As 2025 Winds Down...
A Note from Our CEO As 2025 winds down and we gather for holiday celebrations, I’ve been reflecting with friends and colleagues on…
Stories
Spotlights on community issues, the people, and the organizations who contribute to effective philanthropy as well as a stronger Chicago region and world.
Recent Stories
-
-
Turning Houses into Homes: The Impact of 3C’s First Three Years
Launched in April of 2022 as a three-year program, Connecting Capital and Community (3C) Chicago is a collaborative effort between lenders, developers, and…
-
Trusted Voices: Addressing Hunger in Chicago
Families throughout Chicago are struggling to put food on their tables. Rising grocery and housing costs continue to strain household budgets, and pending…
All Stories
-
Two-Part COVID Recovery Strategy: Vaccine + Equity
As COVID-19 vaccines continue to roll out across the country with increasing speed, there is reason to hope we may soon be rounding a corner…
-
Young Leaders Fund Capacity-Building Grants Focus on Digital Divide and Wealth Gap
Last year, The Chicago Community Trust asked the Young Leaders Fund (YLF), one of the Trust’s affinity funds, to identify and support 10 past grant recipients that…
-
Why the Earned Income Tax Credit Might Be the Most Important Policy Right Now to Address Economic Inequities, Provide Financial Stability
What if a policy could dramatically reduce poverty, help families make ends meet, AND bolster local economic activity? That policy already exists: the Earned Income…
-
We Will Chicago: An Instrument for Equity
Can a city plan be an instrument for equity? We think it can. That is why we believe that the Lightfoot administration’s We Will Chicago…
-
It’s Time to Close the Racial and Ethnic Wealth Gap Through Policies that Seed Wealth
Generations of segregation and systemic discrimination have not only had longstanding social consequences, but they’ve also had significant economic ramifications. Over time, an intricate web…
-
From Matchmaking to Magic: Financial Professionals Help Make the Connection between Philanthropy and Impact
Growing up in rural Kentucky on his family’s farm, Mike Hobbs recalls that he and his eight brothers and sisters each had to put their…
-
A Legacy Grows at the Chicago Botanic Garden
The city of Chicago was incorporated in 1837 as “Urbs in Horto”: a city in a garden. In 1972, with the assistance of the Trust,…
-
Giving Insights: The Increasing Benefits of Giving Appreciated Assets
Making gifts of assets such as publicly traded securities, real estate, closely held business interests, or art and collectibles has long been a tax-efficient way…
-
A Step Towards the Justice & Restoration Our Society Needs
The Chauvin trial has come to a close, and with its end, a small weight has been lifted. There were tears, there was celebration, and…
-
Continuing a Legacy: Claude Robinson Awarded Second Donald Stewart Fellowship
Two years after his passing, the legacy of Donald Stewart lives on. In March, The Chicago Community Trust and African American Legacy awarded their second Donald Stewart Fellowship to Claude Robinson,…
