CHICAGO — Lender, developer and real estate consulting group IFF has awarded $3 million in grants to more than 70 Chicago nonprofits and cultural organizations.
After announcing the grant opportunity earlier this year, IFF awarded the money to 77 organizations rooted in African, Asian, Black, Indigenous and Latin American traditions. The funding is part of the IFF’s Chicago’s Cultural Treasures initiative, or ChiTreasures — a four-year program that began in 2021 to support arts and culture organizations in the Chicago area.
This is the fourth and final round of ChiTreasures grants.
Fifty-nine organizations received $50,000 gifts “to be used however they see fit,” and 18 organizations received small gifts of $4,400, according to IFF.
As nonprofits and arts organizations nationwide face funding cuts from the Trump administration, IFF is committed to supporting their work, according to the organization.
“The importance of arts and creating place in developing healthy and vibrant communities cannot be understated,” said Nakea West, IFF’s chief equity and diversity officer. “The current moment is … making these nonprofits vulnerable because of their mission, because of their programming, because of the populations that they serve. … So these gifts are really coming at a time when the art scene needs more support than ever.”
One of the organizations that received $50,000 is nonprofit arts publisher and literary journal Lucky Jefferson. Founded by current Editor-in-Chief NaBeela Washington, Lucky Jefferson started off as a zine in 2018.
Washington found the IFF grant program through Instagram this year and is “still in shock” that Lucky Jefferson was selected, she said.
“So many organizations are losing funding … and you don’t know if we’re next or if, because we’re funded by Illinois Humanities and Amazon Literary Partnership, we’re going to continue to receive funding from different places,” Washington said. “To receive that email, it was inspiration to keep going.”
Lucky Jefferson team members NaBeela Washington, Mel Shearer, Dorian Nash and Morgan Christie (from left to right). Credit: Provided/Lucky Jefferson
Lucky Jefferson will put the funding into its creative arts programs with high school and college students and hyperlocal journalism training for Chicago residents, Washington said. The nonprofit is also looking to buy land to start a community garden and host creative workshops and markets.
“As the arts are dying in certain ways, I think that there are also opportunities to usher in a rebirth, and we want to be there for that,” Washington said. “This gift, it just helps us in so many ways because it allows us to invite more people in.”
Other organizations to receive $50,000 include 18th Street Casa de Cultura, Albany Park Theater Project, Ballet Folklorico de Chicago, Black Girls Dance, Bronzeville Children’s Museum, Center for Native Futures, Kuumba Lynx, South Side Jazz Coalition and Yin He Dance.
Organizations that received $4,400 include Collaboraction Theatre Company, Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, National Museum of Mexican Art, South Asia Institute and South Chicago Dance Theatre.
Nearly 200 organizations submitted applications for ChiTreasures, “emphasizing Chicagoland’s rich cultural landscape and the increased need for financial support for arts and culture organizations,” according to IFF.
A Lucky Jefferson pop-up at a past Semicolon Books’ Lit Fest. Credit: Provided/Lucky Jefferson
“All of these organizations, not only do they provide the gift of their art forms, but the art forms create a more vibrant and thoughtful and rich understanding of Chicago,” West said.
While this is the end of the ChiTreasures program, IFF will continue supporting local nonprofits and arts organizations, West said.
“We have always served the arts and culture sector through our facilities and finance technical expertise that will not be going away,” she said. “The hope was really that [the ChiTreasures program] would really serve as a catalyst for the broader philanthropic landscape to really take up the task of leaning in and supporting these arts and culture organizations in the ways that they need, particularly at a moment when they are so deeply under threat.
“This is how communities create power and identity for themselves, and so this is such a critical moment to show support for them, to fund them and to give them the space to do the work that they know how to do.”
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