African American Legacy Awards $615,000 in its 2025 Grantmaking Cycle

African American Legacy (AAL), an initiative of The Chicago Community Trust, unites donors committed to supporting the Black community in the Chicago region. Since its founding in 2003, AAL has distributed over $5.5 millionto 160 organizations that work at the grassroots level to educate and engage communities and to provide neighborhood-based services and solutions addressing community problems.

This year AAL awarded $615,000 to 22 organizations in one of three focus areas: community care, community mobilization, and community wealth building.

Community Care & Community Mobilization

• BA NIA
• BlackRoots Alliance
• Definition Theatre
• Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities
• Focus Fairies Mentoring
• Free Root Operation
• Honey Pot Performance
• Imagine Englewood If
• Ladies of Virtue
• Light of Loving Kindness
• Lighthouse Foundation
• Rebels for Peace
• Sisters in Cinema
• Kehrein Cetner for the Arts
• Ujimaa Medics
• Workers Center for Racial Justice

Community Wealth Building

• Community Desk Chicago
• Cooperation Racine
• Fawohodie Foundation
• Lawndale Christian Development Corporation
• Revolution Institute
• The AUX

We are grateful to our community of supporters and to the organizations doing the work to promote a vibrant Black community throughout the Chicago region.