Chicago Organizations Receive $2.9 Million In Funding From Gaylord And Dorothy Donnelley Foundation

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.

Artistic Vitality

$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.

Broadening Narratives

$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.

Land Conservation

$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.

Chicago Region Grant Recipients

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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