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2023 Grants INFORMATION

 

 

Hello and welcome!

Program Areas Abortion Access, Community Organizing for Racial Justice and Urban Environmental Justice will continue to be the Conant Family Foundation's primary funding categories for the next three years (2023, 2024 and 2025). Guidelines and grant application instructions will appear here when available. The staff and board are currently meeting with past grantees and gathering information to inform this year's grantmaking. While guidelines have been posted in April in past years, it will be later this year, in May or June. Please see below for information regarding these Program Areas and past grants. Please note that the Doris Conant Legacy Grants have sunset and will not continue.

Abortion Access

ABORTION ACCESS

Abortion care is essential health care.

 

The Abortion Access Program Area supports access to safe, affordable, and legal abortions. Organizations selected for funding receive one-year general operating grants. Three categories have emerged as priorities:

 

  1. Increasing access to self-managed medication abortion (mifepristone and misoprostol)

  2. Chicago-area abortion services, financial support, and transportation/housing needs

  3. Abortion access in southeast states

 

There are no formal guidelines to apply; if your organization aligns with these categories, please send an email of introduction.

 

2022

Abortion Care Network, $12,500

Access Reproductive Care (ARC) SouthEast, 12,000

Carafem, $25,000

Chicago Abortion Fund, $50,000

CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, $12,500

Feminist Women's Health Center, $12,000

Kentucky Health Justice Network, $12,000

Midwest Access Coalition, $50,000

Midwest Access Project, $10,000

Mountain Access Brigade, 12,000

Provide, Inc., $20,000

Reproductive Outreach & Education (ROE) Center for Justice, $12,000

Self Managed Abortion, Safe & Effective, $40,000

2021

Abortion Care Network, $12,000

Access Reproductive Care (ARC) SouthEast, 12,000

Carafem, $45,000

Chicago Abortion Fund, $50,000

CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, $12,000

EverThrive Illinois, $5,000

Kentucky Health Justice Network, $12,000

Midwest Access Coalition, $50,000

Midwest Access Project, $10,000

Mountain Access Brigade, 12,000

Provide, Inc., $20,000

Reproductive Outreach & Education (ROE) Center for Justice, $30,000

Self Managed Abortion, Safe & Effective, $40,000

2020

Appalachian Abortion Support Collective, $6,000

Carafem, $5,000

Chicago Abortion Fund, $75,000

EverThrive Illinois, $25,000

Midwest Access Coalition, $75,000

Midwest Access Project, $10,000

Provide, Inc., $10,000

SASS, $40,000

Community Organizing for Racial Justice

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

​This Program Area supports grassroots, multi-issue community organizing that prioritizes racial justice and equity.

GUIDELINES FOR 2022 GRANTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE. A group of seven community leaders and former organizers, all people of color, joined with the Conant Family Foundation to develop these guidelines. The Grants Team also reviewed proposals and made grants decisions. These are the ten organizations they selected for funding; each received an unrestricted $25,000 grant:

Advancing Justice Chicago

AFIRE: Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights & Empowerment

Equity And Transformation

HANA Center

Healing to Action

Jane Addams Senior Caucus

Lighthouse Foundation

M.O.V.E.

Pilsen Alliance

Tenant Education Network

In 2020, the Community Organizing for Racial Justice Program Area engaged a group of ten Chicagoans to serve as a proposal Review Team. The external Review Team brought their insights, lived experiences and perspectives to the task. For more information about the Review Team and the grantee selection process, please click HEREThese are the organizations selected for funding in 2020; the Board elected to renew all of these grants in 2021:

Assata's Daughters, $20,000

Brave Space Alliance, $20,000

Chicago Community Bond Fund $20,000

Equity and Transformation, $20,000

Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD), $20,000

Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), $20,000

People for Community Recovery, $15,000

Restore Justice Illinois, $15,000

Working Family Solidarity, $15,000

United Working Families, $15,000

Chicago United for Equity (CUE), $10,000

HANA Center, $10,000

Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA), $10,000

Lighthouse Foundation, $10,000

Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere (MOVE), $10,000

Northwest Side Housing Center, $10,000

The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, $10,000

Urban Environmental Justice

URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The vision of the Urban Environmental Justice Program Area is that all Chicago residents live in environmentally safe communities.

 

Low-income communities and communities of color experience disproportionately higher levels of air, water, and soil pollution and contamination. Nonprofit organizations addressing environmental injustice in these communities are the focus of this Program Area. 

Grants are made to organizations that identify environmental hazards, involve their communities in identifying solutions, and advocate for justice and remediation. Eligible applicants will be Chicago-area nonprofit organizations that are a) led by those directly impacted, b) include community members in decision-making, and c) accountable to the communities they seek to improve.

 

2022

Alliance of the SouthEast, $40,000

Block Club, $35,000

Faith In Place, $25,000

Friends of the Parks, $25,000

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization/LVEJO, $40,000

Metropolitan Planning Council, $25,000

Southeast Environmental Task Force, $10,000

Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, $25,000

Sweet Water Foundation, $30,000

2021

Alliance of the SouthEast, $40,000

Block Club, $35,000

Faith In Place, $25,000

Friends of the Parks, $25,000

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization/LVEJO, $40,000

Metropolitan Planning Council, $25,000

Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, $25,000

Sweet Water Foundation, $30,000

2020

Alliance of the SouthEast, $35,000

Block Club, $25,000

Faith In Place, $25,000

Friends of the Parks, $25,000

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization/LVEJO, $35,000

Metropolitan Planning Council, $25,000

Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, $25,000

Sweet Water Foundation, $30,000

Trust for Public Land, $25,000

Doris Conant Legacy Grants

DORIS CONANT LEGACY GRANTS

While the Conant Family Foundation continues Doris Conant’s commitment to justice and equity overall, Doris personally participated with several nonprofit organizations and promoted their valuable work to her friends and family.

 

This Program Area supports nine organizations that Doris cherished, with annual grants as follows:

Chicago Foundation for Women, $50,000

Chicago Public Media/WBEZ, $50,000

Human Rights Watch, $50,000

Planned Parenthood Illinois, $50,000

Facets Multimedia, $10,000

Goodman Theatre, $10,000

International Children’s Media Center, $10,000

North Lawndale College Prep High School, $10,000

Victory Gardens Theater, $10,000

 

Due to the nature of this very personal Program Area, there is not be an open process to apply for these grants. These organizations were selected by Doris through her own words and actions. We are delighted to honor her memory with these contributions. These grants will be awarded in calendar years 2000, 2021, and 2022.

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