WE ARE
GREATER
THAN
WE ARE
GREATER
THAN
Images of featured mural are from The Great Wall of Chicago in the Auburn Gresham community of Chicago.
Artist: Rahmaan Statik
A LETTER FROM OUR CEO AND CHAIR
Dear Friends,
2020 was a year like no other—one that tested each of us as individuals, and our region as a whole, in ways many had never imagined before.
The Chicago Community Trust was prepared to meet this moment because of you. Last year, our caring donors contributed to the more than $35 million raised for the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund and expanded their donor advised fund grant making in Chicago by almost $21 million (a 24% increase). Our dedicated partners transformed those resources into tangible benefits for residents. Together, we significantly expanded grant making for critical needs and showed what is possible when we act as one for the good of all.
Our collective achievements in 2020 are commendable. Yet, we also recognize that this is much more than a moment.
The COVID-19 crisis, with its disproportionate toll on the lives and livelihoods of Black and Latinx individuals, only served to widen a chasm that has long divided us. Racial inequity in the Chicago region and across our country is longstanding, but was cast in a more urgent light by the pandemic and the swell of voices calling out for racial justice.
Metropolitan Chicago faces a choice: to continue down the same uneven path, or to become an equitable, thriving region that truly works for everyone. The Trust believes we can and must choose the latter. But are we equal to the task? Are we willing to do what’s required to be greater than the challenges we face?
Undoing racial inequity will take more than words, more than intentions, more than one-time infusions of funding. It will take all of us working together—across philanthropy, government, businesses, nonprofits, and communities—to bring about the deep and sustained changes that are necessary to achieve our vision. Repairing broken policies, adopting fair and equitable business practices, fixing lopsided patterns of investment, earning the trust of communities that for far too long have been shut out of opportunity—we must have all this and more if our region is to move forward.
The path to a more equitable future is long and we won’t get there overnight. But we are heartened by our community’s generosity in response to the pandemic, by the commitment of our nonprofit partners, and by the number of businesses and funders who have joined We Rise Together: For an Equitable and Just Recovery. Chicago’s philanthropic spirit and the energy of our civic and corporate communities are second to none. If any major metro area can rise to this challenge, then surely, it is ours.
The Trust is ready—with you by our side—to continue doing our part to show that the Chicago region can be greater than the challenges we face.
Thank you for walking this path with us.
The Gap has been exposed
The Trust is two years into a decade-long strategy to close the Chicago region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap. The disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis were a stark—yet predictable—reminder of why we must address wealth disparities once and for all.
The Realities of COVID-19
Black and Latinx individuals were overrepresented on the frontline WORKFORCE, where low hourly pay and no paid sick leave are the norm—and remote work is not an option
More small businesses went under in 2020 than in the entire Great Recession—MOST WERE BLACK-, LATINX-, IMMIGRANT-, OR FEMALE-HEADED
COVID-19 infection and death rates in Chicago
LATINX CHICAGO RESIDENTS WERE TWICE AS LIKELY TO CONTRACT COVID-19 AS BLACK OR WHITE CHICAGO RESIDENTS
THE DEATH RATE WAS DOUBLE FOR BLACK CHICAGOANS COMPARED TO WHITE RESIDENTS
11,048
217
5,453
247
5,178
123
COVID INFECTION RATES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS
COVID DEATH RATES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS
City of Chicago COVID Dashboard as of March 1, 2021
Latinx Chicago residents were twice as likely to contract COVID-19 as Black or white chicago residents
COVID INFECTION RATES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS
The DeATH RATE WAS DOUBLE for Black Chicagoans compared to white residents
COVID INFECTION RATES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS
City of Chicago COVID Dashboard as of March 1, 2021
Our donors’ giving in 2020 made an enormous impact in our region and beyond.
in total grant making awarded by The Trust
grants were funded from donor advised funds
%
INCREASE in donor advised grant making in Chicago over the prior year
THAT’S NEARLY
$12 MILLION A WEEK
32% MORE
THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR
THAT’S CLOSE TO
$21 MILLION MORE
AT WORK IN OUR COMMUNITY
in total grant making awarded by The Trust
THAT’S NEARLY
$12 MILLION A WEEK
grants were funded from donor advised funds
33% MORE
THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR
%
