Albert W. Harris and the Board of Directors of Harris Trust and Savings Bank established The Chicago Community Trust on May 12, 1915, with an initial donation of $200,000. Today the Trust is the second oldest community foundation in the United States and one of the largest community foundations in the country with assets of over $1.5 billion.

In 1916, the Trust awarded its first grant of $5,000 to United Charities. In 2009, the Trust and its donors made $110 million in grants to over 2,258 organizations in five program areas: arts and culture, basic human needs, community development, education and health.

To combat the effects of the Great Depression, the Trust spearheaded a major relief effort, raising $15 million from 1931 to 1935. In the current recession, the Trust created the Unity Challenge matching grant program, designed to inspire new donations for immediate relief to those bearing the brunt of the economic crisis.

In 1915, Harris Trust and Savings Bank stood as the sole trustee bank charged with managing the Trust’s charitable assets. Today six financial institutions serve as trustee banks: Bank of America, Harris Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Company, The Northern Trust Company, Park National and U.S. Bank.

James Brown IV became the Trust’s second executive director in 1949. By developing relationships with donors, he more than quadrupled the Trust’s asset base from $10 million in 1948 to more than $60 million in 1970.

In 1973, the Trust printed grant guidelines for the first time, and a staff member was assigned to review each proposal. The review included meeting with the staff of the requesting organization and a site visit. Today Vice President of Program Ngoan Le and the Program team develop grant making priorities, evaluate proposals for Executive Committee approval and work with grantees to improve the quality of life in the region.

Recognizing the importance of strong civic and nonprofit leadership, the Trust established the Community Service Fellowship in 1982, now known as The Chicago Community Trust Fellowship. The program supports professional development for five emerging and three experienced leaders. Previous fellows have included noted journalist Laura Washington, who was recently appointed president of the Woods Fund of Chicago.

The 2010 fellows in The Chicago Community Trust Fellowship program are taking their leadership and expertise into the field. Carolina Duque, executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource, is studying how to engage the growing Hispanic population in Round Lake, Illinois. She is comparing how organizations, government officials and business leaders serve the Latino community in Chicago and in the suburbs.

In honor of retired executive director Bruce Newman, the Trust instituted the first annual Newman Lecture in 2001 for donors and civic leaders. Featured speakers have included U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan.

The Trust launched the Fellowship in Arts and Culture Management in 2007 to increase diversity in management positions at major arts and cultural institutions in Chicago including the Art Institute of Chicago and John G. Shedd Aquarium. The six fellows have since gained management positions at cultural organizations and local foundations.

In 2009, the Trust was a founding funder of the centennial celebration of the most noted document in the history of Chicago: Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. The celebration engaged more than 300 civic, educational and cultural organizations in public programming that celebrated the visionary urban planner.

The Trust is collaborating with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning on the GO TO 2040 regional plan, which will outline a vision for the region’s economy, environment, social systems and governance structures. It promises to match the visionary power of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago.

The Trust and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning are collaborating on a regional indicators project that will combine over 500 sets of data to measure progress toward the goals of the GO TO 2040 regional plan, which will be released in the fall of 2010.

To ensure that the funds from the 2009 federal stimulus package were disbursed effectively, the Trust was invited by Mayor Richard M. Daley to co-chair the Chicago Recovery Partnership. This public-private collaboration between the City of Chicago and 50 local foundations assisted with the allocation of $1 billion in federal stimulus funds for the city.

To educate its donors about the critical needs of the metropolitan area, the Trust launched Impact Chicago in 2009, a series of briefings on the vital issues that affect the Chicago region. Topics have included early childhood education and youth violence. Christopher Mallette, director of Community Safety Initiatives for the City of Chicago, shared his insights on how to curb youth violence at the Trust's Impact Chicago event on April 8, 2010.

In November 2008, the Trust launched Metro Chicago Vital Signs, a dynamic online resource of six data sets that track the human impact of the economic crisis. The data measure use of food pantries and food stamps, foreclosure rates, homelessness prevention calls, unemployment and area layoffs.

The Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative, of which the Trust is a founding partner, released its action plan in spring 2009 to address the foreclosure crisis in metropolitan Chicago. The plan defined priorities and action steps to increase and improve counseling and legal aid for homeowners and renters, facilitate loan modifications, and deal with vacant properties. More than 70 organizations from the public, private and nonprofit sectors are RHOPI partners.

In 2010, the Cook County Circuit Court launched its $3.5 million foreclosure mediation program, which provides troubled homeowners access to housing counselors and legal assistance. The program is operated by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Trust.

Vice President of Program Ngoan Le was appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to serve as co-chair of the Illinois Human Services Commission, which will make recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly about providing high-quality, sustainable human services for Illinois citizens by 2011.

In its 95-year history, the Trust has had only five leaders at its helm: Frank Denman Loomis, James Brown IV, Bruce L. Newman, Donald M. Stewart and Terry Mazany.

In 2010, former Trust CEO and President Donald M. Stewart was tapped for the Obama administration’s Commission on Presidential Scholars, which selects and honors scholars who demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts and public service.

The Trust was instrumental in the Chicago Horticultural Society’s purchase of a 300-acre tract on the North Shore in 1971. Today it is the Chicago Botanic Garden. The 385-acre garden features 24 display gardens and three native habitats plus extensive educational and research facilities.

In 1955, the Trust granted $10,000 to support the establishment of WTTW, Chicago’s fledgling educational television station. Over 50 years later, WTTW is the most watched public television station in the country, serving more than 65 percent of Illinois' population as well as areas of Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Here host Phil Ponce and journalist Carol Marin report on the news affecting Chicago on WTTW's "Chicago Tonight."

Chicago Matters, the nation’s longest running multimedia public-affairs series, devoted each season to exploring an issue of concern to the region. Initiated and funded by the Trust from 1990 to 2009, Chicago Matters coordinated content from WTTW, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Public Library and The Chicago Reporter.

Since 1980, the Searle Scholars Program has supported research in medicine, chemistry and biological science. Of the 467 Searle Scholars to date, six percent have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, seven have been recognized as MacArthur Fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and a Searle Scholar, Roger Tsien (’83 Scholar), shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

More than 46,000 people in Mount Prospect, Illinois, have taken advantage of the services offered by the Community Connections Center, which opened in August 2009 as part of the Trust’s Immigrant Integration Initiative. The center has a public library and offers help with finances, identification, health needs and more.

South Asians in Schaumburg, Illinois, are more involved in civic activities thanks to the Trust’s Immigrant Integration Initiative. For the first time, South Asians sit on the village’s environmental committee, board of health, Prairie Center for the Arts Foundation and Schaumburg Business Association board of directors.

Luna Negra Dance Theater received a $25,000 grant from the Trust in 2001 to bring contemporary Latino dance to Chicago schools. With Trust support over the years, today the company books performances across the United States and abroad, introducing the rest of the world to the work of Latino choreographers

The Trust, with primary support from The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, launched a five-year Education Initiative in 2002, investing more than $50 million in strengthening literacy, professional development and the development of new schools. During this period, elementary schools in Chicago improved on state standardized tests in reading and mathematics at a rate higher than the state average.

The Academy for Urban School Leadership was launched in 2001 with a lead grant from the Trust to develop a new model of urban teacher education that involves a year-long guided internship paired with university coursework at National-Louis University and Erikson Institute. AUSL has since contracted with Chicago Public Schools to manage six school sites that serve as internship sites and nine additional schools for which it has assumed responsibility to alter performance and into which it places its own graduates.

Over the last several decades, the Trust has sought to improve arts education in schools. The Trust co-led a task force and funder collaborative that set out in 2004 to establish more high-quality programming in arts education for more children. These efforts led to the creation of the Office of Arts Education in the Chicago Public Schools in 2006. In 2009 that office developed rigorous standards for arts education known as the Chicago Guide for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.

A grant from the Trust in 1986 supported the first Chicago Cultural Plan under Mayor Harold Washington. This plan laid the framework for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and improved its cultural life including making park district facilities more available to local cultural organizations and artists, commissioning new works of public art and increasing access to cultural programming.

Recognizing the needs of the region’s growing senior population, the Trust launched the Life Options program in 1975 to enrich the lives of the elderly. In the ’90s, the Trust supported the Eligibility Checklist Outreach Program and the Collaborative Senior Advocate Program. In 2009, the Trust’s Unity Challenge campaign granted $990,000 to sustain the Benefits CheckUp/Red Tape Cutters program to help seniors access public benefits in Chicago and suburban Cook County.

In 2000, the Trust refocused its grant making priorities in health to support services and programs that address environmental health determinants and promote healthy lifestyles. As a result, programs such as the Active Transportation Alliance are able to tackle health risks facing area families.

In 1946, the Trust granted $10,000 to support the Cook County Health Survey, a landmark in public health. Forty years later, in 1986, the $10 million Health Care in Cook County Initiative was created to pioneer the cost-effective delivery of health care services to uninsured and underinsured communities.

CeaseFire seeks to reduce violence in some of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods through outreach, safe havens, conflict mediation and public education. With Trust support, CeaseFire has helped to reduce the number of shootings and killings 41 percent to 73 percent in the neighborhoods in which it operates.

Since 1982, the Trust has invested more than $6.5 million in a violence prevention strategy that focuses on building safe and healthy communities. For example, the Trust has worked with community organizations to increase youth programs that engage children and teenagers in positive out-of-school activities. In neighborhoods where antiviolence intervention strategies have been deployed, the rate of shootings and killings has dropped significantly.

From 2006 to 2008, the TimeLine Theatre Company was a grant recipient of Smart Growth, a Trust program that supports small arts organizations to develop their boards, improve leadership and build organizational capacity. With Trust support, the company has increased its staff, expanded its infrastructure and elevated its artistic quality, winning 42 prestigious Jeff Awards for excellence in theater.

The Back Office Cooperative helps social service organizations reduce their back-office costs 12 percent to 60 percent through joint-purchasing discounts. The Trust worked with the Chicago Alliance for Collaborative Effort to create the program in 2008.

The National Museum of Mexican Art, the nation’s largest Latino arts institution, has expanded and thrived in part because of Trust support over the years. Since it opened in 1982, the museum has tripled the size of its facilities; created the Yollocalli Youth Museum; and launched Radio Arte, the only radio station in Chicago that plays an eclectic range of Latin music.

Under the direction of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, a Trust grantee, the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program placed 7,100 families from poor, segregated neighborhoods into racially and economically diverse communities. The program achieved its goal by 1988 and was considered the nation’s first “housing mobility program.”

The Illinois Center for Violence Prevention works to prevent and reduce interpersonal violence through public education, networking, advocacy, training, evaluation and research. Established with a grant from the Trust in 1993, ICVP has strengthened after-school programs, elevated the hidden issue of elder abuse, and promoted effective bullying prevention and positive parenting for healthy development.

The Trust’s initial forays into public health recognized that prevention is less expensive than treatment. In 1930, Executive Director Frank Denman Loomis wrote a paper that reflected this sensibility: How Organized Medical Service May Reduce Costs. Today the Trust’s health initiatives continue to focus on prevention.

The Trust has supported the Jane Addams Hull House Association, a nonprofit providing social services for Chicago’s neediest families, since 1920 when it granted the organization $15,000 for an in-depth study on public health. Today Hull House serves more than 60,000 people through a variety of community-based programs including foster care, job training, child care, counseling, education and literacy.

The Chinese American Service League received its first grants from the Trust and the United Way of Chicago in 1978, two months after it was founded. That seed money allowed the organization to expand from the back office of a local dentist into a 700-square-foot, three-room office. Today CASL is the largest and most comprehensive social service agency in the Midwest dedicated to the needs of Chinese Americans.

In collaboration with the Knight Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, the Trust launched Community News Matters in 2009 to spur the growth of quality local news and information in Chicago. One of the first 12 grant recipients is the Chicago News Cooperative, which produces Chicago-focused public service reporting for the New York Times, WTTW/Channel 11 and its own website.

Concerned about low educational achievement, high incarceration rates and high unemployment among African American males, the Trust launched the African American Male Initiative in 2008. Through a series of seminars, the Trust is bringing community groups, academics and other stakeholders together to explore strategies to improve opportunities and outcomes. Here Dr. David J. Malebranche; Dr. Cheryl Whitaker, a senior program officer at the Trust; and Dr. John A. Rich discuss best practices for improving the health of African American men.

The Trust recognizes the importance of high-speed rail for the economic development of the region. Governor Pat Quinn hosted the Midwest High Speed Rail Summit in July 2009 with a grant from the Trust. Eight Midwestern governors and the City of Chicago signed a memorandum of understanding to bring high-speed rail to the region.

In 1991, the Trust was one of the early funders of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. Opened in 2003, today the theater is home to some of Chicago’s most exciting music and dance companies including the Music of the Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Because jazz is one of Chicago’s great cultural legacies, in 2009 the Trust introduced a popular youth stage at the Chicago Jazz Festival to showcase the next generation of jazz musicians. The Trust also sponsored the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/UIC Jazz Academy, which let students hone their musical skills with music professors at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has received more than $700,000 from the Trust since 2003 for its statewide campaign “It Takes a Home to Raise a Child,” which focuses on affordable housing in Illinois. The campaign convinced the state to enact the Illinois Rental Housing Support Program in 2005 to provide $30 million in rental subsidies to 5,500 families in Illinois earning less than $20,000 a year. It is the largest state-funded rental subsidy program in the country.

As early as the 1920s, the Trust, in collaboration with the Rotary Club, conducted a study on children with disabilities. A later study looked at the treatment available to servicemen injured in World War I. Today the Trust continues this tradition with a white paper focused on resources for people with disabilities in Illinois funded by the Persons with Disabilities Fund housed at the Trust.

The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust play an integral role in our giving. John G. Searle first became a donor to the Trust with the establishment of a charitable lead trust, the John G. Searle Philanthropic Trust in 1964. Ten years later in 1974, the assets of the John G. and Frances C. Searle Foundation were transferred to the Trust to create an endowed fund, the Searle Fund. Over the years several more Searle Funds were created including the Searle Scholars Program in 1980. The combined Searle Funds represent the largest contribution to the Trust in its 95-year history.

A major goal of The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust has been to transform biomedical research through more effective collaboration. As a result, $20 million in grants support the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, a collaboration creating synergy among scientists at The University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Searle family believes that economic development is crucial to a prosperous Chicago region. That’s why The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust supports community development organizations such as The Enterprising Kitchen, which helps low-income women develop life and job skills.

The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust supports environmental organizations including the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which recently received funding to prevent pharmaceutical pollution in surface water, and the Safer Pest Control Project, which received continued support to improve environmental health conditions in Chicago’s low-income communities.

The One Nation Chicago Fund was established at the Trust in 2009 to support One Chicago, One Nation, a community initiative that seeks to dispel stereotypes of American Muslims and promote inclusion through civic engagement.

William J. Cook, the grandson of Daniel Pope Cook, after whom Cook County is named, established a scholarship fund at the Trust in his will in 1939. These renewable scholarships, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, are awarded to male high school students who attend four-year colleges. In 2010, the William J. Cook Scholarship Fund awarded more than $600,000.

Jorge Chapa, Ph.D., used his William J. Cook Scholarship from the Trust to help pay his tuition at The University of Chicago from 1971–75. Today he is director of the Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society and professor of sociology and Latina/Latino studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 1992, The Ernest H. and Lillian H. Volwiler Fund was established with a bequest of $22.5 million specifically for educational purposes. The fund has strategically supported improved preparation of school leaders, strong literacy practices in Chicago Public Schools, and community schools that extend services in schools beyond the school day.

Gary Comer, the late founder of the Lands’ End clothing company, worked with the Trust to support projects that helped children, particularly those on the South Side of Chicago, where he grew up. He established The Revere Community Partners Fund, a supporting organization of the Trust, to improve the vitality of the South Side community served by the Paul Revere Elementary School, his alma mater.

Noted for creating the concept and methodology for television ratings, Arthur C. Nielsen left his single largest bequest to the Trust when he died in 1980. His wish was to improve the health of area residents through support of health and medical organizations such as the Community Nurse Health Association and Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health.

Mary L. Block, one of Chicago's most prominent patrons of the arts, endowed a fund at the Trust when she died in 1981, directing that half the income go to her two favorite institutions: the Lyric Opera and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The remainder would go to other "cultural purposes… the governing board deems best."

James A. Patten, the Chicago "grain king" who cornered the wheat market in 1908, contributed $1 million to the Trust in 1924, becoming the first major donor to the Trust outside of the Harris family. For more than 80 years, his family’s four funds at the Trust have supported hospitals and agencies that serve the elderly including Presbyterian Homes, which serves over 1,700 seniors in independent living, assisted living and health care settings.

Stephen Baird, CEO of Baird & Warner, the largest and oldest real estate firm in Illinois, established the Baird & Warner Good Will Network at the Trust in 2002. The employee-driven fund features an automatic contribution program. For each real-estate transaction, a donation of $10 is contributed to the fund. It has raised more than $1 million since 2002.

Martin J. Koldyke, a former member of the Trust’s Executive Committee, and his wife, Patricia, founded the Golden Apple Foundation in 1985 to honor outstanding Chicago teachers. The Koldykes also established the Academy for Urban School Leadership in 2001 to train teachers and overhaul underperforming Chicago public schools.

In 1998, the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust granted $25 million payable over 10 years to support Northwestern University’s Searle Leadership Fund in the Life Sciences, which invests extraordinary resources in the most promising new life sciences faculty at the university. This is the largest single grant to an institution in the Trust’s history.

David Magnuson oversees the Marianne S. Harper Fund, a donor advised fund established in his mother’s memory that primarily supports the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His grandfather, Dr. Paul Magnuson, founded the center in 1954, which has since become the premier rehabilitation center in the country.

In December 2009, Governor Pat Quinn appointed Marty Castro, a former member of the Trust Executive Committee and board member of its Nuestro Futuro fund, to be chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission, which arbitrates claims of civil rights discrimination in employment, housing, higher education and financial credit.

The Trust’s Professional Advisory Committee includes over 50 attorneys, financial advisors, bankers, investment managers and accountants. Professional advisors guide their clients to the most effective strategies for managing personal philanthropy. A majority of donors to the Trust are referred by their professional advisors.

An informal network of funders known as The Foundation Group was incorporated as the Donors Forum of Chicago in 1974 with support from the Trust. Today the Donors Forum has expanded to serve the entire state and strengthens Illinois philanthropy and the nonprofit community through its programs for 208 members (foundations, corporate grant makers and other funders), 31 associate members (professional advisors to funders) and 1,078 Forum Partners.

The first estate gift to the Trust was received in 1926 in the amount of $30,687 from Alex Demond. Today the Trust honors those who have included the Trust in their wills by inducting them into the 1915 Society.

In 1983, the Trust founded Leadership Greater Chicago to nurture the next generation of diverse civic leaders. More than 700 leaders have graduated from LGC’s Fellows Program, which helps emerging leaders understand Chicago’s complex challenges and find solutions. Previous fellows include First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The Executive Service Corps of Chicago was established in 1978 with seed money from the Trust to provide consulting services to grow and sustain the nonprofit sector through the talents of retired executives. Thanks to the commitment of its more than 1,500 volunteer consultants, ESC has strengthened over 2,000 nonprofit and public-service organizations in Chicago over the last 30 years.

Operation ABLE was founded in 1977 with a grant from the Trust to provide employment and training opportunities for older workers. The organization has since become the National Able Network and expanded its scope to help job seekers of every age, income and skill level. It serves 100,000 people every year by providing workforce development programming, career counseling, training and job placement services.

Voices for Illinois Children was created in 1987 as a direct outgrowth of the Trust’s Plan of Action for Children Task Force. It was the first statewide private agency advocating for children in Illinois and has supported such issues as health insurance for low-income, working parents, a comprehensive children’s mental health system and preschool for all.

The Trust created the Illinois Facilities Fund in 1989 to provide nonprofits serving low-income communities with affordable financing for capital projects. Since 1990, IFF has made $263.6 million in loans to nonprofits, which have enabled them to serve 1.6 million people and create or maintain 35,617 jobs in the nonprofit sector. IFF today has four offices serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.

The Trust established the Young Leaders Fund in 1994 to develop the next generation of Chicago philanthropists. Members learn the nuts and bolts of philanthropy by vetting community organizations and choosing agencies to support. It was the first project of its kind in the country and has since become a model for similar organizations in other cities.

Ten Chicago business people created the Springboard Foundation, a supporting organization of the Trust, in 1998. They have built a strong track record of making capacity-building grants to emerging agencies that provide innovative out-of-school youth programs like Hooked on Drums.

Dedicated to providing quality legal services for the poor, the Chicago Area Foundation for Legal Services is a supporting organization of the Trust. It made its first grants in 1985 to the Chicago Volunteer Services Foundation, Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at The University of Chicago Law School and Uptown People's Law Center.

The Lake County Community Foundation, a geographic affiliate of the Trust, has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants to 70 nonprofits that are improving the quality of life in Lake County. Recent grants address domestic violence, immigrant legal services and support for Spanish-speaking families. In 2009 Sen. Dick Durbin visited YouthBuild Lake County, a grant recipient providing education and job training for low-income young adults.

Local civic leaders partnered with the Trust to form The Will County Community Foundation in 2006 to address the evolving challenges of one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. The foundation has provided grants to organizations such as Provena Saint Joseph Medical center for its kids fitness and adventure camp, the Northern Illinois Food Bank and the Joliet Township High School Foundation for its truancy prevention program.

The African American Legacy, an identity-focused fund of the Trust, is one of the largest endowments designed to meet African-A merican community needs in the country. Since it was launched in 2003, AAL has granted $950,000 to more than 50 organizations committed to improving African-American communities and strengthening African-American families.

This identity-focused fund of the Trust, promotes collective philanthropy among Latinos in Chicago and addresses the needs of the Latino community in the region. Since 2006, Nuestro Futuro has awarded more than $1.1 million in grants to a variety of programs including those that address adult and child literacy, health access and early childhood development.

As a donor advised fund of the Trust and Nuestro Futuro, the Latino Giving Circle is a philanthropic and educational network led by Chicago-area Latinos. More individual donors give to this fund than any other Latino giving circle in the United States.

The Asian Giving Circle, an identity-focused fund at the Trust, has contributed more than $90,000 to nonprofits serving the Asian community in metropolitan Chicago such as the Cambodian Association of Illinois for its needs assessment and Hanul Family Alliance for its volunteer engagement and training.

The Trust in collaboration with The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust launched The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Fund in 2010 to support the LGBT community and the agencies that serve it through strategic philanthropy and grant making.

The Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development is a funder collaborative of 11 partner foundations, including the Trust, which strengthens the management and operations of small arts and culture organizations in the six-county Chicago region. Recent grant recipients include Chicago Artists Coalition, Barrel of Monkeys and Teatro Luna.

The Partnership for New Communities is a group of business, civic and foundation leaders working together to support Chicago’s Plan for Transformation, the largest and most ambitious reconstruction of public housing in the country’s history. A collaborative fund housed at the Trust, it helped launch Opportunity Chicago, an initiative that has placed more than 5,000 public-housing residents in quality employment.

The Trust sponsored three Illinois Food Security Summits from 2001 to 2003, resulting in the formation of the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council. The organization works to influence policy makers by developing policies that improve access to affordable, nutritional and sustainable food.

With seed money and support from the Trust, the Domestic Violence & Mental Health Policy Initiative has developed a network of more than 50 agencies, facilitated cross-system collaboration, and established an intensive trauma training and implementation program.

The Chicago High School Redesign Initiative, a collaborative fund at the Trust, sought to improve Chicago’s underperforming public high schools by converting large high schools into small autonomous schools, creating new small high schools and supporting existing small high schools. CHSRI helped to improve attendance and curb dropout rates in the 23 high schools that were part of the initiative.

In 2008, the Trust helped create Illinois Partners for Human Service, a statewide advocacy group committed to sustainable approaches to providing human services in the state. The group played a major role in preventing the passage of the “doomsday” budget cuts proposed in the 2009 Illinois state budget.

The 2016 Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods, a collaborative fund of the Trust, launched the Chicago Neighborhood JobStart by working quickly to leverage $20 million of federal funding temporarily available for subsidized employment. As a result, about 2,200 low-income Chicagoans gained new job opportunities between June 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2010.

Established in 1908 by Chicago industrialist Cyrus McCormick and his wife Harriet, in memory of their daughter who died at age 12, the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund pioneered achievements in child welfare that many take for granted today: school lunches, open windows in classrooms and routine eye and hearing exams for public school children. Since 1961, the Trust has administered these funds to support the well-being of Chicago's children, including funding shelters for runaways and asthma care at child care facilities.

Thank you for your contribution to a safe, healthy and vibrant community.