Overview
The Community and Economic Development program area helps to create vibrant, economically-integrated neighborhoods and to increase opportunity for low-income residents. The main goal is to produce measurable improvements in indicators such as income diversity, employment, household income, property values, crime, commercial investment, school attendance and graduation, and child and adult health status. A second goal is learning and sharing new knowledge with policymakers, practitioners and other funders.
MacArthur funds efforts to strengthen communities for the benefit of individuals and families and for the positive contribution that healthy communities make to their cities and regions. The Foundation hopes that this support will also generate new knowledge about community dynamics and the economic interdependence of neighborhoods, cities, and regions, and that the knowledge will lead to improved public policies.
In 2010, the grant budget for this program area is $13.9 million.
What MacArthur Funds
With Foundation funding and other resources, the Chicago office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) implements the centerpiece of MacArthur’s grantmaking strategy — a comprehensive initiative called the New Communities Program — in 16 Chicago communities:
- Auburn Gresham
- Chicago Lawn
- Douglas
- East Garfield Park
- Englewood
- Grand Boulevard
- West Humboldt Park
- South Lawndale (Little Village)
- Logan Square
- Near West Side
- North Kenwood-Oakland
- North Lawndale
- Lower West Side (Pilsen)
- South Chicago
- Washington Park
- Woodlawn
LISC/Chicago uses MacArthur and other funds to provide long-term, general operating, and project support to local organizations to plan and carry out projects for improving the quality of life in these neighborhoods. Foundation resources also support a small number of organizations to work across the 16 neighborhoods in four areas — community safety, education and youth services, economic security, and economic development — as well as to document and evaluate New Communities Program activities.
The Foundation also contributes to the Sustainable Communities Program, an effort by LISC National to take the New Communities Program approach to ten other sites around the country, including Indianapolis, San Francisco, Detroit, Duluth, Kansas City, Milwaukee, rural Pennsylvania, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC. In addition, MacArthur is a member of Living Cities, a collaboration of major financial institutions, foundations, and corporations that works to advance community development in twenty-three cities.
In response to the current mortgage crisis, the Foundation has designed a Foreclosure Prevention and Mitigation Project. Through grants and program-related investments, MacArthur funds outreach and counseling for at-risk homeowners, legal assistance for renters who face eviction because of foreclosure, and new mortgage financing products, all of which include in their focus New Communities Program neighborhoods in Chicago. The Foundation also is supporting the City of Chicago and its partner Portfolio Services, Inc. in their efforts to acquire vacant and foreclosed properties for resale, rental, rent-to-own or redevelopment.
See Recent Grants for examples of grants awarded.
Letters of inquiry concerning projects in the 16 neighborhoods in which the Foundation is focusing its community development efforts should be directed to the New Communities Program at LISC/Chicago.
Grants for work across neighborhoods or for evaluation and communications are made directly by the Foundation. In general, projects are identified through staff deliberation and consultation with community development practitioners and other experts in the field. Those interested in suggesting a project in these areas should send a letter of inquiry to the Foundation. The format for such letters can be found in Applying for Grants.
Updated
March 17, 2010
Phone: (312) 726-8000