$800,000 in Grants Awarded to Support Entrepreneurial Efforts in Underinvested South and West Side Communities in Cook County

Grants were awarded by The Together Fund, an initiative of We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery in partnership with community leaders who helped choose grant recipients  

CHICAGO (July 21, 2025) – The Together Fund, a community-led grantmaking effort, today announced four grants totaling $800,000 to support entrepreneurial efforts in underinvested South and West side communities in Cook County. The Together Fund is an initiative of We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery, a funders collaborative led by The Chicago Community Trust working to strengthen neighborhood economies to support a thriving region.

Since We Rise Together began making grants in September 2021, the initiative has invested nearly $47 million to support real estate projects, workforce development, and local businesses in underinvested communities. The Together Fund is a unique grantmaking approach, rooted in We Rise Together’s focus on investing in community-led projects, in which local residents nominated by community members helped select grant recipients for a portion of We Rise Together grantmaking.

Through a series of meetings and discussions, the Together Fund community advisors identified objectives for the grants: to support worker co-operatives and assist mid-stage businesses to expand. These objectives align with the overall goals of We Rise Together and The Chicago Community Trust, which is working to create pathways that build wealth to improve opportunities and well-being for all Chicagoans.

“By including community members in the grantmaking process who directly experience local challenges, we were able to identify creative proposals that best meet the needs of the community in this moment,” said Maryah Phillips, program manager, We Rise Together. “As funders, we may worry that including more voices will slow down decisions, but participatory grantmaking allows money to get out the door toward proposals that are most responsive to the community’s needs.”

The Together Fund’s first set of grants will support the following initiatives:

Male Mogul Initiative: $200,000 for one year

The Male Mogul Initiative aims to provide training in asset management, business, and real estate. This grant will help participants secure employment and eventually become equity holders in real estate, allowing them to pass down wealth to future generations. This initiative also helps increase entrepreneurs’ access to capital and connects them to microfinancing, revenue-based funding, and other sources of funding.

Revolution Institute: $200,000 for one year

Revolution Institute in partnership with Project Equity seeks to facilitate the succession planning process for manufacturing or energy companies willing to sell and convert their companies into employee ownership models. This grant will help stabilize the local clean energy industry and address the urgent needs of workers within the manufacturing sector while boosting retention and resilience for worker-owned cooperatives involved in the manufacturing sector.

Village of Leaders Thriving for Solidarity – VOLTS: $200,000 for one year

VOLTS, short for Village of Leaders Thriving for Solidarity, is a cooperative development nonprofit that will provide formerly incarcerated people with a living wage, long-term affordable housing, and shared ownership of their housing. This grant will help provide a pathway for these individuals to gain meaningful leadership positions with the food manufacturing company 6ix-cess Foods through the VOLTS Cooperative Incubator and Accelerator. 

Business Services Collective (dba Builder’s Avenue): $200,000 for one year

The Business Services Collective (dba Builder’s Avenue) will provide back-office support for mid-stage construction businesses, as well as maintain a network of service providers to increase access to personalized coaching and guidance, specialized training programs, and direct services. This initiative supports underrepresented business owners in the construction industry to grow and scale their businesses.

About We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery

We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery is a funders collaborative working with community members to respond to the urgent economic needs of underinvested communities on Cook County’s South and West sides. Our model for community investment at scale supports coordinated, community-led commercial and economic development in neighborhoods that were hit hardest by COVID-19 and the economic recession that followed. Through strategic grants to community-directed real estate development projects that leverage additional investment, we are building thriving neighborhoods and a stronger Chicago. 

Learn more at www.cct.org/werisetogether.