Funding Qualifications

Is Your Organization a Good Fit?

By focus, we prioritize:

  • Organizations that provide high-quality, comprehensive healthcare services including primary care, mental and behavioral health, and oral healthcare to under-served, uninsured, underinsured, and low-income communities.
  • Community-based organizations that provide mental health and behavioral services.
  • Community-based organizations that address chronic diseases disproportionately affecting communities of color (e.g., asthma, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS).
  • Organizations that address critical needs, support a specific geographic area, or serve populations with historical health and housing barriers.
  • Organizations in Chicago and suburban Cook County.
  • Food Pantries that also offer support services, or where food assistance is part of the overall service plan. For example, Food Pantries that provide case management, counseling, access to health care, job training, housing, rent and utility assistance, and information and referrals to other services, etc.

By organization type:

  • Charitable organizations that are exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are classified as public charities under Sections 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2).
  • Organizations that offer services to lower-income people, defined by federal guidelines, as individuals making 50% of the median income, and moderate-income people, defined as making between 50% and 80% of the median income.
  • Organizations that have a diverse income base, including a mix of public and private funding, individual donors, and fundraising events.

We prioritize:

  • Organizations that are culturally respectful, appropriate and serve communities most affected by racial health inequities. For example, we fund organizations that provide bilingual services and communication materials in the languages of the population they serve.
  • Organizations whose executive leadership, governance, and decision-making bodies are representative of, accountable to, and rooted in the communities they serve.
  • Organizations that measure outcomes to understand the program's effectiveness.
  • Organizations that collaborate with other community-based organizations that serve the same population.
We do not fund:
  • Organizations that do not have a 501(c)(3) tax status. We do not accept fiscal agent letters.
  • Organizations that do not file the IRS 990 Federal Tax Form. We do not accept Form 990-N or 990-T.
  • Organizations outside of Cook County.
  • Food Pantries that solely provide food distribution.
  • Research grants.
  • Fund requests for the production or writing of audio-visual materials.
  • Projects that promote or proselytize any religion. While we do fund the projects of faith-based organizations, those projects must be secular.
  • Organizations that discriminate based on ethnicity, race, color, creed, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any veteran s status.
  • Individuals, scholarships, fundraising events, advertising, political activities/lobbying, and endowments.
  • Government agencies.