Vital Communities Grant Program

Vital Communities Grant Program is sponsored by MacArthur Foundation. Supports place-based economic development and creative placemaking initiatives to improve the quality of life in Chicago neighborhoods.

Vital Communities Grant Guidelines - MacArthur Foundation Login into your grantee account, reset your password, or submit an idea to the MacArthur Foundation. Vital Communities Grant Guidelines The Chicago Commitment team invests in people, places, and partnerships to advance racial equity and build a more inclusive Chicago.

The focus of the Vital Communities strategy draws on these three elements to support a diverse and resilient metropolitan area. We believe that a dynamic metropolitan area is dependent upon equitable community development. The Vital Communities work stimulates development in 10 neighborhoods by making early investments in response to community needs that contribute to economic growth.

We support place-based economic development and creative placekeeping initiatives to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods. We also support organizations whose research and analysis inform socially beneficial and equitable development. Place-based initiatives address the unique characteristics and needs of people within a specific location.

We concentrate resources primarily on pre-development of commercial corridors and industrial clusters in 10 communities. These initiatives may include comprehensive planning; land use planning and management; community outreach; or urban design that attracts commercial and industrial real estate investment.

In determining where to invest in place-based economic development, our team analyzed an array of different indicators related to Chicago neighborhoods, including levels of community engagement, income and wealth, demographic shifts, public safety, and the history of investment and/or disinvestment, among others.

This process led us to focus our economic development grantmaking in these neighborhoods: Garfield Park (East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park) Greater Englewood (West Englewood and Englewood) Greater Roseland (Roseland and West Pullman) South Lawndale/Little Village We believe that seeding investment in commercial corridors and industrial clusters, particularly when responsive to community needs, can facilitate comprehensive community and economic development that is locally owned.

It can also position place-based initiatives to seek larger investment opportunities, such as public funding, tax incentives, and other philanthropic and corporate investment strategies.

In general, Vital Communities will not focus on one specific development or provide funds to close a single deal; rather, it will invest in the general capacity of the leading organizations to enable them to undertake the necessary range of revitalization projects underway in each corridor, industrial area, or initiative.

Grants will be made to community-based organizations engaged in spatial development to produce socially beneficial development deals. These awards will facilitate the pre-development of commercial corridors and industrial clusters, when grant funds are necessary to explore a wide variety of financing options.

Organizations will have a record of community planning, prior experience in development, and the capacity to support new projects. While we are using geographic areas for our place-based economic development work, our other grantmaking programs are offered citywide and reflect and address the broad diversity of Chicago.

Creative placekeeping techniques are place-based community and economic development tools that use art and cultural activities and installments to animate public spaces, rejuvenate structures and streetscapes, improve local business visibility and public safety, and bring people together to build a shared understanding of culture and community.

We recognize and support the existing cultural and creative assets within Chicago communities. Our aim is to augment the place-based work within the Vital Communities portfolio by: Supporting cultural and creative initiatives designed to promote cultural awareness; Supporting a sense of belonging; and Promoting community assets.

We support these projects across the city, not only in the 10 neighborhoods listed above for Place-Based Initiatives. Infrastructure Support Organizations Over decades, our support for neighborhood initiatives has underscored the value of investments in local and regional infrastructure support organizations that, in turn, provide organizational development support to individual neighborhood efforts.

The forms of organizational development support may include planning, management, policy research, evaluation, data analysis, or other services offered to groups working at the community or regional level. We have also learned that it is cost-effective to spread the expense of these forms of support across many neighborhood efforts.

As such, we will continue to provide strategic support each year to a selection of these organizations, while exploring opportunities with other funders to provide coordinated support to the field.

Place-based Initiative Awards In our 10 designated communities, we support organizations that: draw on community assets and the potential to attract commercial real estate or industrial development; engage residents in designing development plans that strive to build on community assets and anticipate unintended consequences, such as displacement; have a record of community planning, prior experience in development, and the capacity to support new projects; and have been nominated by a diverse group of advisors who serve as external nominators of promising place-based initiatives.

Creative Placekeeping Awards We support projects that: effectively address a community purpose, issue, or need; bring residents together to make social, physical, and economic changes in their neighborhoods through arts and culture; and enable greater access for communities to participate in and benefit from artistic or cultural activities, particularly where few such activities exist.

The majority of awards will be made through a partnership with Elevated Chicago . Under this program, Elevated Chicago will regrant funds to projects across Chicago neighborhoods led by entrepreneurs, small businesses, artists, and unincorporated collectives. In 2025, its first year, the collaborative anticipates awarding $340,000 in grants, with the first round of funding expected in the final quarter of 2025.

For more information, please inquire through Elevated Chicago . Infrastructure Support Organizations We support entities that conduct planning, management, policy research, evaluation, data analysis, or other forms of organizational development support to groups working at the community or regional level.

Initiatives and organizations that wish to be considered as place-based initiatives, creative placekeeping projects, or infrastructure support organizations may submit a brief description of their work through our grants portal. In addition, we are eager to learn about initiatives and organizations that have not previously received support, as well as new ideas from prior grant recipients.

In the future, the selection process may change to ensure that we can consider even more possibilities. Initiatives and organizations that wish to be considered for support may "self-nominate" by submitting a brief description of their work through our grants portal. In addition, we are eager to learn about initiatives and organizations that have not previously received support, as well as new ideas from prior grant recipients.