Spring Newsletter 2025
Announcing Our New Executive Director and New Program Strategies
Photo caption: Senior Program Officer Nathan Stevens celebrates with peer mentors who graduated from a person-centered empowerment initiative at grantee partner Ray Graham Association.
In This Issue
- Meet Our New Executive Director
- Introducing The Coleman Foundation’s New Program Strategies
- Q1 Grant Awards
- Nonprofit Resources for Navigating Executive Orders
We are excited to announce that The Coleman Foundation will welcome Nora Garcia as the new Executive Director beginning July 7, 2025. Garcia was chosen through an extensive national search by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, with the assistance of Russell Reynolds Associates. She brings more than two decades of leadership experience in health and educational equity, youth development, and immigration reform to her new role at The Coleman Foundation.
“For more than 70 years, The Coleman Foundation has supported individuals and families in the Chicago region, helping them improve their health and well-being by removing barriers and increasing access to resources,” said Garcia, “The opportunity to center community, values, and responsiveness is timely in this moment. I look forward to collaborating with our grantee partners, staff, and board to deepen the legacy of The Coleman Foundation in strengthening the local ecosystem of organizations and leaders.”
Garcia’s appointment comes as The Coleman Foundation launches its new grantmaking strategies, updated to meet the challenges of the next three years, across the key focus areas of Entrepreneurship, Health, and Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities.
“Nora’s deep experience and values-driven leadership make her the right person to guide the Foundation in this exciting new chapter,” said Alison Fitzgerald, Co-chair of the Board of Directors of The Coleman Foundation. Co-chair Esther Barron added, “As we launch our new grantmaking strategies, grounded in collaboration and community insight, we are confident Nora will strengthen our impact and steward our mission with clarity, care, and conviction.”
Garcia joins the Foundation following a seven-year tenure at the Healthy Communities Foundation (HCF), where she served as Director of Programs. Garcia led the development and implementation of HCF's grantmaking strategy and special initiatives, engaging stakeholders that included community-based organizations, institutions, government bodies, and residents.
Prior to joining HCF, Garcia was a philanthropic consultant to Chicago-based family and private foundations where she supported grantmaking, communication, and strategic planning efforts. She also managed the Peace Grants Project, a fund established by the City of Chicago focused on youth violence prevention. For more than a decade, she developed partnerships between community and philanthropy with roles at Communities in Schools (CIS) of Chicago, BUILD Chicago, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).
The Board of Directors and staff are deeply grateful for the leadership of outgoing Interim CEO Peter Handler, who joined The Coleman Foundation in December 2023.
Photo caption: Foundation of Little Village offers resources and educational opportunities for local entrepreneurs and small businesses in English and Spanish.
As many of our grantees know, The Coleman Foundation recently underwent a robust strategic planning process to map out the Foundation’s goals for 2025-2027. Our strategic plan turned inward toward our grantmaking practices, understanding of our grantee partners’ work, and internal culture. As community is a central component of our programmatic work, this work could not have been possible without the input of our grantees. Through your partnership over the past several years, we gathered invaluable insights into our program efforts — where we’ve succeeded, where we can improve, and what opportunities the future presents.
Our new strategies in Entrepreneurship, Health, and Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD) build outward from that foundation, placing emphasis on our partnerships, networks, and the communities we serve.
Across all three program areas, we’re adopting approaches that are holistic, clear in their desired outcomes, and intentional about how we as collaborators will prioritize our partners and relationships as we work toward these goals.
Learn more about our new strategies: Entrepreneurship // Health // Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
Photo caption: Avenues to Independence empowers adults with IDD to live the lives they choose through personalized support, advocacy and community engagement.
The Coleman Foundation proudly announces the first round of 2025 grants in Entrepreneurship and IDD. These 31 grantees embody a holistic commitment to collaboration and community in the Foundation’s grantmaking.
Explore highlights from our Q1 grantmaking below, and stay tuned for upcoming grant announcements — including our first round of 2025 Health grants in June.
View the full list of Q1 grantees.
Entrepreneurship
This quarter, we directed our focus to Business Support Organizations (BSOs). BSOs such as community development corporations, neighborhood chambers, and cultural centers are crucial to sustaining a thriving Entrepreneurship ecosystem, and studies have shown the mentorship provided by BSOs has a demonstrable impact on small business survival.
BSO support is only one piece of The Coleman Foundation’s Entrepreneurship strategy, but we recognize that these organizations provide expertise and connect business owners to resources that might otherwise be inaccessible, particularly in the Greater Chicago region, where resources are unevenly distributed across ZIP codes and neighborhoods. BSOs provide pathways to take entrepreneurs to the next level.
Reporting from Next Street shows that while these services are essential, Chicago’s Entrepreneurship ecosystem can improve from coordinated leadership with holistic, non-competitive programs and services. Following this guidance, our approach aims to lessen the competitive and duplicative services for those serving community-based entrepreneurs.
In March, the Foundation’s Board of Directors approved $2,185,000 in grants to 13 BSOs that play an important and active role in the region’s ecosystem. These BSOs are already actively involved in or leading partnerships that streamline and support the ecosystem. The first quarter grants will allow these organizations to further develop — and bolster — their efforts. Several serve Chicago’s south and west side neighborhoods, including Little Village (Foundation of Little Village), Bronzeville (Urban Juncture Foundation), South Shore (South Shore Community Development Corporation), and Chatham (Greater Chatham Initiative).
Three grantees who reach the entirety of the Greater Chicago region have each been awarded $250,000 grants over a two-year period: Chicago Urban League, Sunshine Enterprises, and Women’s Business Development Center. These groups have the capacity and proven ability to convene, lead, and develop programs that strengthen the region’s full ecosystem, building well-connected, vast networks of organizations that help remove the barriers to Entrepreneurship success.
Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
Over the years, The Coleman Foundation has played an important role in supporting the capacity and quality of IDD providers and the direct services they provide, but direct services aren’t the only factor affecting quality of life for IDD families. After countless conversations with service providers, self advocates, family members, and direct support professionals a clear picture was painted: the Illinois system is not designed to help IDD families easily access resources and grow the industry's under-valued workforce. It is time for system-wide solutions.
In March, The Coleman Foundation’s Board of Directors approved grants for the Coalition for IDD System Redesign and Little City Foundation. This significant support goes toward improving services and supports for children and adults with IDD and their families in Illinois, and establishing a truly person-centered vision for system redesign.
Little City Foundation has led the development of the IDD Navigator — a free online tool for families to access resources, learn how to get started, and understand how to navigate the government. The central, filterable hub will allow families and individuals to easily access over 300 service providers throughout Illinois, empowering them to locate services and support tailored to their specific needs. The platform will also offer quick-start recommendations for families new to navigating the intellectual and developmental disabilities journey. Our first grant to LCF in 2023 supported the build out of the Navigator. This year’s funds will support the site development, launch, promotion and maintenance.
The Coalition for IDD System Redesign is an historic collaborative of organizations (The Arc of Illinois, the Center for Developmental Disabilities Advocacy and Community Supports, Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, The Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities, and the University of Illinois-Chicago's Institute on Disability and Human Development) dedicated to transforming Illinois’ system of support for IDD individuals and their families. By working together, the Coalition aims to create a person-centered system that prioritizes flexibility, sustainability, and the real needs of the people it serves.
Photo caption: Representatives from the Coalition attended The Coleman Foundation’s Board of Directors meeting in March to discuss how funders can best support the IDD community in Illinois. Coalition members, Foundation staff and board members sat at a table together for a robust discussion which addressed questions like: Why should solutions be system-wide? How will proposed cuts to Medicaid affect the IDD community? How can funders advocate for the IDD community?
The National Council on Nonprofits (NCN) has assembled comprehensive resources to help nonprofit organizations navigate recent Executive Orders, conduct a risk assessment, and find answers to their most pressing questions on how nonprofits may be impacted by the federal administration. We are sharing these valuable resources with our grantees.
→ Updated Chart of Executive Orders
NCN continues to update our chart that outlines the executive orders and how they affect charitable nonprofits.
→ Risk Assessment Checklist
A list of initial steps that nonprofits can engage in to conduct a risk assessment as the Administration targets federal grants and contracts for termination.
→ Frequently Asked Questions
To answer some of the pressing questions on the minds of nonprofits, NCN compiled a document with frequently asked questions.
