Advancing Equitable Wealth Policy: Building on Three Years of Coalition Work and Policy Wins

Recognizing the important role systems and policy change play in closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap, The Chicago Community Trust launched the Coalitions for Equity in Wealth Policy grant program in 2020 to support nonprofit organizations engaging in coalitions advocating for policies that can reduce the wealth gap.  After three years, the program – now called Advancing Equitable Wealth Policy – has evolved into a wide array of both coalitions and individual organizations pushing systemic reform to increase wealth in Black and Latinx communities.  

In 2023, the Trust awarded $2.5 million in grants to 25 organizations working to address the following policy priorities:  

• Advance reforms that can strengthen access to capital and direct public funds to attract private capital into disinvested communities. 
• Advocate for fair representation and redistricting practices, government transparency, or spearhead community organizing efforts around specific issues. 
• Increase transparency in government budgeting and bring greater equity in the tax code.   
• Strengthen efforts that support livable wages and cash transfers for families, improve affordability for postsecondary education, and enable the retention of growth savings.   
• Improve the conditions for neighborhood stability and investment that affect everything from home values, economic mobility, access to quality jobs and safety. 
• Foster quality employment opportunities and practices that protect workers and offer a livable wage. 

Many of the efforts supported under this latest round of funding build off the successes of previous Trust supported efforts. For example, using the community engagement and base-building strategies developed and strengthened during their advocacy to expand the state Earned Income Credit, a coalition led by Economic Security Project is advocating to create a state Child Tax Credit for working families with children. We are also welcoming several new organizations to this cohort of grant recipients, such as Chicago Women in Trade (CWIT). With a focus on improving access to and conditions in trade jobs for women of color, CWIT is working to hold government offices accountable to ensure equitable hiring practices. That includes creating an advisory board of community organizations and other key stakeholders to review current projects and make hiring women of color in trade positions a workforce development priority in Chicago.  

Because it takes years of research, community organizing, and advocacy to get even a small policy win, this funding program has helped foster a robust ecosystem of organizations that have and continue to use their acumen to move the needle forward on policy issues that will make population-level change to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap. These efforts will increase economic stability and wealth in communities of color to the benefit of all Chicagoans.  

2023 Advancing Equitable Wealth Policy Grant Recipients 

Access to Capital 

• Small Business Advocacy Council ($150,000) – Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition focusing on supporting disinvested commercial corridors.  

Civic Power and Representation 

• Chicago Votes ($75,000) – Focus on increasing civic representation and supporting incarcerated citizens and youth.  

• CHANGE Illinois ($75,000) – Focus on implementation of state ban on prison gerrymandering and base-building for transparent ward redistricting.  
• Young Invincibles ($75,000) – Focus on reform to address higher education and workforce needs of young adults. 

Equitable Tax and Budgeting Systems 

• Shriver Center on Poverty Law ($150,000) – Advancing policy and advocacy efforts that alleviate poverty and promote economic mobility for low- and moderate-income households, including implementation of a state Child Tex Credit. 
• Advocates for Illinois Children ($75,000) – Focus on creating an Illinois Child Tax Credit through the Cost of Living Refund Coalition. 
• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights ($150,000) – Supporting the creation of a state level Child Tax Credit and new revenue sources for the state budget.  

Individual Economic Security 

• Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights ($125,000) – Leading the Financial inclusion for All Illinoisians coalition. 
• Legal Action Chicago ($75,000) – Reforming court-based debt collection practices and equity preservation in the property tax sale system. 
• COFI ($125,000) – Increasing incomes for low-income families of color. 
• Economic Security Project ($150,000) – Improving economic security for Chicagoans with the Illinois Guaranteed Income Coalition and Child Tax Credit Coalition.  
• Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund ($75,000) – Advancing reforms around protecting consumers from inequitable utility and car insurance rate hikes. 

Neighborhood Stability 

• Center for Neighborhood Technology ($150,000) – Leading the Transit Equity Network to support transit priorities in the region. 
• Logan Square Neighborhood Association ($75,000) – Leading the Illinois Community Land Trust Task Force to ultimately increase homeownership in Black and Latinx communities. 

Workforce Development and Worker Protection  

• Chicago Jobs Council ($125,000) – Working with Transit Table Coalition to increase access to family sustaining jobs and removes Structal barriers to employment 
• Chicago Women in Trades ($100,000) – Ensuring equitable access to quality jobs in the trades for women and people of color.  
• Illinois Action for Children ($50,000) – Supporting the We the Village coalition around early childhood workforce development. 
• Raise The Floor Alliance ($150,000) – Leading a coalition to organize campaigns for the Secure Jobs Act and Work Without Fear Act. 

• Chicago Community and Workers Rights ($25,000) – Supporting advocacy efforts around worker-owned businesses and access to capital. 
• Manufacturing Renaissance ($50,000) – Building the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council coalition to improve the Manufacturing Ecosystems Services initiative. 
• North Lawndale Employment Network ($50,000) – Expanding work around organizations implementing second chance hiring practices for returning residents.  

Other 

• The Chicago Community Foundation/Elevated Chicago ($150,000) – Continued work leading Equitable Transit Oriented Development Working Group around sustainable development and investment around transit in low-income communities. 
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation ($150,000) – Focus on the One Chicago for All coalition advocating for community-driven investment in neighborhoods. 
• Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law ($75,000) – Protecting the supply of affordable housing units and strengthening Chicago affordable rental ordinance. 
• Reform for Illinois ($50,000) – Advocating for increased transparency in public campaigning and increased election and ballot access for underrepresented groups.