Taproot Foundation Receives Renewed Grant from Chicago Community Trust

Chicago, IL, October 20, 2015 /3BL Media/ - The Taproot Foundation is pleased to announce it has received a $35,000 grant from the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust to fund general operations. Support from the Chicago Community Trust will allow Taproot to expand their work in the local market, ensuring that Chicago’s nonprofit sector has full access to pro bono resources necessary to build strong organizational infrastructure.

For the past five years, the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust and Taproot Foundation have built a strategic and impact-oriented partnership to bring pro bono resources to nonprofits serving Chicago’s underserved communities. Since 2009, Chicago Community Trust has supported 25 Service Grants for local nonprofits which delivered over $1.25 million in pro bono resources for Trust grantees, provided support for Taproot's general operations in Chicago and invested in some of Taproot's newer programing, including a research initiative aimed at parsing out common challenges faced by mental health providers in 2013 and a capacity building workshop for small businesses in 2015. With this most recent gift from this longstanding partner, Taproot Foundation plans to strengthen office staff structure, in order to mobilize pro bono resources on multiple levels – through thought leadership initiatives, strategic and creative partnerships and delivery of tangible capacity building resources.

The Chicago Community Trust’s president and CEO, Terry Mazany, was met with enthusiastic applause during the annual State of the Trust address on Wednesday as he announced their new strategic plan to award more grants for general operating support. “Our vision is for metropolitan Chicago to be the most philanthropic region in the nation” to “generate new resources and opportunities” for nonprofits. Taproot is thrilled by the opportunity to engage with The Chicago Community Trust as their visions align to improve the capacity of Chicago’s nonprofit sector.

About Taproot Foundation
Taproot Foundation, a national nonprofit, connects nonprofits and social change organizations with skilled volunteers through pro bono service. Taproot is creating a world where organizations dedicated to social change have full access—through pro bono service—to the marketing, strategy, HR, and IT resources they need to be most effective. Since 2001, Taproot’s skilled volunteers have served 3,700 social change organizations providing 1.5 million hours of work worth over $147 million in value. Taproot is located in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. and is leading a network of global pro bono providers in over 23 countries around the world. www.taprootfoundation.org

About Chicago Community Trust

For 100 years, The Chicago Community Trust has been a community foundation dedicated to improving their region through strategic grant making, civic engagement and inspiring philanthropy. They are here to serve the nonprofit organizations, the generous donors and the thoughtful residents who strive to make a difference, helping their bold vision create lasting community change. Today, the Trust, along with its donors, grants more than $100 million to nonprofit organizations each year. www.cct.org