The end of year is a time of reflection and giving back. While the needs are vast, we are highlighting two critical opportunities where your gift can make a meaningful difference in the lives of fellow Chicagoans this season:
Helping neighbors avoid food insecurity through giving to Unity Fund
Unity Fund and IFC are examples of pooled giving, where the gifts of many donors are combined to make an even greater impact on areas of mutual interest. Creating innovative opportunities for donors to give together is central to the Trust’s work as a community foundation. It allows donors and partners to be a part of something greater, to play a pivotal role in transformative change, and to know that their investment is being strategically directed to maximize impact.
An Emergency Food System Pushed to the Brink
More Chicagoans are struggling to put food on the table this year, largely due to inflation-driven increases in the cost of food. A May 2022 data analysis from the Chicago Food Depository shows that between last fall and spring, food insecurity among households overall rose from 13% to 16%, and among households with children from 18.5% to 22%.
Food inflation impacts households and strains the entire system that makes emergency food delivery possible. Food banks have seen their purchasing power shrink, along with donations from manufacturers and government sources. Yet, the need for emergency food only continues to grow.
“It is a challenging time for us, as we are still seeing a need for food assistance about 20% above pre-pandemic levels. This has caused us to increase our purchased food budget for FY23 significantly so that we can sustain our distribution of 6.5 million meals each month,” said Hester Bury of Northern Illinois Food Bank.
Your gift to Unity Fund provides nourishment for neighbors in need.
Founded in 2008 in response to the Great Recession, Unity Fund is a testament to the community spirit of the Chicago region and the power of collective giving. By pooling contributions from many donors over the years, the fund has made more than $18 million in grants to hundreds of nonprofits that provide Chicagoans with emergency food, clothing, housing, legal services, and more.
“As lifelong Chicagoans, we feel it is important to give back to the city that has been so good to us and to our family,” said longtime Trust donor Barbara Perkaus. “The Chicago Community Trust’s Unity Fund provides a path to give back to our city in so many ways that we could not do individually—supporting food banks, housing, mental health needs, and more all in one package.”
In light of the increased needs facing our residents, the Trust is issuing a call to expand Unity Fund this year by raising $5 million to address food insecurity and other critical issues. Your generosity is essential to meeting this goal.
“Unity has proven that our region is made up of people who are incredibly generous and always ready to respond to fellow residents’ immediate needs. Every dollar we raise is used to support the nonprofit organizations, large and small, that are relentless in making sure community members have what they need to get through the toughest of times,” said Joanne Otte, program manager for Community Impact at the Trust.
Chicago is made up of neighborhoods and communities built largely by immigrants and migrants. Our strength lies in providing opportunities for people of different backgrounds to contribute to the vitality of our region—and now, with the arrival of thousands of new migrants, we have an extraordinary chance to display that strength in full force.
In addition to a stream of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine, Chicago has welcomed in the past two months alone about 3,400 Latin American immigrants bused here from Texas. To support the dedicated nonprofits working around the clock to help people get settled, the Trust is inviting donor contributions to the Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative (IFC)—a pooled fund hosted at the Trust that provides grant dollars to organizations serving the needs of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
A Decade of Leveraging Collective Strength to Support Chicago’s Immigrant Population
IFC was founded in 2012 by the Trust, Polk Bros. Foundation, and the Chicago Bar Foundation in response to the historic opportunity created by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Throughout its 10-year history, IFC has pooled $15.4 million from 28 private, public, and family foundations across Illinois. Of that amount, more than $14 million has been granted to organizations working to address migrants’ immediate needs, provide legal assistance, and drive systemic change to advance immigrant rights and justice.
“Chicago is a very collaborative town, and IFC is a great example of local foundations leveraging our collective power to do more good together than any of us could individually,” said Evette Cardona, vice president of programs for Polk Bros. Foundation.
Your gift to IFC helps the newest Chicagoans find safety and stability.This year IFC has set a goal to raise $1.5 million to support the needs of newly arrived migrants to the Chicago region. So far, over half a million dollars has been raised from donors and granted to 10 organizations providing migrants with food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and other essentials.
“Chicago is a Welcoming City, but what does that mean in practice? It means people stepping up to help and making a slogan real,” said IFC coordinator Alice Cottingham.
