Leadership Investment

The Field Foundation seeks to recognize, honor, and support the deep bench of visionary leaders across Chicago. By creating a network, we aim to act as a connector, supporter, and investor in leaders who have the potential to transform Chicago. The Field Foundation offers two opportunities in Leadership Investment: the Leaders for a New Chicago Award and the Field Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

What We Fund

The following opportunities aim to promote visionaries across Chicago by building their social capital, skill sets, networks, and exposure.

  • Leaders for a New Chicago Award: Created in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, this award recognizes past accomplishments that promote and advance a range of leaders whose influence will inform decision-making across the city of Chicago. This unique, no-strings-attached $50,000 award ($25,000 for the individual and, if eligible, $25,000 for their affiliated, not-for-profit corporation) is awarded to 10 leaders annually.

    Eligibility

    Eligible nominees for the Leaders for a New Chicago program must be:

  • From existing grantee organizations within the past two years of the Field Foundation OR a) are a current direct grantee in the MacArthur Foundation’s Chicago Commitment or Chicago-based Journalism & Media portfolios; b) received an Expedited Grant “X Grant” in the past three years from the MacArthur Foundation’s Chicago Commitment and Chicago-based Journalism & Media portfolio

  • Living in Chicago, Cook County, or the five collar counties at the time of the nomination.

  • Working in the fields of Art, Journalism & Storytelling, or Justice.

  • Maintaining a strong working relationship with the affiliated organization for at least one year at the time of the nomination.

Learn more here.

Goals

Goals for the Field Foundation’s Leadership Investment portfolio are to:

  • Increase individual leadership capacity by supporting leaders and their organizations.

  • Strengthen connections between rising and existing leaders across communities by growing leaders’ networks and social capital.

  • Utilize a risk learning strategy to discover what successful leaders need by giving leaders the room and capital to discover their most productive selves with an eventual goal of racially diversifying and thereby strengthening civic leadership in Chicago.

  • Field Foundation Graduate Fellowship: College students pursuing graduate degrees in Chicago may apply for a nine-month academic year fellowship. The program is a supervised placement at the Field Foundation, offering field work and philanthropic experience. Past fellows have applied through their schools to gain credit towards their degrees. Fellows learn all aspects of the Foundation’s grantmaking process by reviewing grant proposals, conducting site visits, formulating grant recommendations, and providing written documentation for the Foundation’s staff and board of directors. Fellows also work on special projects. We accept new applications in mid-February every year. Learn more here.