Who we are
The Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund was started in 2020 in response to the disproportionate effects of Covid, the racial uprisings, and decades of underinvestment in Black communities.
Members of the Neighborhood Organizing Funders Group took action to create the Pooled Fund after hearing from researchers, organizers, and community activists.
The founders, all staff at local foundations, became a steering committee that created a streamlined grantmaking process and fundraised.
For the first four years, the Fund operated without a paid director. Members of the steering committee volunteered their time to read funding applications, meet with applicants and made funding decisions.
The Crossroads Fund is our fiscal agent. In addition to providing the online application platform, Crossroads distributes grant money to organizations and manages the funds coming in from contributing foundations. If requested, Crossroads can also send proposals and reports to contributing foundations.
In early 2025, the steering committee elected to create an Executive Director position, with the goal of having a full-time staff person in place by the end of the calendar year.
Steering Committee Members, March 2025 (left to right): Channing Lenert, Polk Bros. Foundation; Keenya Lambert, Chicago Foundation for Women; Michelle Morales, Woods Fund of Chicago; Cindy Camacho, JPMorgan Chase; Jawanza Malone, Wieboldt Foundation; Jane Kimondo, Crossroads Fund; Heather Parish, Albert Pick Jr. Fund; Mary Pounder, Comer Family Foundation; Iona Calhoun-Battiste, Chicago Community Trust; Whitney Wade, Chicago Foundation for Women; Amanda Hwu, Illinois Community Power Fund; Leslie Ramyk, Conant Family Foundation; Kamila Muhammad, Alphawood Foundation. Not pictured: Ryan Priester, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Lisa Marie Pickens, photographer.