Investor Report 2023
Leveraging
Data for
Youth Progress
At the heart of A Better Chicago’s mission lies a deep commitment to creating transformative change in our city. We fight poverty with opportunity. We know when children and families have the support and tools they need to thrive—steady access to basic needs, a world-class education, a fair wage, the ability to buy a home and live in a safe community—we can break the cycle of poverty for this generation and generations to come.
Through our work over the past year and the momentum we are carrying into the next, we have the unique opportunity to drive large-scale change. In 2023, we were proud to deploy over $7 million to the 27 organizations in our portfolio, working collaboratively to create opportunities for young people to escape poverty. We invested a record-high amount of funding towards management support projects, helping these organizations scale and serve more youth, more effectively.
With tools like the Youth Opportunity Dashboard and the results from our inaugural youth focus groups and surveys, we used our unique position in the venture philanthropic space to uplift the voices of the children and communities we serve.
By investing in organizations that are leading the way, listening to young people about where more resources are needed to help them thrive, and tackling poverty from the root with proven metrics, we can create lasting change in our city.
Thank you for your partnership in this critical work.
Beth Swanson,
CEO, A Better Chicago
…we have the unique opportunity to drive large-scale change.
Our portfolio organizations are operating on an average of 13% above their respective benchmarks. 5,722 more students are on track for long-term success–510 more than 2022. 29,795 total youth on track to achieve critical milestones (in comparison to the benchmark of 24,040 youth)
Demographics our portfolio serves:
A Better Chicago’s unique model dramatically improves opportunities for underserved Black and Latinx youth by leveraging the collective power of Chicagoans who want to make our city more equitable.
Driven by impact and collaboration, we employ a venture capital approach: We raise money from donors who want to maximize their impact by investing in innovative, youth-serving nonprofits that have the potential to expand exponentially. We vet them rigorously before investing, and our continued support depends on them meeting mutually agreed milestones.
We provide unrestricted funding, renewed annually based on performance, along with strategic guidance and resources. Our goal is for our investments to eventually flourish without us.
Our administrative expenses are covered by our board, ensuring that every donor dollar is deployed to the nonprofits we support.
We’re a venture philanthropy. We do your homework and invest your money in Chicago’s best nonprofits.
Early-stage, community-embedded programs with promising approaches to serving youth across the South and West sides of Chicago.
Organizations that have proven program models, demonstrate strong early results, and are poised to scale in Chicago.
Well-established organizations with proven impact for meaningful scale.
Former actively managed investments with proven impact that A Better Chicago continues to champion.
Our portfolio organizations are operating on an average of 13% above their respective benchmarks. 5,722 more students are on track for long-term success–510 more than 2022. 29,795 total youth on track to achieve critical milestones (in comparison to the benchmark of 24,040 youth)
Demographics our portfolio serves:
One Million Degrees (OMD), partnered with City Colleges of Chicago to provide wrap-around support for all City College Students. This initiative automatically enrolls thousands of students into the OMD program, giving them access to coaching, mentoring, and financial support.
Chicago Scholars announced the impact they have had on the more than 6,000 students they have served over its 28-year history. Young men of color who complete their program earn salaries approximately 2.5 times those of their peers. Chicago Scholars Alumni have collectively earned $6.8B more in lifetime earnings, and each Alum contributes an average of $500K back to their communities in societal benefits.
College Possible signed a 3-year contract with Chicago Public Schools to implement its programming. With this achievement, College Possible surpassed its scale milestones for School Year 2023, serving over 1,600 students and bringing its reach back to pre-pandemic levels.
Pitch In Chicago unveiled their new program partnership with Benjamin E. Mays Elementary School. Pitch In is now serving five schools in the South and West Sides of Chicago.
MAAFA expanded its program model to include the MAAFA Alumni Program (MAP), Beautiful Seed (MAAFA programming for young women), and Summer programming. This supports MAAFA’s role within The Sankofa Wellness Village, which is a $50M “Garfield Rite to Wellness Collaborative” project that creates a safe, well-resourced community hub for Garfield Park residents. The project includes a Wellness Center, housing, health center, fitness facilities, daycare, a credit union, the MAAFA Center for Arts & Activism, and more.
Jamyle Cannon, Executive Director of The Bloc, was selected as a Chicago Bulls 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Honoree, an annual award that recognizes three Chicagoans who have advanced equity and social justice in our city.
Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder and CEO of Braven, was announced as a 2023 McNulty Prize winner. With the award, the McNulty Foundation recognized three leaders of organizations that have made a difference in advancing economic mobility, mental healthcare, and a sustainable future.
Management Support Projects can include executive leadership coaching, strategic planning, team and professional development, and assistance with fundraising, marketing, operations, DEI efforts, and more.
Management Support utilization was strong across all of A Better Chicago’s funds.
Completed a project:
Fiscal Sustainability Support
The Noble Schools (Noble) prepares students for long-term success by focusing on college completion and the steps necessary to attain a college degree. With support from A Better Chicago and an external consultant, Noble was able to reduce $14M in expenses from its FY24 budget.
PR/Communications Support
National Louis University (NLU) provides students with the support necessary to graduate college and succeed in the workforce. Looking to broaden its communications footprint across the city, A Better Chicago provided NLU with an external media consulting firm, which helped the university garner 219 media placements and nearly 200 million earned media impressions, including features in Crain’s Chicago, Changing Higher Ed, and WBBM News Radio.
Fundraising Support
Lion’s Pride utilizes a peer-to-peer mentorship model to foster empowerment in high school students. With support from A Better Chicago and a strategic fundraising firm, Lion’s Pride developed a clear, plan for funding organizational needs, including a fundraising calendar. This meant easier access to real time fundraising information/data and included coaching for members of their leadership team.
Bilingual and Migrant Student Support
Pitch In helps middle school students make a more seamless transition to high school through a wide variety of in- and after-school programming. With management support, Pitch In was able to secure Spanish-speaking program assistants so that bilingual students can feel supported and connected to the school and the local community. Pitch In also distributed donations of warm winter clothing, accessories, boots and gym shoes to migrant students.
As we support the broader deployment of effective interventions along with better practices in nonprofit management and leadership, we are working thoughtfully to raise even more funding for youth in the city. Now, we have launched new and more intentional approaches to gathering and understanding youth insights, including the Youth Opportunity Dashboard and our Youth Focus Groups and Surveys.
A Better Chicago will continue to both raise the profile of interventions that improve youth outcomes and amplify the work of our portfolio organizations to drive increased investment in high-impact programs.
In 2023, A Better Chicago set out to gain firsthand knowledge from Chicago youth around the current education and career development opportunities available to them, challenges they are facing, as well as the supports and investments they believe are needed to thrive in education, career, and life. Beginning in June and July, we conducted in-person focus groups among Black and Latinx Chicago youth. The following month, an online survey of 700 Chicago youth between the ages of 10–24 was undertaken. The research results were released in October, and identified powerful insights that made the city take notice.
Key findings from both the focus groups and survey include:
Mental health and well-being are a major concern among Chicago youth because they view both as key to their success. Nearly all said they need more support than they have.
When asked about seeking help, youth see parents as most helpful, followed by community-based programs, while very few say the same about school counselors.
Schools are preparing youth for success in college, but not in their careers.
Youth feel prepared academically but identified gaps in job skills, such as financial literacy and interpersonal skills.
Non-school community programs are more effective than schools at teaching essential interpersonal skills.
Youth have a clear appetite for entrepreneurship and autonomy, but no one is teaching key business skills.
Youth say information on financial skills, networking, and how to start a business are not being provided.
To succeed in the workforce, youth need to develop interpersonal and social-emotional skills like teamwork and tolerating unpleasant and stressful emotions, but they’re not getting these in school. They’re getting them from after-school and community-based programs.
“Youth development programs are at the heart of our mission at A Better Chicago. We raise money and invest it in promising nonprofits that lift children out of poverty, building a stronger and more vibrant city for all of us.”
“…It’s also important to meet kids where they are—whether that means the classroom, an after-school sports program or a homeless shelter where they’re living with family. Our survey results provide a strong argument to double down on that approach.”
“Chicago’s young people recognize the relationship between mental health and success. They’ve told us they’re struggling, and they can’t always find the help they need. Their future—and ours—depends on that support. Let’s make sure they get it.”
We must create and expand opportunities for them to learn and play while interacting with mentors who prepare them to cope with the challenges of adulthood.”
WBEZ described the dashboard as painting “perhaps the most comprehensive picture to date of how children in each Chicago community are doing, tracking how they’re doing before they enter school to whether young adults graduate from high school and find jobs.”
The YOD provides city leaders, philanthropists, and youth advocates with a comprehensive and easy to use data tool. By providing a district-level snapshot across 6 milestones, we can see how young people are faring in Chicago.
The milestones align with the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance which uses a well-researched framework:
Entering school ready to learn
Meeting benchmarks in reading and math
Graduating from high school ready for college and career
Completing postsecondary education or training
Successfully entering the workforce
Keeping youth on track and giving them second chances
The YOD provides A Better Chicago, the city, and leaders and organizations supporting young people with a resource to continually garner insights that push our thinking forward.
Within the first few months of the launch, we presented live demonstrations of how to utilize the tool with key stakeholders including the Chicago Mayor’s office, and various foundations and corporate partners. We hosted a panel discussion with experts from the non-profit space to discuss how the YOD can be used in a variety of ways to track outcomes, and a wide array of organizations, from corporations to schools, have accessed the YOD tool via our website.
Our ultimate goal is to ensure that all of Chicago’s young people are equipped with the resources and supports needed to reach their full potential, and to establish the YOD as the “go-to” resource for understanding how Chicago youth are faring.
We know those closest to problems usually have the solutions, so it is critical we utilize their knowledge and experiences to drive change. Second iterations of both the YOD and the focus groups and surveys are planned for the second half of 2024, strengthening our collaborative work with youth-serving organization to more strategically support Chicago’s young people.
As we look ahead, we will continue making highly targeted investments, leveraging the knowledge gained from the YOD to ensure we are amplifying the priorities of our city’s underserved and Black and Latinx communities. Through identifying and supercharging the most promising organizations, we will create scalable solutions to help youth escape poverty.
Catalyst Fund investments are made in early-stage, community-embedded programs with promising approaches to serving youth across the South and West sides of Chicago. With a priority on investing in BIPOC-led organizations, our Catalyst Fund has an intentional focus on elevating non-profits historically overlooked by philanthropy.
Venture Fund investments are made in organizations that have proven program models, demonstrate strong early results, and are poised to scale in the city of Chicago. Through funding and management support, our partnership is designed to help organizations articulate their long-term vision for impact and begin to scale with model fidelity.
Growth Fund investments are awarded to well-established organizations with proven impact for meaningful scale. Through collaboration, our partnership is designed to help organizations continue to increase impact through participant growth, program innovation, and ultimately systems influence.
A Better Chicago launched a new Alumni fund for grantees who successfully graduated from our portfolio. Alumni Fund investments are former actively managed investments with proven impact that we continue to champion. In 2023, two portfolio organizations, KIPP Chicago and Noble, joined this fund.
A Better Chicago is committed to advancing racial equity and ensuring Chicago youth are economically mobile and thriving in education, career, and life. Given this nation’s longstanding history of systemic inequity, we focus our efforts on funding and scaling ideas that expand opportunities for Black and Latinx youth, with particular emphasis on those ideas coming directly from the communities we serve. Read our full statement here.
