Deadline: 15-Sep-21
The Field Foundation is seeking Applications for its grant program to organizations working in the fields of Justice, Art, Media & Storytelling, and Leadership Investment.
Program Areas
- Justice: The Field Foundation seeks to level the playing field across Chicago by using Field Foundation dollars to address the root causes of inequity, be it in community environment, health, housing or other issue areas. Rather than funding direct service, they will fund organizations working to address problems at a systemic and policy level. Goals: Build the capacity of organizations working in advocacy, justice and system change so that they can increase the visibility of critical issues and impact the root causes of those issues, with an eventual goal of creating effective systems of change and improving community conditions.Examples:
- Community organizing
- Alliance network building and coalition support
- Local policy/advocacy work being done by communities for communities
- Communication-based issue reform
- Arts: The Field Foundation seeks to create an art-centric city where each community has a robust investment in creativity and local cultural activities and artists. They want to focus dollars on supporting creative spaces inside chronically divested communities to spark cultural identity, creative expression and cultural connections. Preference will be given to community-based organizations who are deeply entrenched in community work. “Art” will remain an open and evolving term allowing them to learn through futhending of creative enterprises. Goals: Expand creative production in divested areas of Chicago by investing in a range of art forms in specific neighborhoods and advancing the capacity of emerging artists in Chicago. This support will create safe “third spaces” for creative production, foster community bonds, and increase access to cultural experiences within Chicago communities. The eventual goal is supporting community identity through the arts while advancing hubs of creativity and innovation in divested neighborhoods of Chicago. Examples:
- Community-based art organizations within the heat map
- Nonprofit organizations supporting artists from and/or working within the heat maps
- Community defined forms of art, creative expression, and creative production happening within nonprofit spaces
- Media and Storytelling: Definition: The Field Foundation seeks to change how news production and storytelling reflect Chicago and create a more equitable, connected and inclusive local media ecosystem in which the stories of all Chicagoans are told accurately, fairly, authoritatively and contextually. To that end, the foundation will fund African, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA) media, journalists and storytellers to support narratives by, for and about ALAANA communities. Goals: Create more just and inclusive narratives about Chicago that foster policy change; amplify the voices and impact of ALAANA journalists, media and storytellers in the local media landscape, and support more reporting and storytelling by traditional and alternative journalism platforms about the root causes of the city’s inequities. Examples:
- Partnerships and collaborations
- Content creation
- Capacity building
- Training and leadership investment
- Rapid response funding
- Leadership Investment: Definition: The Field Foundation seeks to recognize, honor, and support the deep bench of visionary leaders across Chicago. The following opportunities are aimed at promoting visionaries across Chicago by building their social capital, skillsets, networks and exposure. By creating a network, they aim to act as a connector, supporter, and investor in leaders who have the potential to transform Chicago. The Field Foundation offers three opportunities in Leadership Investment. Goals: Increase individual leadership capacity by supporting leaders and their organizations. Strengthen connections between rising and existing leaders across communities by growing leaders’ networks and social capital. Utilize a risk learning strategy to discover what successful leaders need by giving leaders the room and capital to discover their most productive self; with an eventual goal of racially diversifying and thereby strengthening civic leadership in Chicago.
- Leaders for a New Chicago: The Leaders for a New Chicago Awards (“Leaders”) is an award for past accomplishments that promotes and advances a range of leaders whose influence will inform decision making across the city of Chicago.
- Leadership Advancement Organizations: Organizations focused on leadership advancement may apply to the Field Foundation for funding to cover the costs of nonprofit leaders working in the realms of Justice, Art, Media & Storytelling to attend their leadership programs.
- Field Foundation Graduate Fellowship: Graduate students pursuing a Master’s Degree at a Chicago university may apply for a ten-month academic year fellowship. The program is a supervised field placement at the Foundation offering field work and philanthropic experience.
Funding Information
- Typically grants range in size from $10,000-$50,000.
Criteria
- The Foundation primarily fund work being done to serve the people of Chicago with a focus on communities commonly divested in.
For more information, visit https://fieldfoundation.org/how-to-apply/program-grants/