our mission and values
Impact Grants Chicago connects, engages and empowers women to improve our community by collectively funding $100,000 grants to Chicago nonprofits that are dedicated to addressing the challenges facing our city.
We value...
- connecting women for collective impact
- offering our members an efficient and trusted philanthropic process
- the flexibility of engagement in our process
- every woman having an equal voice in choosing our grantees
- the integrity, commitment and collective knowledge of our members
- providing our members the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of Chicago nonprofits
- our role in raising the profiles of Chicago nonprofits
- a membership that is open to anyone who identifies as a woman
- promoting a diversity of perspectives in our membership and leadership, and in our support of the nonprofit community
Our Commitment to Equity
Our members join Impact Grants Chicago because they want to make a difference. We are proud of our grantmaking process and of being able to support Chicago nonprofits in their important work addressing some of the most long term and intractable issues in our communities.
We encourage diverse perspectives to enhance our annual grant-making process. To support that process, our planning, membership programs and events:
- increase our membership’s racial and ethnic diversity, as well as diversity of age and economic capacity,
- support learning from each other, and
- enable us to create meaningful relationships with the nonprofits we support.
Our grants:
- support nonprofits that address socioeconomic inequities,
- advance organizations working to engage and support those in our communities who are marginalized, and
- help make Chicago a city that gives everyone a chance to contribute and grow.