Capacity Building

Investing in the capacity building of small, grassroots nonprofits is not only vital to the sustainability of the individual organization, but to the sector overall.

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Capacity building is fundamentally about improving effectiveness at the micro- and macro-organizational levels. Capacity building focuses on furthering an organization’s ability to do new things and improve what they currently do. Most simply, capacity building improves the organization’s performance and enhances its ability to function and continue to stay relevant within a rapidly changing environment.

Woods Fund Chicago recognizes the important role smaller, grassroots organizations play in movements for social and economic justice. We further invest in our grantee partners by providing high-quality, technical assistance, access to programs that strengthen their organizational infrastructure, and support to emerging grantee partners so that their work towards social and economic change is built on a strong foundation.

Capacity Building Programs

Through partnerships with other foundation colleagues, Woods Fund Chicago offers two programs to current grantee partners: 

  1. Designed, implemented, and facilitated in partnership with the Crossroads Fund, the Capacity Building Initiative (CBI) is a year-long program through which a cohort of ten current grantee partners receive individualized support from a highly qualified consultant and engage in workshops and peer-to-peer learning sessions to address the capacity needs and opportunities of the organization. Organizations selected to participate in CBI will be awarded a grant to cover the costs associated with the initiative. Click here to learn more about the program and to read the Field Building Report written on CBI.

  2. Implemented and facilitated in partnership with the Crossroads Fund, the Chicago Foundation for Women, and the Chicago Community Trust, the Cultivate: Women of Color Leadership Program seeks to build a cadre of emerging women of color leaders engaged in social, economic, and racial justice movements whose collective voice and power can be leveraged to realize a shared vision of the Chicago region’s future.

    By bringing together women who lead intersecting but separate justice efforts — gender and racial equity, labor rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant rights, among others — Cultivate aims to transform these movements from the inside, fortify relationships among participants, and foster collaborations across organizations to advance a shared vision towards equity and justice for all. Cultivate supports the personal and professional development needs of each participant.

    The application to join the latest Women of Color Leadership Program cohort closed in October 2022. Stay tuned for updates on future application periods.

Convenings and Events

Starting in Spring 2022, Woods Fund Chicago has begun to hold convenings for our grantee partners and colleagues in the sector to share our experiences as a grantmaking Foundation, and to build our own capacity and the capacity of our peers in trust-based philanthropy through open dialogue and shared learning. 

Our first convening — “Trust-based Philanthropy from Theory to Practice: A Case Study” — generated tremendous enthusiasm. Participants were engaged throughout the entire convening and posed insightful questions. Results from the post-event survey indicated that 72% of survey respondents strongly agreed that the convening gave them a greater understanding of trust-based philanthropy in practice, 85.5% strongly agreed that the convening was insightful and informative, and 80% stated that the convening made them more likely to consider incorporating aspects of trust-based philanthropy into their foundation practices.

Woods Fund Chicago plans to continue holding space for these opportunities to learn and grow alongside other foundations and nonprofits as funders. As we follow up with participants and continue to gather feedback, we will identify further steps to advocate in the philanthropic sector in support of community organizing and advocacy

Photos by Sarah-Ji