This week we announced the recipients of our 2025–26 Community Grants, awarding $270,000 to 16 nonprofit organizations serving West Cook County. The grants provide ongoing support for our strategic priority of mental and behavioral health for youth and young adults, including increasing the mental health workforce pipeline.
“In the 2024–25 grant cycle, we focused our grantmaking on the intersection of safety and belonging and health, two of the priorities the community told us were most important in our Community Voices report,” said Carrie Summy, president and CEO of the Foundation. “Over the past year we have worked with a wide range of constituents, including grantee partners and community members, to develop a new approach to our Community Grants program that supports our nonprofit sector in a way that best suits the needs of today.”
Based on feedback from grantee recipients and members of the West Cook community, including mental health practitioners, the Grants and Programs Committee reviewed and revised the Foundation’s grantmaking processes through a framework called “trust-based philanthropy.” This approach emphasizes advancing equity, shifting the power dynamic and building mutually accountable relationships. As a result, the Community Grants program now includes such practices as giving multi-year, unrestricted funding; removing unnecessary steps in the application process; being transparent, open and honest; ensuring equity of voice; and offering support beyond the check. The Grants and Programs Committee also examined its own internal processes and developed new, more expedient, and collaborative workflows.
For the 2025-26 funding cycle, we started by visiting our existing cohort of grantees. Through three weeks of in-person conversations, Foundation staff and committee members checked in with each grantee on what was working, what wasn’t, and what their goals were for the near future. These more informal meetings significantly reduced administrative burden for the organizations, centered their voices and stories, positioned the Foundation on a more equal and compassionate human level, and created transparency in its process and goals. The conversations also exposed additional challenges that could be addressed through funding and support, such as organizational needs like board development and strategic planning, that likely would not have been mentioned in a traditional application.
“Some of the feedback we received was that organizations are grateful for funding, but a limitation is that, because they don’t know if they’ll get the grant again next year, grantees were hesitant to commit staff and infrastructure in case the funding may go away,” said John Borrero, chair of the Grants and Programs Committee.
“We also heard from organizations that have been impacted by the recent militarization of immigration enforcement,” Borrero noted. “We have organizations that have to make costly adjustments to their buildings because they’ve never had a situation where they have to buzz people in. And we have organizations that are providing mental and behavioral services for young people who, all of sudden, are in an environment that’s militarized. We felt it was important, therefore, to offer some additional support around these issues.”
Additionally, we will facilitate a “community of practice,” a subset of interested mental health practitioners within the mental health grantee cohort, to further the goal of a robust workforce and provide peer learning and leadership opportunities.
Moving forward, we will continue to engage with the broader community to decide which issue areas and specific targets to focus on, whether to fill a gap or support an existing endeavor for exponential impact.
“It’s important we continuously reflect the community’s shared goals. The Foundation must actively listen and amplify the voices of those most vulnerable, and those working hard to make our community a place where everyone can thrive. This is the only way to ensure our work is truly collaborative, responsive, and impactful.”
– Carrie Summy, OPRFCF President & CEO