Strategic Plan
A Letter From Our Board Chair
A plan that speaks to the boldness of the times we are in.
With the movement toward centering and advancing racial justice, we know that the gains that have been made are under constant threat. Even during a global pandemic, we have seen many justice organizations face new challenges in a post-2020 world.
Our strategic plan looks at four capacity areas: Leadership, Community Role, Grantmaking, and Fiscal Management.
If history teaches us anything, it is that in these times, we must go deeper and strengthen our position in helping bring about a more just society. Despite being amid an ongoing pandemic, the Woods Fund Chicago staff and Board of Directors were determined to set our next course forward.
The strategic plan is a living document that we will be implementing and continuing to review over the next couple of years. We will continue expanding and deepening our commitment to grantee partners through our support of movement building and grantee-directed, focused convenings. You will also see from us a sharper focus on accountability — both internally and externally — and creating more avenues to invite and receive feedback.
Our strategic plan highlights Woods Fund Chicago’s desire to ensure we are supporting leaders in the movement-building ecosystem (particularly BIPOC leaders) and uplifting groups whose intersections of identities have been marginalized.
Lastly, we are assessing how we fund, how much we fund, and how we can be bolder partners in supporting organizing and advocacy work that aims to dismantle structural and systemic racism to create more humane and just systems, policies, institutions, and ways of being.
As we encounter even more tumultuous times, I am confident that we will need to dig deep to support, broaden, and protect the push for racial and economic justice with the spirit of courage, conviction, and grace.
In solidarity,
L. Anton Seals Jr.
Chair, Board of Directors, Woods Fund Chicago
This plan for Woods Fund Chicago’s future requires a deep commitment on the part of the Board, staff, and leadership of the organization, as well as strong engagement with grantees, community members, and other stakeholders in the philanthropic, movement building, and social justice sectors.
The strategic plan for the upcoming years will capitalize on the organization’s current assets to position Woods Fund Chicago as a bold innovator and leader in the philanthropic field and strengthen internal systems to achieve racial equity, transparency, and accountability.