WOODS FUND CHICAGO GRANTS
Woods Fund Chicago funds over $4 million each year to grantee partners who organize their communities in the fight for racial and economic justice.
Photo by Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Woods Fund Chicago distributes core grants of up to $35,000 for new grantee partners. These grants are for one year and are renewable.
As of 2024, Woods Fund Chicago has transitioned to one grantmaking cycle a year. Applications open for one month annually in February with grants announced in July. Keep in touch with Woods Fund Chicago for updates regarding the next grantmaking cycle.
As a funder and partner,
Woods Fund Chicago commits to the practices of trust-based philanthropy, adapts to the evolving needs
of grantee partners, and connects partners to resources that further activate their work. We provide multiyear, general operating support to ensure grantee partners can sustain their work and operations beyond
the scope of a single program.
Woods Fund Chicago grantee partners…
… are community organizers.
… support grassroots movements.
… take collective action.
… use an intersectional racial justice framework.
… challenge traditional power structures.
… collaborate with communities and movements to create sustainable, systemic change.
Woods Fund Chicago's Grantmaking Criteria
In the face of a radical consolidation of wealth; ongoing, systematic dismantling of our civil rights; and wanton state violence in our communities, we need unprecedented collective power to fight back, sustain, and create in hostile conditions. We have refined our grantmaking criteria to explicitly support direct action community organizing, and organizing-adjacent projects that bolster that work.
Direct Action Organizing Criteria
Woods Fund Chicago seeks to support a resilient, strategic community organizing ecosystem that can engage an unprecedented number of people to dismantle structures of oppression. We are funding organizations that have strong structural analysis, practice active base-building, and cultivate leaderful movements.
Structural Analysis & Long-Term Strategic Orientation — The organization has a guiding strategy for its work, and can articulate how that strategy achieves a better world. The strategy combines a structural analysis and knowledge of local terrain to build long-term people power towards racial and economic justice.
Base-Building & Campaigns — The organization is executing a base-building plan, and runs campaigns that reflect a clear sense of power needed to win, and power being built for long term strategy.
Leadership Ladder & Leadership Training — The organization develops members’ capacity to lead through strong skill-building and political education.
Organizational Culture & Supervision — The organization maintains a consistent supervision practice that helps organizers manage tasks and identify areas of growth, stay accountable to the organization’s mission, and lead organizational work.
Leadership by the Most Impacted —The organization is majority BIPOC-led, and driven by systemically marginalized populations that are directly impacted by the campaigns and issues they work on.
Organizations must be based and working within the Chicago metropolitan area.
Organizing-adjacent Criteria
Recognizing that organizing work is fueled by a complex ecosystem, Woods Fund Chicago allocates some funding to entities whose work directly strengthens organizing efforts, but who do not themselves engage in organizing. These organizations must demonstrate:
Deep coordination with base-building organizations — They actively work in collaboration with grassroots organizing groups and are strong, accountable movement allies.
Strong structural analysis (Why do you do what you do?) — Their work reflects a clear analysis of racial and economic injustice, articulates how policy, systems, and institutions shape inequities, and embraces the importance of grassroots power to achieve change.
A unique role in the ecosystem (What do you do?) — They contribute something distinct that strengthens organizing groups or movement strategy, particularly through an equity lens.
Majority BIPOC-leadership — Their work is led and driven by systemically marginalized populations.
Organizations must be based and working within the Chicago metropolitan area.
To learn more about key terms regarding our criteria and approach to community organizing, visit our glossary of terms.
What We Don’t Fund:
Organizing-adjacent organizations structured primarily as training or consulting groups that charge fees to grassroots organizations for services.
Business or economic development projects
Capital campaigns, capital projects, capital acquisitions, housing construction/rehabilitation
Endowments
Health care institutions, including, but not limited to, hospitals and clinics
Organizations that only provide direct services
Medical and scientific research
K-12 and post-secondary education scholarships
Religious programs
Standalone fellowship programs or organizations that focus exclusively on leadership development.
These guidelines are informed by the work of the Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing. We are grateful for their leadership!
Ready to Apply?
Woods Fund Chicago has separate application windows for new applicants and returning grantee partners.
Our 2026 application cycle has closed. We will announce our 2027 application windows in early 2027.
Want to be notified when grants become available? Sign up for Woods Fund Chicago updates or contact Grants and Administrative Manager Brittany Ward at brittany@woodsfund.org.
Learn more about our decision-making process below.
If you have questions or trouble accessing your application, please reach out to Brittany Ward at brittany@woodsfund.org.
Photo by Mujeres Latinas en Acción
Decision-Making Timeline
Our grants portal will open for new applications in early 2027.
STEP 1
Applications open.
STEP 2
The application portal closes. Woods Fund Chicago program officers begin to review applications.
STEP 3
All applicants receive a response regarding their application. Woods Fund Chicago will coordinate site visits and interviews with select applicants.
STEP 4
Program board committee
meets and determines
final recommendations.
STEP 5
Recommendations are voted on by the full board.
STEP 5
Grantee partners are notified of final decision and provided grant letters and agreements via Docusign. Grantee partners will receive funds 2-3 weeks after agreements are signed.
STEP 6
Woods Fund Chicago publicly announces the new cohort of grantee partners. New and existing grantee partners will receive a welcome and resource packet.
What to Expect as a Grantee Partner
Our relationship with and investment in grantee partners goes beyond an annual check. As part of our commitment to trust-based philanthropy, Woods Fund Chicago provides year-round check-ins, invitations to special funding opportunities, and access to resources and capacity-building tools that strengthen organizational sustainability. Additionally, Woods Fund Chicago utilizes our newsletter, social media, and peer networks to amplify the work of grantee partners and their movements and advocates for meaningful investments towards community organizing in the philanthropic sector.
Examples of Opportunities for Grantee Partners:
Grantee Partner-Informed Learning Cohorts
Capacity Building Initiative (provided in partnership with Crossroads Fund)
Cultivate: Women of Color in Leadership* program (supported by Woods Fund Chicago, Chicago Foundation for Women, Crossroads Fund, Walder Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust)
Convenings and Networking Opportunities
Social Media Technology training
Rapid Response Fund and Organizational Resiliency Fund
*This program is inclusive of cisgender women, transgender women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary individuals.
Justice is a benefit to all of us, and all of us are needed in the movement to achieve that vision.Let’s join in this movement together.