GO Grants – February 2019

At its February 2019 meeting, the Trust’s Executive Committee approved grants totaling $6,675,000 to 200 key nonprofit partners providing services essential to thriving communities.

These organizations have been part of the GO Grant pilot program, a multi-year approach to grant making focused on general operating support. Launched in 2016, the GO Grant program provided unrestricted dollars, for nonprofit partners to spend in whatever way best advanced their mission.

Over these three years, we have welcomed the chance to work in closer relationships of trust and mutual learning with our grant recipients. We’ve heard from our partners how GO Grants have lightened the administrative burden of applications and reporting; provided stability in the face of declining state and federal funding; or given them the freedom to explore new ideas.

In 2018 the Trust announced the strategic priorities that will guide our work forward, focused on closing Chicago’s racial wealth gap. 2019 will be a year dedicating to defining the kinds of grant making that will help achieve this vision. The lessons from the GO Grant program are essential to our future plans.

As the three-year pilot program sunsets, all 200 of our participating partner organizations are receiving an additional year of exit funding in 2019. Exit funding grants are half the amount of the grants each organizations received throughout the pilot. This additional support is designed not only to express our continuing appreciation, but to provide resilience and continuity during the time of transition ahead.

Health GO Grants

Access to Healthcare

• A Silver Lining Foundation: $25,000
• Access Community Health Network: $35,000
• Advocate Charitable Foundation: $20,000
• Alivio Medical Center: $50,000
• Asian Health Coalition: $17,500
• Asian Human Services Family Health Center: $50,000
• Center for Independence Through Conductive Education: $20,000
• Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition: $47,500
• Chicago Commons Association: $42,500
• Community Health: $42,500
• CORE Foundation: $55,000
• Erie Family Health Center: $50,000
• Esperanza Health Centers: $35,000
• Healthcare Alternative Systems: $45,000
• Howard Brown Health Center: $60,000
• Illinois College of Optometry: $42,500
• Infant Welfare Society of Chicago: $25,000
• Inner-City Muslim Action Network: $45,000
• Lawndale Christian Health Center: $25,000
• McDermott Center: $57,500
• National Medical Fellowships: $92,500
• Night Ministry: $27,500
• PCC Community Wellness Center: $25,000
• St. Bernard Hospital: $20,000
• Thresholds: $25,000

Health System Reform

• AIDS Foundation of Chicago: $40,000
• AgeOptions: $44,000
• EverThrive Illinois: $75,000
• Health and Disability Advocates: $47,500
• Health and Medicine Policy Research Group: $75,000
• Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics: $25,000
• Planned Parenthood of Illinois: $45,000
• TASC: $40,000

Community Health & Wellness:

• Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago: $75,000
• Enlace Chicago: $40,000
• Gads Hill Center: $25,000
• Illinois Public Health Institute: $45,000
• Latin Center/Universidad Popular: $36,000
• Puerto Rican Cultural Center: $65,000
• Saint Anthony Hospital Foundation: $17,500
• TCA Health: $50,000

Housing GO Grants

Affordable Housing

• Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation: $30,000
• Chicago Community Loan Fund: $30,000
• Chicago Rehabilitation Network: $32,500
• Communities United: $30,000
• IFF: $37,500
• Jane Addams Senior Caucus: $7,500
• Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization: $5,000
• Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA): $25,000
• Lawyers Committee for Better Housing: $37,500
• Logan Square Neighborhood Association: $7,500
• Mercy Housing Lakefront: $37,500
• Metropolitan Tenants Organization: $37,500
• Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality Northside: $15,000
• Resurrection Project: $40,000
• Southside Together Organizing for Power: $5,000
• Supportive Housing Providers Association: $25,000

Preserving Home Ownership & Preventing Foreclosure

• Brighton Park Neighborhood Council: $17,500
• Business and Professional People for the Public Interest: $32,500
• DePaul University: $30,000
• Genesis Housing Development Corporation: $15,000
• Housing Action Illinois: $35,000
• Metropolitan Mayors Caucus: $35,000
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago: $35,000
• Northwest Side Housing Center: $32,500
• Respond Now: $20,000
• Spanish Coalition for Housing: $37,500
• Woodstock Institute: $30,000

Basic Human Needs GO Grants

Preventing & Eliminating Hunger

• Claretian Associates: $25,000
• Experimental Station: $40,000
• Gary Comer Youth Center: $30,000
• Greater Chicago Food Depository: $102,500
• Heartland Human Care Services: $27,500
• Northern Illinois Food Bank: $47,500

Preventing & Ending Homelessness

• Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County: $30,000
• All Chicago Making Homelessness History / Emergency Fund: $35,000
• Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness: $12,500
• Beds Plus Care: $10,000
• Breakthrough Urban Ministries: $17,500
• Casa Central Social Services Corporation: $20,000
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago: $25,000
• Center for Changing Lives: $15,000
• Center for Housing and Health: $25,000
• Center on Halsted: $22,500
• Chicago House and Social Service Agency: $20,000
• Corporation for Supportive Housing: $20,000
• Featherfist: $30,000
• Franciscan Outreach: $35,000
• Heartland Alliance Health: $75,000
• Housing Forward: $30,000
• La Casa Norte: $45,000
• Lincoln Park Community Shelter: $10,000
• Margaret’s Village: $12,500
• Matthew House: $10,000
• North Side Housing and Supportive Services: $15,000
• Pacific Garden Mission: $25,000
• Primo Center for Women and Children: $17,500
• Puerto Rican Cultural Center: $10,000
• Renaissance Social Services: $20,000
• Southwest Chicago Homeless Services: $10,000
• St. Leonard’s Ministries: $12,500
• Teen Living Programs: $20,000

Public Services Safety Net

• Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago: $37,500
• Chicago Coalition for the Homeless: $37,500
• Children’s Home & Aid Society of Illinois: $32,500
• Equip for Equality: $30,000
• Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights: $40,000
• Illinois Hunger Coalition: $30,000
• Illinois Partners for Human Service: $37,500
• Metropolitan Family Services: $50,000
• Mujeres Latinas en Accion: $25,000
• Ounce of Prevention Fund: $32,500
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law: $125,000
• Voices for Illinois Children: $40,000

Equitable Public Policy GO Grants

Improving Immigration Services & Policies

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice—Chicago: $12,000
• Community Activism Law Alliance: $20,000
• Centro Romero: $20,000
• Hana Center: $9,000
• Illinois Business Immigration Coalition: $40,000
• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: $75,000
• Indo American Center: $5,000
• Latino Policy Forum: $25,000
• Latinos Progresando: $19,000
• P.A.S.O. – West Suburban Action Project: $7,500
• Southwest Organizing Project: $17,500

Justice System Reform & Violence Reduction

• Cabrini-Green Legal Aid Clinic: $30,000
• Fund for Justice: $25,000
• Juvenile Justice Initiative: $37,500
• Metropolis Strategies: $55,000
• Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU: $37,500
• UCAN: $42,500
• Youth Guidance: $50,000

Arts & Culture GO Grants

Arts Education

• Barrel of Monkeys Productions: $22,500
• Changing Worlds: $25,000
• Chicago Children’s Choir: $20,000
• Chicago Shakespeare Theater: $15,000
• Free Spirit Media: $20,000
• Hyde Park Art Center: $20,000
• Institute for Therapy Through the Arts: $15,000
• Jazz Institute of Chicago: $20,000
• Joffrey Ballet: $20,000
• Kuumba Lynx: $22,500
• Literature for All of Us: $20,000
• Little Kids Rock: $15,000
• Marwen Foundation: $20,000
• Merit School of Music: $15,000
• National Museum of Mexican Art: $15,000
• SkyART: $25,000
• Urban Gateways: $20,000
• Young Chicago Authors: $20,000

Strengthening Nonprofit Performance GO Grants

Capacity Building for the Sector

• Chicago Foundation for Women: $37,500
• Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: $25,000
• Civic Consulting Alliance: $125,000
• Executive Service Corps of Chicago: $25,000
• Forefront: $55,000</li>
• Illinois Action for Children: $125,000
• Lumity: $20,000
• Tapfound, dba Taproot: $17,500

Capacity Building – Using Data to Guide & Monitor Cultural Vibrancy

• Arts & Business Council of Chicago: $35,000
• Chicago Artists Coalition: $12,500
• Chicago Cultural Alliance: $25,000
• Cultural Data Project: $25,000
• Illinois Arts Alliance Dba Arts Alliance Illinois: $45,000
• Ingenuity, Inc.: $45,000
• League of Chicago Theatres Foundation $12,500

Sustainable Development GO Grants

Sustainable Communities

• Active Transportation Alliance: $37,500
• Center for Neighborhood Technology: $50,000
• Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning: $75,000
• Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives: $50,000
• Delta Institute: $50,000
• Environmental Law & Policy Center of the Midwest: $50,000
• Metropolitan Planning Council: $75,000
• Openlands: $50,000

In addition to these GO Grants, the Executive Committee also approved responsive grants supporting projects in civic & cultural vitality; education & economic development; health, housing & human services; sustainable development; and grants from the Unity Fund—for a total of $12,400,511 in grants awarded in February.

The Trust is currently defining the grant priorities for its next phase of work, which will focus on helping Chicago achieve the goal of closing our racial wealth gap. New opportunities to apply for grants will become available after this planning is complete. If you are a Chicago-area nonprofit, the best way to stay informed is to create an account in GrantCentral, where you can sign up to receive notifications as grant opportunities become available.