Core Eligibility Criteria

Eligible organizations must:

• be a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or be fiscally sponsored  by one.

• have an annual operating budget of $5 million or less based on financials from their most recently completed fiscal year. 

• demonstrate alignment with our values of community, justice, impact, and integrity through their work and programs.

• have a demonstrated track record of community engagement and the ability to draw on that experience to inform program design for community-based arts and music learning experiences, or for mobilizing communities toward social and systems change.

• operate primarily within our geographic metropolitan focus areas of Chicago, IL and Oakland, CA.

• be accountable to their target communities and demonstrate that accountability through measurable outcomes.

• show a history and commitment to elevating community-driven solutions.

 

Our Funding Relationships

We aim to support approximately 15–20 organizations per region each year, and we deeply value the long-term partnerships we have built with many of our grantees over time.  While we have a history of multi-year funding, we do not intend to support organizations in perpetuity, and we actively encourage all partners to engage in ongoing organizational sustainability planning. The Foundation will generally not fund any single organization for more than seven consecutive years, after which future support will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

As a small family foundation, we are equally committed to ensuring our grantmaking remains inclusive and responsive to our communities. We believe that creating space for new partners is essential to our mission, and that a healthy organization and funding ecosystem depends on organizations building resilience and diversified support beyond any single funder, including us.

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Where We Fund 

​​​Since our founding, we have directed the majority of our funding toward organizations and initiatives serving the Chicago metropolitan area. In 2026, we are excited to expand our geographic footprint to Oakland, CA: a community with a rich history of activism, arts, and justice movements that closely reflect our values and areas of interest. As part of this expansion, we are launching an open call for Letters of Introduction (LOI) from organizations based in or primarily serving Oakland, CA, beginning in the spring of 2026. All LOIs must be submitted through our online grants portal accessible via our home page. For Chicago organizations, all 2026 grantmaking will be by invitation only.

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