will serve both internal and external-facing roles. Each of our areas of focus (community leadership, equitable land use, and wellness), are primed for growth and we operating funds are key to ensuring our ability to grow them. Our leadership programs ensure that Garfield Park residents have power in determining the development of their own community and increase public will to increase equitable investment. Our land use programs are poised to explore our organization’s capacity to expand our real estate portfolio to promote and preserve affordable housing.

  • Grant Recipient

    UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $250,000

    The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities is a funder collaborative, made up of over 50 contributors, that awards grants up to $10,000 to grassroots organizations; to create safe and peaceful community programming within neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence during the summer and fall. The Chicago Fund is one part of the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities’ 5- pronged approach to reducing gun violence within Chicago. Since its inception in 2016, the fund has awarded $10.4M in support of over 1,500 projects that promote safe and peaceful activities in 24 communities. Using the homicide data reports through a partnership with the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Illinois Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, communities on the south and west sides of the city were prioritized –they are: Auburn Gresham, Austin, Burnside, Chatham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, West Englewood, Fuller Park, Gage Park, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Humboldt Park, Lower West Side (Pilsen), New City (Back of the Yards), North Lawndale, South Lawndale (Little Village), Riverdale, Roseland, South Chicago, South Shore, Washington Park, West Pullman and Woodlawn.

  • Grant Recipient

    The Chicago Community Trust

    Awarded: Awarded Amount: $195,768