Our Portfolio Organizations

Our incredible portfolio provides Chicago’s youth with the education, skills, and opportunities to succeed and break the cycle of poverty.

Catalyst Fund

Supporting community-embedded leaders with innovative approaches to serving youth across the South and West sides of the city

Venture Fund

Seed investments in promising organizational models that are ready to scale

Investment to date $936K
Students Served 342

Chicago HOPES for Kids provides educational support for children living in Chicago's homeless shelters. It is our mission to provide our students with the resources and encouragement needed to succeed academically, despite the challenges of homelessness.

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Investment to date $1.3M
Students Served 4,347

Intrinsic Schools works to create a revolutionary new school model in order to prepare all students for postsecondary success and world-changing endeavors and to provide the education community with a roadmap to sustainable implementation.

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Investment to date $125K
Students Served 303

It Takes A Village Family of Schools provides high-quality, culturally responsive education and life-empowering social services that inspire students and families to positively transform and advance their communities, nation, and world.

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Investment to date $1.4M
Students Served 2,730

Recognizing that difference broadens perspectives, Roosevelt University seeks and serves a diverse, promising student body from metropolitan Chicago and around the world.

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Investment to date $125K
Students Served 1,200

Springboard Collaborative closes the literacy gap by closing the gap between home and school. The organization partners with districts seeking additional capacity to launch and manage reading programs at scale, and coaches educators and parents to help kids learn to read by 4th grade.

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Investment to date $1.1M
Students Served 2,730

VOCEL's mission is to help ensure every child has the foundation to learn, grow, and lead. VOCEL continues to set a new standard for how to capitalize on the earliest, and, arguably, most important, years of a child’s life.

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Growth Fund

Significant investments to grow successful organizations with strong track records

Investment to date $732K
Students Served 4,470

Alternatives supports and empowers Chicago youth to build safer and more vibrant communities through a combination of restorative justice and behavioral health services.

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Investment to date $2.9M
Students Served 3,630

Bottom Line is a national education organization that is addressing the degree divide by providing academic, personal and financial counselling to empower low-income, first-generation students to attend and succeed in college. The organization is committed to building strong connections with students by providing them with individualized support.

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Investment to date $1.2M
Students Served 3,198

Braven partners with large public universities to empower underrepresented young people with cutting-edge career education and valuable networking opportunities that help them transition successfully into the workforce after graduation.

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Investment to date $2.7M
Students Served 6,279

Chicago Scholars selects, trains, and mentors academically ambitious students from under-resourced communities to enroll in, persist and graduate from college.

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Investment to date $1.8M
Students Served 2,089

College Possible provides intensive coaching and support to low-income students to help them get into and graduate from college.

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Investment to date $1.3M
Students Served 5,416

JPAbelieve that our children, especially those living in severe conditions, need access to programs and services that will enable them to learn, grow, and lead productive lives. By providing therapeutic services to children in challenged neighborhoods, JPA helps them repair the connections broken by violence, instability, alienation.

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Investment to date $3M
Students Served 8,116

One Million Degrees accelerates community college students’ progress on career pathways to economic mobility by providing academic, professional, personal, and financial supports to highly motivated, low-income students pursuing associate’s degrees or post-secondary certificates.

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Investment to date $1.8M
Students Served 4,926

Pathways at NLU seeks to address the most critical barriers inhibiting bachelor’s degree attainment for low-income students. Operating as a program within National Louis University, Pathways provides an innovative, student-centered, technology-enhanced bachelor’s degree model at an affordable cost.

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Investment to date $250K
Students Served 10,000

Saga Education is a national leader in high-impact, in-school math tutoring dedicated to improving academic outcomes for students in under-resourced communities.

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Apply To Join Our Portfolio

We invest in nonprofit organizations and initiatives at different stages of development that are focused on creating opportunity for Black and Latinx youth from low-income backgrounds. Our core investment areas currently include education (early childhood through post-secondary), career (through middle skill and high school diploma pathways), social-emotional development, trauma-informed mental health, and essential needs. Note: Currently, we are not soliciting applications; however, you can submit an interest form to share information about your organization or initiative. Given our team’s limited capacity, interest forms will be reviewed on a rolling basis.   For general questions about our application process, please email grants@abetterchicago.org