Paving the Path to Homeownership for Housing Choice Voucher Holders
Since the mid-20th century, homeownership has been one of the most important vehicles for building wealth in the United States. According to research from the…
Grants
Featured
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.
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Grant Recipient
University of Illinois at Chicago
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Grant Recipient
LIBERTY PRAIRIE FOUNDATION
Through the activities and resources of our Northeast Illinois FarmLink project, we will continue to connect and equip diverse farmers and landowners to achieve land access successes even as we work to enhance our strategies and approaches. By acting as a land access gateway for the region, we will also make it easier for other organizations seeking to help farmers with long-term land access to find those farmer candidates, thereby reducing fragmentation. In addition, we selectively address systemic factors that shape the context of land access by creative engagement with both private and public landowners and by supporting the emerging statewide land access program.
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Grant Recipient
The University of Chicago - Office of Civic Engagement
The UChicago Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Polsky) in partnership with local financial and banking partners, and a local economic development referral partner, will continue to serve South Side entrepreneurs of color to help them increase access to social, financial, and knowledge resources through the Small Business Financial Fundamentals Program (SBFF). The SBFF will provide dedicated support on the advancement of individualized business growth projects and comprehensive instruction, and leverage the robust academic resources of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth) - including MBA students - to deliver tailored training and education to South Side business owners. Through this program, participants will also have full member access to the robust and ongoing supports at the Polsky Exchange at the University of Chicago, yielding a strengthened network of local entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills needed to most effectively utilize the services and resources offered by the Exchange.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Foundation/Elevated Chicago
Elevated Chicago is requesting $200,000 to support the ongoing implementation of the ETOD Policy Plan, developed in partnership with the City and 40+ organizations through the ETOD Working Group, and to increase public sector funding for ETOD, particularly in communities of color.
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Grant Recipient
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Grant Recipient
FAITH IN PLACE
Faith in Place's "Faith Action for Sustainable Food and Communities" project builds on work to sustain and expand the Congregation-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and pilot a Community Incubator Kitchen (CIK) at Greater St. John Bible Church in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. Proposed grant period activities include 1) continue to provide technical assistance, mentoring, and access to resources for the 6 existing CSA program farms; 2) outreach to explore adding more faith-based farms into the CSA program; 3) work to advance the CIK pilot, including overcoming municipal regulatory barriers; and 4) education and advocacy engagement with policymakers to reduce and rectify policies detrimental to CIK formation and CSA operations.
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Grant Recipient
CROSSROADS FUND
Crossroads Fund recently celebrated 40 years of existence as a public foundation that supports movements, organizes donors, provides fiscal sponsorship to grassroots organizations, partners with local philanthropy to host pooled funds and provides capacity building programs in collaboration with local and national foundations. In the last two years we have witnessed an increased demand in our work in the form of connecting grantees to funders, leading political education opportunities for both grantees and philanthropy, hosting pooled funds and providing fiscal sponsorship to grantee organizations and initiatives led by foundations. Our unique position of sitting at the intersection of grassroots organizing and philanthropy and being one of the few local public foundations enables us to serve in different and yet complimenting capacities. It provides us proximity to local organizing while having structures that allow for nimble collaboration in fundraising, grantmaking and playing a leading role in the provision of capacity building programs, enables us to collaborate deeply with philanthropy. However, our sustainability is predicated on our fundraising and it is in this spirit that we are honored to partner with Chicago Community Trust in our request for a multiyear grant that will maintain and increase our capacity.
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Grant Recipient
Gads Hill Center
Gads Hill Center humbly requests a grant sum of $25,000 to support the implementation of our agency-wide solidarity campaign. This grant will directly fund civic engagement and professional development efforts to foster cohesiveness within our organization while providing a path toward racial healing, solidarity, and transformation.