July 2025 — Moving the Needle // Woods Fund Chicago
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This month, Woods Fund Chicago wraps our most wide-reaching grant cycle in the better part of a decade.
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We received 135 applications, and by the end of 2025, we will have distributed $5,250,000 to partners building solidarity and fighting for justice across Chicago. This critical impact is only possible because of our choice to increase our payout over the past five years. But the process has also been a way to center other tactics we can use to support our partners: we’re looking at not only how much we give, but how we give it.
Amid decades of erosion of a national safety net, nonprofits have stepped into the breach: now, in the wake of radical cuts to everything from health insurance to SNAP, the gap between what we have and what we need is widening dramatically. We must use every tool at our disposal to support our partners, and more money isn’t always on the table. Here are four shifts any foundation can make, that can be advocated for from any level of an organization.
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#1 — MINIMIZING RED TAPE
As Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales detailed in a recent interview in Inside Philanthropy, many of the practices we’d long assumed were dictated by our organization’s charter were actually conventions that had become baked in. We learned that there was no legal requirement for grant agreements or specific reporting from our grantees: our grants are now gifts. We encourage re-use of application materials from other grants, and we have shifted much of the burden of proof (via applications and reporting) from our grantee partners to our program officers.
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#2 — GETTING FUNDS OUT RESPONSIVELY
In 2024, we shifted to a single annual grant cycle, to allow our program officers more time to focus on that research and relationship building. We also transitioned the majority of our giving to multiyear grants, to better support partners’ longterm planning. This year, we moved our cycle forward in direct response to the needs of our grantee partners, many of whom suffered funding gaps as result of early federal funding cuts and the cascade effect that followed. We know that this cannot be a moment to wait and see: our partners need us now.
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#3 — PRIORITIZING TRUST IN EVERY STRUCTURE
We’ve talked broadly about trust-based philanthropy, which has informed our shift toward general operating funds and multiyear grants: we trust that our grantee partners best know how to spend their resources. But we’re also emphasizing trust across decision-making levels at our organization. Every foundation has a unique relationship to its board: we are lucky to have one that has backed us fiercely in our shifts over the past five years. That momentum relies on relationship building: every February for the past four years, we’ve held a board retreat for our board to connect while working on high level strategy. This past February, we extended the retreat and brought in our staff to collaborate directly with our board and build trust together.
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#4 — ACTING IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR GRANTEE PARTNERS
In a time of heightened targeting, it’s critical that we not shirk from our more vulnerable grantees, whether that vulnerability is driven by marginalized identities, or political battles taken up in a moment of severe repression. We follow our grantee partners’ leads on privacy vs. publicity, and work to amplify the resources they publish, from Know Your Rights guides to immigration crisis hotlines. We know that our grantee organizations are often more exposed and less resourced than their funders: in the face of political risk, we continue to fund the work we know is most critical.
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What many of these tactics have in common is a commitment to prioritize responsiveness and solidarity over entrenched practices. There are a thousand ways we can each move the needle: one way to start is by questioning where a process could be more just, where a practice, if pushed on, might have some give. What shifts can your organization make to be a more effective, principled partner?
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The Chicago Tribune recognized Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales' critical leadership in a recent opinion piece, calling her an "outsized force" for justice amid her calls to courageous philanthropy. "I believe that the work I’m doing is not only planting seeds but also creating the conditions for the reimagined world I believe in," she says. "We may not get there in my lifetime, but I’m going to keep working for it."
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Andrea Ortiz-Landin joins Woods Fund Chicago this month as Strategic Initiatives Director. Born and raised on the southwest side of Chicago in a mixed-status Mexican household, Andrea is a proud alumna of Chicago Public Schools. With over a decade of experience in community organizing and advocacy, her work has been grounded in a deep commitment to social justice and racial equity. As the former director of organizing for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, she led efforts that empowered communities and advanced systemic change for a decade.
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People are in Motion Everywhere
Why We’re Reading It: In the wake of sweeping, profoundly harmful national budget cuts, longtime organizer (and Chicago Freedom School co-founder) Mariame Kaba offers a reminder that small, hardfought victories are happening all around us. The piece is also a call to action: Kaba includes a list of the many ways anyone can step into this fight, including tactics Woods Fund Chicago grantee partners have been building for decades. “We can and must continue to organize in every single way that we can,” she writes. “People are already in motion, everywhere.”
Prisons, Prose & Protest // Read now
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Is the Sector Really Expanding Payout? Or Is That a Dangerous Illusion?
Why We’re Reading It: Woods Fund Chicago has been named in much of the discourse around increased payout. We talk about this shift widely and transparently because we believe it’s critical that philanthropy increase giving across the board. This Inside Philanthropy article pushes back against the idea that the sea change we need has arrived: “In a sector with more than 40,000 foundations with $1-million-plus endowments, a dozen or so anecdotes should not be seen as a sector-spanning shift,” writes Michael Kavate. “Doing so might even be dangerous, giving potential funders reason to believe others have this mess handled.” There is work to be done!
Inside Philanthropy // Read now
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Philanthropy’s Moment: Moving Money Like It’s Our Only Job
Why We’re Reading It: Carmen Rojas is president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation (MCF), one of the organizations Kavate (above) names at the forefront of increased giving. Here, she offers a brass tacks account of how and why MCF has dramatically expanded their grantmaking this year, and calls on peers to do the same. She writes: “We have a narrow window of opportunity to be proactive in our ability to defend constitutional rights before they no longer exist.”
Inside Philanthropy // Read now
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The Morton Group has created a two-day, in-person workshop for new Executive Directors and CEOs: Executive Essentials. The intensive is designed to equip leaders in their first five years with critical resources: tools for fundraising, board development, and storytelling; a clearer vision for navigating change; and a cohort of peers to move forward with. The program will be held in downtown Chicago on September 11-12.
Cost: $795 (includes meals and materials)
Registration deadline: August 20, 2025
Learn More
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Chicago United for Equity
Fellowship Project Manager // Learn more
Community Organizing and Family Issues
Bilingual Parent/Community Organizer — Kane County // Learn more
Community Renewal Society
Contractual Part-Time Finance and Accounting Manager // Learn more
Enlace Chicago
Multiple Positions Open // Learn more
Faith in Place
Central Illinois Environmental Justice Education Youth Facilitator // Learn more
The Final Five Campaign
Campaign Organizer/Strategist // Learn more
HANA Center
Multiple Positions Open // Learn more
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Movement Building Director // Learn more
Illinois Prison Project
Community Navigator // Learn more
Latino Policy Forum
Development Manager // Learn more
Latino Union Chicago
Suburban Outreach Specialist // Learn more
Mujeres Latinas en Acción
Multiple Positions Open // Learn more
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To stay up to date with Woods Fund Chicago,
please visit: woodsfund.org
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