On Community Impact: A Q&A with Marisa Novara

Community Foundation Week (November 12-18) is an annual, national campaign celebrating the role local philanthropy plays in empowering positive social and economic community change. In this Q&A, learn from the Trust’s Vice President of Community Impact, Marisa Novara.

What is your role at the Trust?

I am the Vice President of Community Impact. All of the programmatic grant making, policy advocacy, and convening work that we do to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago area falls under my team.

What attracted you to the Trust and this role?

The Trust is a unicorn of a place. I’m a policy change person by nature, and while my background is in affordable housing development, my orientation is how do I change policies that allow people’s lives to improve. I was able to do that at the Metropolitan Planning Council. I did that in my role at the City of Chicago as the housing commissioner. And when I thought about what I wanted to do next, I wanted to keep a through line of the ability to directly impact people’s lives.

That could look different depending on the platform where you sit in Chicago. At the Department of Housing, we were able to change nine laws when I was there and make decisions about what developments to fund to create a more equitable distribution of affordable housing.

When I thought about what was next, I wanted to be part of a dynamic team of committed, smart, curious people. And I wanted to continue to work from a platform where we can change the systems that impact people’s lives.

It appealed to me that the Trust has a policy and advocacy arm to its work. While it’s relatively new, it has grown and flourished in the last four and a half or so years, and it’s one of many tools that this organization uses to make change, along with pre-development grants and other direct investments in development. I value and appreciate that.

What role should a community foundation play in a region like the Chicago area?

Well, as I’m learning, there’s a bedrock role for a community foundation. We are committed to strengthening the region through our work with nonprofits and community stakeholders. We will always be a place for investors of all types to be able to contribute to this region. We have to be a place where people who want to donate are met with staff expertise and community connections. You may have opinions about what to do. You may have very specific goals. We can work with you to put those funds to good use.

As a community foundation, we must also be nimble enough to respond to crises. We saw the Trust do that during the pandemic as one example. That’s the backbone of who we are and who we must continue to be as a community foundation.

In addition, the significant thing the Trust has done in particular, in 2019, was to say we can be a voice that puts out a bold goal. We can take on a goal that lots of folks would say, ‘Wow, I’m not sure I want to touch that because it’s hard, I don’t know how much we’ll be able to do in the end, and there are a million reasons why you might never touch it with a 10-foot pole.’ But I have a lot of respect that this institution, the board, and its president at the time all said, ‘No, we want to name that. We want to name closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap as our moonshot.’ Then, at the moment I find myself joining, the Trust is going through a very purposeful set of questions to say, ‘Okay, that’s our goal, and how do we best do it?’ We could work at that goal in many ways, but what is the most effective role for us as the Trust? So, we are not only setting a goal but being thoughtful about trying to be smart and judicious about how to get there. It’s an iterative process and will be for the entire time it’s the foundation’s goal.

As the Trust works to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap in our region, what would a strong Chicago look like to you?

Fundamentally, we want people to have choices. It’s one thing to have a choice between two terrible things. It’s another thing to be able to choose truly from a range of things that could benefit you and your household, and you are able to decide which makes the most sense at any given moment. And those things may change over time. Where you live that’s the best fit for your family may change over time. The best job for you may change over time. The income that you need changes over time. So, the question becomes, are we as a region providing people with the options to change as their life changes and to meet their basic needs at any given moment? I’m coming out of a role that was very focused on affordable housing. I can say clearly that we’re not giving people enough options about where to live affordably across this city.  Those choices and those opportunities are not equitably distributed. So, let’s take that lens and think about jobs. Let’s think about air quality. Let’s consider whether you have the support you need to start a small business or to buy your first home.

How do we create a city and region where those opportunities and the enabling environment are equitably distributed? That’s what we’re getting toward. I want people fundamentally to have choices throughout their lives about where and how to live.