Our new grantmaking is now live 

By Gillian Darlow, Polk Bros. Foundation CEO 

Today marks the culmination of two years of listening, learning, and partnership with grantee partners, advisory cohort members, community leaders, peer funders and field experts across Chicago. 

Polk Bros. Foundation is launching our new grantmaking strategies and inviting organizations across Chicago to tell us about work that aligns with these goals. 

In October 2024, we shared three new interconnected goals for the Foundation’s grantmaking: Closing the Life Expectancy Gap, Building Community Wealth Across Generations, and Fostering a Participatory, Multiracial Democracy. Those goals reflect work that has evolved over many years — building on conversations, research and learning that began in 2016 and accelerated during our transition period over these past two years. 

Since sharing our new goals and transition period two years ago, we have continued supporting our longtime grantee partners, making more than $35 million in transition grants to nearly 400 organizations. At the same time, we listened and learned through hundreds of conversations across Chicago. Those conversations helped shape the goals, priority areas, and approaches we are launching today. 

Again and again, we heard a call to respond to urgent needs while also investing in the relationships, systems, and shifts in power and beliefs that make lasting change possible — especially during a time of significant uncertainty and challenge. 

Chicago’s nonprofit and community leaders emphasized the importance of people coming together to build shared understanding, analysis and power to shape change in their own communities.  

What we’ve heard helped shape the priority areas and approaches that we’ll invest in to support progress toward the Foundation’s new goals.   

We know the challenges facing our city and country are real and urgent. We also continue to see extraordinary creativity, persistence and leadership from the organizations and residents working every day to build a Chicago where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. 

An invitation to share your work 

Organizations whose work aligns with our goals, priority areas and approaches can begin by submitting an introduction through our grants portal. All organizations seeking funding will start with this introduction, including organizations we’ve funded in the past. The introduction will help us understand how your work connects to our goals while also deepening our understanding of who is doing this work and how organizations are advancing change across Chicago. What we learn will help inform our grantmaking as we begin putting these new strategies into practice. 

When we see strong alignment with our goals and priorities, we’ll invite organizations to submit a full proposal. We’ll make our first grants aligned with these goals at our February 2027 Board meeting.

Our grants portal is now open, and we welcome you to submit an introduction for your organization at any time. If your organization has previously received funding from the Foundation, you must wait at least 12 months from the date of your most recent grant before receiving another grant. Learn more about our Open Application. 

Looking ahead 

We will begin making grants aligned with our new goals at our February 2027 Board meeting and at quarterly meetings thereafter.  

We will also continue to fulfill transition commitments to longtime grantee partners, with more of our funding opening over time to support work aligned with our new goals and approaches. 

We are grateful for all the voices that helped shape this work, and we look forward to continuing to learn from and invest alongside the organizations, residents, and leaders who are advancing bold ideas and creating lasting change across Chicago. 

The work ahead belongs to all of us.