In Chicago, GDDF is supporting 53 organizations.
The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation has supported 69 groups in its 2024 spring/summer grant cycle. The Board of Directors has approved over $3.6 million in funding to organizations working in the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina across the Foundation's three program areas: Artistic Vitality, Broadening Narratives, and Land Conservation. In Chicago, GDDF is supporting 53 organizations with more than $2.9 million in funding. A full list of all grantees appears at the end of this release.
The Foundation also has an additional round of grant funding at the end of the year.
GDDF continues to have a deep presence in our regions, fostering opportunities for impact, innovation, and collaboration. The Foundation is proud of the longstanding relationships it builds with grantee partners—fifty-six grants are for renewed support, while 13 new organizations are being welcomed to GDDF's portfolio.
Forty-seven—nearly 70 percent—of this cycle's grants are for multiyear general operating support.
“The Foundation is committed to trust-based practices and offering our partner-grantees steady, sustained support that recognizes their expertise in their fields and regions,” noted Executive Director Arnold Randall.
“We are proud to support this vibrant array of organizations that play such a vital role in their communities,” continued Randall. “Collectively, their work speaks to our humanity: the art that inspires us, the narratives that shape us, and the land that sustains us.”
Chicago Region
In Chicago, GDDF is supporting 53 organizations with more than $2.9 million in funding. Eleven are new grantees.
$825,250 to 33 organizations, including four new groups: Homeroom, Kokandy Productions, Pullman Arts (fiscal sponsor Voice of the City), and The South Side Jazz Coalition.
Despite the challenges faced by the sector, neighborhood-based small arts organizations are producing innovative, exciting, and engaging works throughout the city. GDDF is proud to support these building blocks of Chicago's cultural vibrancy.
$453,193 to nine organizations including seven new groups: DePaul University, Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, Heritage Museum of Asian Art, National Museum of Gospel Music, Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago (fiscal sponsor Chicago Cultural Alliance), National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, and Shorefront.
Broadening Narratives is a newly imagined approach to the work of collections. GDDF is working to ensure that those whose stories are being told through collections are included in the decisions about how those stories are told, with an emphasis on untold or incomplete or inaccurate stories. The Foundation wants to help balance subject-matter expertise with lived experience expertise, foster partnerships between smaller community-based organizations and large institutions, and encourage equity in resource sharing.
$1,630,000 to 11 groups, plus one cross-region grant with the Lowcountry. One grantee is new: The Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves.
Even though Chicago is highly urbanized, 11% of the region is made up of rare natural areas like prairies and wetlands while also being comprised of nearly 50% farmland that provides additional ecosystem benefits. GDDF is proud to be a steady funding partner for organizations stewarding and protecting these natural and working lands with an emphasis on climate resiliency and inclusive practices that provide ecological and quality of life benefits to diverse human communities.
In addition to grantmaking, GDDF is committed to supporting our grantee partners in a variety of ways, including access to trainings and support for collaborations and convenings.
The Foundation's next round of grants will be made in November.
Artistic Vitality Program
Access Contemporary Music
Aerial Dance Chicago
The Artistic Home Acting Ensemble
Asian Improv aRts Midwest
Beyond This Point
Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Chicago Jazz Philharmonic
The Chicago Poetry Center
Chicago Reader
Comfort Station
Deeply Rooted Productions
Ensemble Dal Niente
First Floor Theater
Homeroom
HotHouse
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Kalapriya Center for Indian Performing Arts
Kokandy Productions
Lawndale Pop-Up Spot
Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, Inc.
MOMENTA
The Mural Movement
Pullman Arts (fiscal sponsor Voice of the City)
Red Clay Dance Company
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center
See Chicago Dance
Silk Road Rising (dba Gilloury Institute)
Strawdog Theatre Company
The South Side Jazz Coalition
TUTA: The Utopian Theatre Asylum
Union Street Gallery
Water Street Studios
Broadening Narratives Program
Bronzeville Black Chicagoan Historical Society
DePaul University
Experimental Sound Studio
Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago (fiscal sponsor Chicago Cultural Alliance)
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
Heritage Museum of Asian Art
National Museum of Gospel Music
The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture
Shorefront
Land Conservation Program
American Farmland Trust
The Conservation Foundation
Faith in Place
Friends of the Chicago River
Friends of the Forest Preserves
Geneva Lake Conservancy
The Land Conservancy of McHenry County
Metropolitan Planning Council
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves
Shirley Heinze Land Trust
Trust for Public Land (joint between Chicago and Lowcountry)
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