An Update on Our Grantmaking Criteria

August 2026 — Moving the Needle // Woods Fund Chicago

Throughout its existence, Woods Fund Chicago has consistently worked to refine our grantmaking strategy in line with our mission — this month, we’re writing to our community with an update on our renewed grantmaking criteria.

In an effort to concentrate funds where they are most needed, we are refining our community organizing pillars toward increased rigor, and are shifting our secondary funding area from public policy advocacy to organizing-adjacent work that directly strengthens the movement ecosystem.

We are facing an unprecedented consolidation of wealth; ongoing, systemic dismantling of our civil rights; and wanton state violence in our communities. More than ever, we collectively need to build a level of community power that can fight back, sustain, and create in incredibly hostile conditions. As a foundation, our role is to resource that creation. But in a moment when community organizing needs a radical infusion of resources, many funders have stepped back from critical, frontline work because of heightened risk. We feel called to intensify our support for the courageous, disruptive organizing that our communities deserve.

Our team is drawn from Chicago movement work. We believe deeply in organizing with sharp structural analysis, grounded basebuilding, and constant development of leadership capacity. We believe in organizing driven by the most impacted, by BIPOC and systemically marginalized populations. We believe in a many-faceted ecosystem that can build resilience for the fights ahead. There are more organizations doing critically needed work than any one foundation can fund: we have and will continue to encourage our peers to step into the breach.

A previous version of this letter was shared with our grantee partners last week, and these revised criteria are already informing our grantmaking: they’re available for review on our site.

The organizing in this city — sharp-eyed, full hearted, and deeply courageous — ripples outward. We will continue to resource this crucial work in every way we can think of, striving to match your fierce creativity and commitment.

In solidarity,

Michelle Morales

President, Woods Fund Chicago

Ask an Expert: What are Teen Trends?

Why We’re Reading It: This interview from the South Side Weekly offers two things scarce in conversations about the large youth gatherings often termed “Teen Takeovers” by adults: youth voice and a nuanced look at root causes and assumptions. Here, Chicago Freedom School Youth Leader Camarion Lee and University of Chicago Professor and Black Youth Project Founder Cathy Cohen talk through what motivates young people to gather, the escalatory role of police, and the frameworks that often drive coverage and conversation. In the face of criminalization, Cohen says, “I do think the collective power of 300 or 500 young people allows them to be in spaces where generally they are expected not to be.”

South Side Weekly // Read now

Students Spread the Word to Strapped Chicago Renters about Their Shot at Buying in the Neighborhood

Why We’re Reading It: The City’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) went into effect in 2025 in several neighborhoods on the city’s Northwest Side, and was extended to the blocks surrounding the Obama Presidential Center in 2026. The act guarantees tenants in neighborhoods at high risk of displacement the right of first refusal to buy their building if their landlord sells. But only one tenants association has managed to buy their building through the act. Advocates say that resources and an awareness gap are the major barriers — this summer youth campaign from Palenque LSNA tackles the second problem. We often look at the organizing that wins legislation; this is a glimpse of the organizing it takes to put it to work for communities.

WBEZ // Read now

Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing

Why We’re Reading It: This annual report and tool from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, shared out by Housing Action Illinois, shows the wage a worker would need to afford a modest two-bed in each state, and a collection of affiliated metrics. As organizers take the fight to landlords and policy-makers alike, the report offers a baseline grounding in the realities of housing costs in Illinois and beyond, and what it actually means for an Illinoisan to be able to afford rent.

National Low-Income Housing Coalition // Read now