The Wieboldt Organizing Workshop (WOW)

About | Grantees | Timeline | Application

We are WOW!

The Chicago Community Trust has made a generous three-year funding commitment to the Wieboldt Foundation’s Wieboldt Organizing Workshop (WOW) Capacity Building Cohort to allow community organizations to address the challenges in their communities while also building lasting power.

About

Started in 2022, the WOW Capacity Building Cohort seeks to provide capacity building support to smaller community organizing focused non-profits in Illinois to strengthen, stabilize and enhance the impact of their community organizing. Capacity building can translate to better equipment, stronger skills, and streamlined operations to maximize impact and effectiveness. The initiative would foster collaboration among a cohort of community organizing groups for the sustainability of the ecosystem.

CLICK HERE to see what our grantee partners have to say about the program

By being a part of the cohort, organizations including staff and volunteer leaders, will get access to monthly workshops with community organizing and infrastructure training that strengthen organizations’ local campaigns, a full Midwest Academy training open to all members that need it within the organization, a personal Organizing Coach, $25,000 in technical assistance funds, a personal Fundraising Coach, and the opportunity to connect with organizations similar to theirs across the city and state. We work with a number of partner consulting firms and organizations to make our programming happen:

Current and Previous Grantees

2024 Cohort

  • Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL)
  • Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD)
  • Proyecto de Acción de los Suburbios del Oeste (PASO)
  • Northside Action for Justice
  • Westside Rising

2023 Cohort

  • Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE)
  • Good Kids Mad City (GKMC)
  • Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD)
  • Northside Action for Justice
  • Not Me We
  • Pilsen Alliance
  • Working Family Solidarity

2022 Cohort

  • Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE)
  • Black Oaks Center
  • Not Me We
  • People Community for Recovery (PCR)
  • People Matter
  • Pilsen Alliance
  • Working Family Solidarity

Timeline

We host the cohort every year. We typically release the application for the following year in October with a deadline in December. Organizations are selected in January, and begin programming in February.

Application

As part of the application and criteria for selection, applicants will be expected to:

  • Identify a specific campaign they want to advance through their participation in the cohort;
  • Verify 3 consecutive years of existence as a base-building community organization;
  • Confirm an organizing budget no greater than $500,000;
  • Complete a self-assessment of various organizational capacities;
  • Commit at least 10 hours per month to the initiative from the executive director, lead organizer and leader/member for a 12-month period.

 

*No more than 10 applicants will be accepted to join the cohort.

*The maximum number of years an organization can be part of the cohort is two.

 

For more information or any questions regarding the program, you can contact Vivien Tsou at vivien.tsou@wieboldt.org.