Woods Fund of Chicago

The funder’s stated vision is a society where people across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups can influence policies affecting their lives, and where communities are free of poverty and racism. Its grantmaking supports community organizing and public policy advocacy, including direct-action organizing and organizing-adjacent work that strengthens organizing efforts. Its website describes grantee partners as community organizers who support grassroots movements, take collective action, use an intersectional racial justice framework, challenge traditional power structures, and collaborate toward systemic change.

The grantees’ own descriptions illustrate the work supported. Crossroads Fund says its mission is to support Chicago-area community organizations working on racial, social, and economic justice. Southside Together Organizing for Power describes work to prevent displacement of low-income and working-class Black residents and build grassroots leadership. Kenwood Oakland Community Organization says it provides human services intended to help constituents control their lives through empowered, collective input. Other 2024 grantees describe work including ending gender-based violence through community leadership, building collective power through neighborhood organizing, and supporting workers’ leadership and organizing against labor-rights abuses.