Vision: The Fund envisions a region where The LGBT Community lives responsibly in peace and harmony with all communities, enjoys the same freedoms and quality of life as others, and has the same opportunity to make the region a better and safer place for all to live.
Mission: To benefit greater Chicago's LGBT Community through: grantmaking that improves the quality of life for its members; and identifying and focusing resources for the Community and those institutions that support it.
Overview of the LGBT Community Fund
The LBGT Fund of The Chicago Community Trust ( "The Fund" ) was publicly launched in 2010 as a donor advised fund. The Chicago Community Trust provided $500,000 as a permanent endowment with the requirement that the LGBT Community Fund Steering Committee raise $1,000,000 in matching dollars to be used for grantmaking. The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust issued a $150,000 matching challenging to help encourage gifts. To date the fund has raised over $1 million in addition to The Chicago Community Trust's contribution. The Fund is not building an endowment beyond the initial Chicago Community Trust commitment. Rather, it is raising funds in order to make grants. The Steering Committee will award $1 million in 2015-16.
The LGBT Community Fund awarded $282,500 to 14 organizations in August 2015 in Round I of funding. These IMPACT Grants provided funding for capacity building and for seed money for new products/organizations and/or those in their infancy.
Two additional funding rounds will be completed by the end of 2016:
Round II - Transformational grants ( $50,000-150,000 ) — Letters of Inquiry deadline December 16, 2015 at 11:59PM CST via Chicago Community Trust Grant Central.
Round III — ( amount to be determined ) -Topics to be determined — Letters of Inquiry deadline Spring 2016
This Request for Letters of Inquiry specifies areas of focus and the types of grants that will be made, requirements for proposals that will be submitted, and an initial set of grant application procedures. The Fund's Grants Committee will evaluate those Letters of Inquiry and invite a smaller number of organizations to submit full proposals for funding. Only those organizations that are invited may submit full proposals. The Fund will be employing Chicago Community Trust's Grant Central system for all Transformational Grant submissions.
Grantmaking Focus
Letters of Inquiry submitted in response to The Fund's Request for Letters of Inquiry must demonstrate the applicant's commitment to the health and well being of the LGBT Community in Cook County, defined broadly to also include individuals who are questioning. Specifically, The Fund seeks to fund innovative initiatives that focus ONLY on the following four priority areas:
1. LGBTQ young adults, 24 and younger:
Healthcare, mental health services and drug/alcohol treatment
Employment training and placement
Homelessness
Age-appropriate cultural and social activities
Mentoring
2. Older adults, 55 and over:
Healthcare - including behavioral health ( mental health and addiction )
Employment re-training and placement
Housing
Cultural and social activities
Wellness, quality of life, and independent living
Information regarding rights and services
3. General Healthcare:
Equal access and treatment, regardless of orientation or gender identity
Mental health services
HIV-AIDS awareness and care
4. Community Safety:
Safety within lived community spaces and/or domestic partnerships/civil unions/marriage
Improved communication between the community and law enforcement
Violence prevention and promotion of safety within communities
Transformational Grants Letters of Inquiry
Transformational Grants are designed for projects that will seek to move the broader LGBT Community significantly and profoundly towards a better quality of life. Grants will range from $50,000 to $150,000. Letters of Inquiry must demonstrate the following:
How the project will serve as a significant and profound change agent
How the required collaboration among two or more organizations will work, and the Fund defines collaboration rigorously
A credible plan for goal measurement
How the collaborators reach traditionally underserved communities
That the project is both innovative and replicable
How a communications strategy around the funded project will be implemented
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for funding from the LGBT Community Fund the applicant organization( s ) must demonstrate the following:
That it is a 501( c )( 3 ) public charity in good standing in the state of IL.
That it serves the LGBT Community of Cook County. LGBT is broadly defined as including questioning individuals.
That grants will be used for general operations, capacity building, program, or seed funding. Grants may not be used for capital campaigns or improvements, endowments, fundraising events, partisan political activities or to support individuals.
That grant funds will be used in one year. Multi-year funding is not supported for Impact Grants.
Faith-based and religious organizations are eligible to apply for project-specific grants provided that the program supported does not promote or require religious doctrine and the applicant otherwise complies with The Fund's requirements and grantmaking focus.
That the organizations involved did not receive an Impact Grant from the Fund in 2015.
Letter of Inquiry and Proposal Requirements
Completed Letters of Inquiry applications must be received by 11:59PM CST on December 16, 2015 on the Chicago Community Trust Grant Central system.
Invited full proposals must be received by 11:59 PM CST on January 22, 2016.
An information session will be held at The Chicago Community Trust, 225 N. Michigan Ave, Suite 2200 on Monday November 16, 8:30-10AM. The Grant Central system will be demonstrated at the end of the session for those who are not familiar with it.
Because of building security, those who plan to attend must register at rsvp@cct.org by November 12, 2015.