FOUNDATION SEEKS TO CLOSE THE RACIAL AND ETHNIC WEALTH GAP
Dr. Helene Gayle is the president and CEO of Chicago Community Trust, the 106-yearold foundation which aims to bring greater equity and economic development to the Chicagoland region. Photos provided by Chicago Community Trust
Chicago Community Trust is more than 100 years old, but its mission of bringing
greater equity and economic development to the Chicagoland region remains the same.
Dr. Helene Gayle is the president and CEO of Chicago Community Trust. She said
the community foundation is able to connect philanthropy to impact because there is
a broad base of donors who want to invest in the community. “We work with donors who
want to invest in the Chicago region and help to connect them to opportunities that
can allow them to use their dollars in ways that make the biggest difference,” Gayle said.
As president and CEO of Chicago Community Trust, Gayle has created a new
strategic focus for the foundation which is centered on closing the racial and ethnic
wealth gap. Gayle said Chicago Community Trust did a reset and thought about how it
could make the biggest difference, adding that when the foundation began it had silos
– giving in health, giving in arts and culture, giving in education. She said the foundation
thought about how to make a long term sustained impact. She said she did a listening
tour during her first several months.
“Over and over, this issue of the wealth gap kept coming up as the issue at the root of so many other challenges we face. Whether it’s [a] lack of access to health and health services, and the life expectancy gap that we have here, whether it is access to high quality education, public safety, violence, all of these issues, kind of at the root of them was the wealth gap and this lack of economic opportunity, that in many ways, follows the racial segregation that is so much a part of this city,” she said.
Chicago Community Trust has created a 10-year bet, working with partners and donors
to create programs and policies that will have an impact on closing the wealth gap and
bringing prosperity to the entire region.
Gayle said there are three strands which include increasing wealth at the household
level, catalyzing investments in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment,
and helping to raise the voices of citizens while ensuring that communities are at the
heart of necessary changes.
According to Gayle, part of the strategy includes providing access to jobs that pay a
living wage and that lead to careers, helping families develop small businesses, gaining
access to homeownership and reducing debt.
“Also working with the private sector to help to drive investment in neighborhoods
where there has been disinvestment, so we can help to build the physical infrastructure
that starts to have our communities look different. Then, how do we organize at [the]
community level, so that citizens are actually engaged in the process of change within
their communities,” she remarked.
Gayle said, in many ways, the policies of racial segregation -- redlining, contract buying, predatory lending – have worked against Black and brown communities, but added the foundation is looking at how those policies can be changed. “If bad policies got us where we are today, good policies can actually help to be part of the solution,” Gayle said. “So, we use both our dollars, our influence, our voice, advocating and really pushing for some of the kinds of policies we think can make a long term difference as well,” she continued.
Moreover, Chicago Community Trust has worked with philanthropic partners to put
dollars together that help people to build businesses and created the Fund for Equitable
Business Growth for small businesses. It provides information on how to build business
plans and how to obtain the proper legal framework and structures. There are also
people who have the same kinds of businesses who share information about lessons learned.
“We’re helping to build those ecosystems so that small businesses can build their
capacity so that when they’re able to access capital, they are strong and able to succeed,”
she said, adding that Chicago Community Trust also has a fund for those in real estate
development. “We’re trying to use our dollars in ways that really help to remove barriers to
wealth creation and building businesses and changing the physical infrastructure,” Gayle
said. For more information about Chicago Community Trust, visit www.cct.org.
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