Announcing the first $2.05 million of our increased FY21 grantmaking for Chicago’s equitable recovery

By Gillian Darlow

In August, we shared with you the news that our Board has approved significantly increased grantmaking this fiscal year to help Chicago recover and rebuild from the pandemic in a way that addresses persistent and significant racial inequities. My Polk Bros. Foundation colleagues and I feel a tremendous responsibility to make the most meaningful change possible with this extra funding. And we are energized. We see these new resources as a chance to catalyze and mobilize additional funding and collaboration, to work across silos, to try some new things, to make some bigger investments and some smaller investments in new ways. In deep discussion with grantee partners and listening to community members, we have been closely considering how new resources could best contribute to bringing about the kind of change we are all seeking for Chicago.

Throughout 2020, we have seen community members supporting each other, bringing food, supplies and assistance where it was needed. We have witnessed organizations quickly adapting programs, services and systems to make sure that people were taken care of. And we have paused to listen as community members prompted each of us in philanthropy to look within to understand our participation in historic inequities and to identify, specifically and with accountability, how we will contribute to change.

This is where the hope lies.

We find so much hope in the work Chicago communities and nonprofits are doing every day, rising to meet the crisis and creating ways to continue providing critical services that people need now while also overhauling the systems and policies that cause inequities.

This work is clearly far from over: as virus rates and unemployment numbers surge, much of the year’s uncertainty seems destined to spill over into 2021, and the work to dismantle racial inequities built over centuries will require sustained dedication.

The first nine Equitable Recovery grants

As a first step, I’m honored to share the first nine grants of our increased equitable recovery grantmaking. In addition to $5.97 million in ongoing grantmaking also approved in the Foundation’s November Board meeting, the nine grants described below, totaling $2.05 million, represent a range of efforts designed to heal and strengthen Chicago’s communities from within, create jobs, improve housing stability, and support work that is fundamental for racial justice.

Focus Area: Economic Growth and Community Wealth

$750,000 to North Lawndale Employment Network, Claretian Associates and IMAN for their finalist Chicago Prize initiatives:

“NLEN, IMAN and Claretian Associates have been tirelessly working for years to address the concentrated poverty and lack of opportunity that have resulted from decades of disinvestment. They responded to the Chicago Prize opportunity with deep community partnerships that developed multifaceted, concrete plans to place people in quality jobs, lower unemployment, provide access to healthy, affordable food, preserve affordable housing, redevelop a recreational facility, incubate small businesses, and create spaces where community members can gather and commune. These new investments will spark further investment that will stimulate additional economic growth. They will also engender hope in residents, who have often been forgotten, that their communities are on the rise.”
Deborah Bennett, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

“This Fund is helping to create a strong community of entrepreneurs of color in Chicago. The Fund’s Business Service Organization Collective Impact Initiative is working to foster a more holistic and connected approach among those who serve and support small businesses, and ensuring the services they offer are culturally-competent, specialized, and outcomes-driven to help these businesses succeed.”
Deborah Bennett, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

“Skills’ investment of critical employment infrastructure in Englewood and Austin will address the decades of economic disinvestment in the south and west sides that have resulted in chronic and persistent unemployment for generations. With onsite job developers and regular visits from employers with open positions, Skills offices in these communities will help to simplify an already intimidating job-seeking process that has only been exacerbated by the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19. Through the Neighborhood Link initiative, Skills brings to Englewood and Austin its extensive employer partnerships in Chicago’s business community, its insight into labor market demand and trends that such relationships provide, and its strong track record of connecting individuals to family-sustaining careers.”
Channing R. N. Lenert, Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

“Wealth determines economic agency, security and overall well-being, and enables families to weather economic hardships. This study will be integral to closing the racial wealth gap in Chicago by ensuring economic inclusion, resiliency and equity for all Chicago’s communities. Color of Wealth studies in Boston, Los Angeles and D.C. have generated substantial value for local stakeholders. The Chicago study will provide policymakers, funders, advocacy organizations, our grantees, and community residents an understanding of the drivers of disparity, which can be used for more effective policies, programs, and advocacy to rectify the disparities.”
Deborah Bennett, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

Focus Area: Housing Stability

“This initiative strengthens the safety net at a critical time, when an increasing number of people are experiencing homelessness and are unstably housed due to the pandemic. The youth FHP will move the needle on ending homelessness and improve health while reducing costs and potentially attracting significant government dollars.”
Debbie Reznick, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

“This grant can help prevent youth from continuing a cycle of poverty, poor health and educational outcomes, and housing instability by increasing providers’ capacity to offer trauma-informed services that help young people to remain housed and healthy.”
Divya Mohan Little, Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

Focus Area: Equity in Education

“Chicago public schools are facing a myriad of challenges this fall as learning continues virtually. The Chicago Public Education Fund has its finger on the pulse of what principals need. CPEF surveyed principals and found that a $10,000 grant could help them make meaningful progress. I’m pleased the Comeback Fund is enabling Polk Bros. to get dollars into the hands of principals who know best what’s essential for their schools right now.”
Suzanne Doornbos Kerbow, Program Director for Education, Polk Bros. Foundation

Focus Area: A Nonprofit Sector Ready to Advance Racial Justice

“The pandemic has multiplied and is being exacerbated by racial inequity. The video evidence of egregious police brutality and sustained civil unrest have forced a reckoning about race in the U.S. The Fund – its guidelines constructed with significant input from organizers and activists in Chicago – creates an opportunity for philanthropy to act on equity statements generated in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, and many others, by supporting this work. The Racial Justice Pooled Fund will award grants to Black-led organizations that are working to change inequitable systems and policies through advocacy and organizing.”
Deborah Bennett, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation