Woods Fund Chicago
Woods Fund Chicago is a bold grantmaker that draws on the power of communities to fight the brutality of poverty and structural racism.
www.woodsfund.org
- Check your inbox! Our first newsletter of the year offers a reminder of grantee victories in a hard year, announces our 2026 grantmaking timelines, and highlights jobs across the sector. Find it at our link in bio or woodsfund.org/news.
- Our grantee partners and peers are hiring! Learn more about open opportunities to join organizations, coalitions, and nonprofit sector peers that are making an impact, including Chicago Jobs Council, Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, and The People's Lobby at linktr.ee/woodsfundchicago
- After a year of state violence, upheaval, and incredible courage: where do we go from here? Care advocate and organizer Ai-jen Poo joins Michelle Morales to talk about a shared framework for organizing now. woodsfund.org/news/three-earths-f…
- Deborah Clark has served as the Director of Grants Management and Assistant Corporate Secretary at Woods Fund Chicago for the past 23 years. On the eve of her retirement, it’s hard to overstate what she has meant to this foundation. t.e2ma.net/message/5vuxak/9irdskbc 📸 : Ajani Akinde
- Debbie Southorn joins the Woods Fund Chicago team after more than a decade organizing youth abolitionist campaigns in Chicago, most recently serving as a co-director for the national youth & student anti-war organization, Dissenters. Full bio in our Nov Newsletter! t.e2ma.net/webview/xt3s...
- What We're Reading: The last months of ICE and Border Patrol violence in Chicago have left legacies of both fear and resistance. In this October piece, Chicago organizer Kelly Hayes offers a deep dive into a rapid response action in Rogers Park. organizingmythoughts.org/they-came-fo...
- Our most recent newsletter includes a briefing on what we heard from Brave Space Alliance and the Transformative Justice Law Project last month. The headline? Trans communities need our explicit and concrete solidarity now more than ever: t.e2ma.net/webview/xt3s...
- Amid escalating federal violence, WBEZ interviewed Rev. Ciera Bates Chamberlain, executive director of grantee partner Live Free Illinois, on responding to ICE. Chamberlain preached unity and resistance: “We have to go out and get our people and bring them with us." www.wbez.org/in-the-loop-...
- As orgs step into the breach of a government shutdown and combat ongoing attacks on our communities, funders have to look beyond our budgets and get creative. Click through for your weekend reading: www.woodsfund.org/news/novembe... 📸: CUE, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Alliance of the Southeast
- Our grantee partners and peers are hiring! Learn more about open opportunities to join organizations, coalitions, and nonprofit sector peers that are making an impact at linktr.ee/woodsfundchicago. #JobOpportunities #NonprofitCareers #CommunityOrganizing
- What We're Reading: After a violent ICE raid in South Shore, South Side Together's Dixon Romeo says persecution and neglect from landlords and government had long made the building uninhabitable. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/south-shore-chicago-apartment-building-raid-history/
- Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales joins a panel on shifting grantmaking strategies — from increased payout to multiyear grants — to help the organizations we support meet unprecedented challenges. Learn more and register for the online session at our link in bio.
- Our grantee partners and peers are hiring! Learn more about job opportunities at linktr.ee/woodsfundchicago or the link in bio. #JobOpportunities #NonprofitCareers #CommunityOrganizing
- Federal targeting of DEI initiatives has led many in the nonprofit sector to move away from identity-based language or question its utility. But a vision of a just future cannot be enacted without centering racial justice. t.e2ma.net/message/pv3b6j/1woa0q3n 📸: Equity and Transformation
- Upcoming event alert! Thursday, October 9th, Alternatives is hosting Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales and on a panel of philanthropic leaders to discuss funding partnerships in today's climate. Space is limited: RSVP in the link in bio or at: octobercocktails25.eventbrite.com
- We're Reading: As federal threats toward the nonprofit sector escalate, former Marshall Project President Carroll Bogert's lessons on managing risk across funder-grantee partner relationships are ultimately a call to stand by your partners, and your principles. www.philanthropy.com/article/how-...
- From August's Newsletter: This summer, grantee partners Equity and Transformation and @c4racialjustice.bsky.social canvassed on the radical potential of guaranteed income—a reminder that even as we fight to avoid ceding ground, we have to keep dreaming of what’s possible together. 📸:@eatorgchicago
- 🌟 Apply for the Cultivate Leadership Program 2025-2026!🌟 If you are a woman or nonbinary leader of color working in the social, economic, and/or racial justice movements and are interested in leadership development and receiving Executive Coaching, please consider applying!
- As Chicago faces escalating ICE detentions and potential National Guard deployment, our communities are justly afraid. Organizations across Chicago have put together resources that can be shared online and off to help empower every Chicagoan — regardless of immigration or housing status. 🧵:
- Our latest newsletter highlights some hard-fought wins from grantee partners: from the FAIR Act passage to making schools safe for all our kids, these organizations are doing more with less in the face of rapid terrain change. We're proud to stand behind them! t.e2ma.net/message/lkwn...
- 📢 🎉 Andrea Ortiz-Landin joined Woods Fund Chicago this summer as Strategic Initiatives Director! As former director of organizing for Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, her work has for decades been grounded in a deep commitment to social justice and racial equity. Learn more at our link in bio!
- Our grantee partners and peers are hiring! See opportunities from orgs like @cofionline.bsky.social, @icirr.bsky.social, and @latinopolicyforum.bsky.social: linktr.ee/woodsfundchi...
- Our July newsletter features tactics on how to support grantee partners, a sharp look at organizing rideshare drivers, job opportunities, and a welcome to our newest team member. Find it at our link in bio! Read now: t.e2ma.net/message/dqb1... 📸: Live Free Illinois
- "About 25 percent of Woods Fund Chicago grantees have already lost federal funding and had to shrink services this year...to meet this moment, we must increase our giving, and reject a narrow definition of fiduciary responsibility." —Michelle Morales ➡️ @stanford.ssir | ssir.org/articles/ent...
- What We're Reading: @southsideweekly.bsky.social has published a series exploring the roots and impact of snap curfew legislation that would give CPD the authority to declare a teen curfew with 30 minutes notice. 🧵
- What We're Listening To: Chicago podcast AirGo Radio recently featured both Dixon Romeo, executive director of South Side Together and Alex Ding, co-director of Dissenters. What does it take to build and maintain coalitions? 🎧 AirGo Radio via Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3ZKHASX...
- Our partners and peers are hiring! Head to linktr.ee/woodsfundchi... for opportunities:
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