January 2024 — Moving the Needle | Woods Fund Chicago
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A LETTER FROM CAROLINE MCCOY, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMS —
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As we kick off a new year together at Woods Fund Chicago (WFC), the Program Officers are excited to share the ways we are creating more space to further deepen our trust-based philanthropy practice. In our last newsletter, we reflected on WFC’s accomplishments in 2023, including our work to better serve our grantee partners and support the sustainability of their organizations and organizing and advocacy work. We’re thrilled to be starting 2024 with the implementation of multi-year unrestricted general operating grants (paid out over three years) and the continued support from our Board to hold firm on our 11% annual grant payout.
Trust-based philanthropy offers six practices that welcome funders to change their grantmaking to shift power and build trusting relationships with grantee partners. One of those practices embraces providing long-term funding which allows grantee partners to allocate support where needed, and make space for more risk-taking, creativity, and longer-term planning. These practices are a part of a holistic approach rooted in values that not only make up the organization’s work, but its culture, structures, and leadership.
The opportunity to shift our grantmaking to multi-year prompted us to think differently about the way we operationalize our grantmaking since our work requires us to continue to build healthy and meaningful relationships with our grantee partners. Starting in 2024, the foundation will move from having two grantmaking cycles to just one cycle per year. We’ve seen that having multiple grantmaking cycles requires Program Officers to spend a significant amount of the year involved in activities to support grantmaking, limiting our capacity to be more responsive to grantee partner needs. In our trust-based philanthropy journey, we’ve also experienced that our grantee partners are more transparent about their needs and make more requests for support, resources, and thought partnership that is not often typical of funder and grantee relationships. This openness has created more opportunities for us to offer greater support beyond the check, including connecting grantee partners to other funders, each other, and additional non-monetary supports.
Moving to one grantmaking cycle affords us the flexibility to create more space for deepening our relationships towards more trust, collaboration, partnership, and service. In the past few months, we’ve been busy addressing internal systems to ensure our structures are in place to implement multi-year grants, including streamlining processes for existing grantee partners and creating site visit schedules that span throughout the year at times that may work better for our grantee partners. Additionally, the new grantmaking schedule allows us to invest more time in opportunities in the philanthropic sector that align with WFC’s strategic goals of bringing in more resources and advocacy for the overall movement-building ecosystem.
We’re also continuing to assess the role and work of our Program Officers and making space for them to do their work with more fidelity to the principles and practices of trust-based philanthropy. While many traditional Program Officer roles focus on leveraging a foundation’s resources to support communities, they may also focus more on compliance and oversight. Beyond our grantmaking work, our Program Officers are using their role to advance equity, redistribute power, center relationships, and cultivate mutual learning. They are also demonstrating curiosity, flexibility, and responsiveness, understanding the interconnectedness of the many issues that impact our grantee partners and their communities, and identifying themes and trends among our grantee partners’ work to recognize gaps and connect dots. As Program Officers, we’re defining our success by our ability to build and cultivate trust, learn with our grantee partners, and respond to needs.
Not only does our work at WFC require us to build trusting relationships with our grantee partners, but it also demands that we continue to build and maintain an internal organizational culture rooted in trust. As our work continues, so does our commitment to building space to nurture relationships with each other. The work is ongoing and requires us to pause to uncover biases; make room for difficult conversations, collaboration, transparency, and humility; and honor each other’s lived experiences and perspectives to move our work collectively.
We’re learning a lot on this journey and are excited about the space we’re creating this year to learn new things. As we continue our journey, we’ll be sure to share our reflections and hope for more opportunities in 2024 to connect, learn, and grow with you!
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Caroline McCoy
Vice President of Programs
Woods Fund Chicago
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WOODS FUND CHICAGO THREE-YEAR BUDGET WILL SUPPORT INCREASED PAYOUTS —
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As part of the foundation and board’s commitment to sustainability as part of both our grantmaking and our internal practices, we are proud to share that the Woods Fund Chicago Board has approved a three-year budget for 2024-2026! We are also excited to share that our 2024-2026 budget has incorporated planned increases to our annual payout, increasing to 13% in 2024, 14% in 2025, and 15% in 2026. A three-year budget provides WFC long-term support for our foundation and our grantee partners, and we thank the Board for their support of practices that strengthen the sustainability of our work.
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The Woods Fund Chicago 2024 grant application portal will open for new and returning grantee partners on February 5, 2024. The link for New Applicants will go live on our website on February 5th. Returning grantee partners will receive a link to the Organizational Profile Form via email.
Woods Fund Chicago is devoted to disrupting white supremacy culture, confronting power, redistributing resources, and creating systemic transformation for real change. We’re committed to centering BIPOC voices, leadership, and organizing and have started identifying gaps in current grantmaking portfolios, including needing to fund more groups led by young, LGBTQIA+, and Indigenous people.
The deadline to submit the form is February 23, 2024 for Returning Grantee Partners and March 1, 2024 for New Applicants. This will be the only grantmaking cycle for 2024. Returning grantee partners should contact their Program Officer with any questions. New applicants should contact Deborah Clark at dclark@woodsfund.org.
Learn more about our grants and how to apply at woodsfund.org/how-to-apply.
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We look forward to working with Jose and Quinn and know that their combined experiences and expertise, personal connections to Chicago, shared support of community organizing and advocacy, and unyielding determination will be powerful gains to the work of Woods Fund Chicago and our Board of Directors. Congratulations Jose and Quinn!
Woods Fund Chicago is also excited to announce and congratulate the newly elected (and re-elected!) Board Committee Chairs:
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Alice Kim, Director, Pozen Family Center for Human Rights, University of Chicago // Vice Chair & Governance Committee Chair
- Matt Reilein, CEO, National Equity Fund // Treasurer & Finance Committee Chair
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Dayo Harris, Principal, Village Leadership Academy // Secretary & Program Committee Chair
Alice, Matt, and Dayo will serve a one-year term alongside L. Anton Seals, Jr., Lead Steward at Grow Greater Englewood, who will complete the third year of his term as Board Chair in 2024, and re-elected Board Officers Kimberly Rudd, President of Rudd Resources LLC, Dr. Stacey Sutton, Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dr. Lourdes Torres, Professor, Vincent de Paul Professor, Latin American, and Latino Studies at DePaul University.
Thank you to the Woods Fund Chicago Board of Directors for your ongoing service, and we look forward to the year ahead!
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Book Highlights Ways People Can BECOME Changemakers
Why We're Reading It: Dr. Dominica McBride, CEO and Founder of the BECOME Center, collected evaluations and interviews from organizations led by women of color – including Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales — to write the book Becoming Change Makers: The Exquisite Path to Leadership and Liberation for Women of Color. Dr. McBride shares her motivation for writing the book and her hopes for underrepresented leaders to heal, build relationships, and transform traditional approaches to leadership.
The Citizen // Read now
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