African American Legacy Awards $600,000 in 2026 Grantmaking Cycle

African American Legacy (AAL), an initiative of The Chicago Community Trust, unites donors committed to supporting the Black community in the Chicago region. Since its founding in 2003, AAL has distributed over $5.5 million to 160 organizations that work at the grassroots level to educate and engage communities and to provide neighborhood-based services and solutions addressing community problems.

This year AAL awarded $600,000 to 23 organizations in three focus areas: community care, community mobilization, and community wealth building.

The 2026 cycle also reflects AAL’s continued work to strengthen and clarify its grantmaking approach through greater transparency around funding priorities, eligibility, and repeat funding. These changes reinforce AAL’s role as a catalytic funder, providing early support that helps grassroots and emerging organizations grow while creating space for new organizations and connecting grant partners to broader funding opportunities and resources.

We are grateful to our community of supporters and to the organizations doing the work to promote a vibrant Black community throughout the Chicago region.

Community Care and Community Mobilization

• BA NIA
• Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago
• BlackRoots Alliance
• Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus
• Chicago Black Voter Project
• Definition Theatre
• EcoWomanist Institute
• Educating Our Community
• Equiticity
• Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities
• Focus Fairies Mentoring
• Imagine Englewood if
• Lugenia Burns Hope Center
• Peace Runners 773
• Rebels for Peace
• Powering Institutions Towards Pride
• Shorefront Legacy Center
• Ujimaa Medics

Community Wealth Building

• Center for Neighborhood Technology
• The Community WEB
• Lawndale Christian Development Corporation
• Revolution Institute
• South Shore Chamber Community Development Corporation