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Lessons Learned

Recognizing that our grantees have significant "on the ground" expertise in organizing communities, strengthening public policies, and generating innovative program action to increase opportunities for our area’s least advantaged, we provide this space to tap their knowledge. We believe that their practice experiences provide important learnings that, if drawn upon, would be useful to their peers and would produce more effective and efficient decision making in public policy and private philanthropy.

We also believe that our grantees, their constituents, and their clients introduce new ideas and diverse perspectives that would inform and enrich public policy and philanthropy. These new ideas and diversity can, we believe, generate new and more effective program intervention alternatives and make investments more responsive to the individuals and communities they target.

This space is, then, dedicated to capturing the documented results -- successes and less-than-successes -- and the reflections of our grantees.

Balanced Development Coalition Campaign

“The Balanced Development Coalition was created to give residents of Chicago’s low- income, moderate-income and gentrifying neighborhoods a powerful voice in the creation of city housing policy and a seat at the table where policy decisions are made.”

Balanced Development Coalition Campaing Report

Project IMPACT

The Woods Fund of Chicago has begun a new initiative in partnership with B2P Commerce Corp. to develop the evaluation skills of a select number of grantees. B2P is the developer of IMPACT Manager software, a computer program that helps to facilitate recording and reporting of evaluative information.

The Project IMPACT initiative document is available in Word and PDF format.

Project IMPACT Word Format

Project IMPACT PDF Format

Lessons learned after Project IMPACT

The December issue of the "Measuring Impact" newsletter from B2PCommerce Corp featured The Woods Fund of Chicago. Click on the link below to read the story. It highlights a joint effort by B2P and the Woods Fund to develop a grounded grantee approach to measuring community organizing, and implementation activities-a field that has long defied thoughtful quantification.

Measuring Impact Newsletter Article on Woods Fund of Chicago in Word Format

Woods Fund Investments In The Area Of Criminal Justice

The events below represent the synergistic results of our strategic investments in building an advocacy infrastructure, and more importantly how this new capacity promotes the mobilization of collective action for systems change. We cannot always predict the outcomes of our investments, especially as it relates to policy development. These examples enable us to take step back away from our work and share what we see an important evolutionary process. It also allows us to more clearly document our small, yet significant role in supporting the power of people and ideas.

The results of Woods Fund Investment in the area of Criminal Justice document is available in Word and PDF format.

Results of Woods Fund Investment in Criminal Justice in Word Format

Results of Woods Fund Investment in Criminal Justice in PDF Format

The Chicago Capacity Building Initiative (CCBI) - Phase 2

“CCBI 2” is the evolution of the capacity building model created in 2000 for CCBI, the Chicago Community Organizing Capacity Building Initiative. Fully funded by the Ford Foundation, the first CCBI was a three-year Initiative that concluded in December of 2003. CCBI 2 is funded and governed by a collaborative of foundations, including: Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Chicago Community Trust, Crossroads Fund, East Chicago Community Development Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Twin Cities Education Foundation and the Woods Fund of Chicago. The Woods Fund is the Initiative's fiscal agent.

The Chicago Capacity Building Initiative - Phase 2 document is available in Word and PDF format.

Chicago Capacity Building Initiative in Word Format

Chicago Capacity Building Initiative in PDF Format

The Chicago School of Youth Organizing: A Case Study

Chicago has always occupied a special place in the American mind. As the symbolic capital of "Middle America," Chicago has served as a testing ground for ideas that have influenced fields as varied as sociology, architecture, and economics.

This document attempts to describe the current state of youth organizing in Chicago. It reflects the ideas and perspectives shared during a series of youth organizer convening sponsored by the Woods Fund that asked "Is there a Chicago School of Youth Organizing?"

The Chicago School of Youth Organizing: A Case Study document is available in Word and PDF format.

Chicago School of Youth Organizing in Word Format

Chicago School of Youth Organizing in PDF Format