Pre-Development Fund Grant

Chicago Community Trust

Grant Provider's 990

Agency: Foundation

GrantWatch ID #192363

Grant Description

Grants to Illinois Black and Latinx for-profit and nonprofit community developers in eligible locations for real estate and land use activities and projects. Funding is intended to cover expenses related to due diligence, preliminary plans, and other costs incurred prior to site acquisition and construction. The Pre-Development Fund prioritizes female and female-identified community developers of color, and especially Black and Latinx developers. The Fund is exclusive to projects in Cook County.

The Pre-Development Fund was created primarily to support commercial real estate development projects, businesses with brick-and-mortar needs, and neighborhood scale land use projects that will stimulate economic activity in disinvested communities. Examples include retail and office uses, transit-oriented and mixed-use developments (which can include housing), and the adaptive reuse of obsolete buildings and infrastructure into community amenities. Businesses with brick-and-mortar needs must incorporate community-focused elements through design or programming to qualify for a grant from the Pre-Development Fund.

The Pre-Development Fund is for projects at the pre-development stage. Activities that fall in the planning stage (too premature) or construction stage (too advanced) will not be eligible.

Site acquisition is strongly preferred but the Pre-Development Fund will accept other forms of site control. Applicants will need to demonstrate a high-level plan for site acquisition and development. The primary purpose of the Pre-Development Fund is to help actionable projects gain traction.

The Pre-Development Fund will not make grants to projects that are exclusively social services, supportive housing, charter schools, workforce development facilities and other critical needs uses. The Pre-Development was created to support enterprise-focused projects that historically have not had access to philanthropic funding.

Qualified Expenses:

Examples include:

Architect and engineer services (planning, conceptual design, schematic design and/or structural testing)
Other consultants (e.g., development consultants)
Environmental expenses (e.g., Phases I/II, Hazardous Materials Survey, Remediation Plans)
Legal expense (e.g, zoning, finance, acquisition)
Market study to confirm the real estate use
Application fees (e.g., loan applications)
Site development project manager (third-party cost only)
Third-party community engagement and planning (feedback and input directly related to project site)
Fiscal sponsor fees

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Eligibility:

Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)

Additional Eligibility Criteria:

The Pre-Development Fund defines community developer as a nonprofit organization or for-profit company that administers real estate development projects in accordance with the values, principles and plans of the community in which the projects are occurring. The Pre-Development Fund prioritizes community developers of color, particularly Black and Latinx community developers. Additionally, applicants that have identified professional service providers (ie. architecture, legal, zoning consultants) of color will be more competitive.

For-profit community developers are eligible to receive a grant from the Pre-Development Fund provided annual revenues are less than $10M, the company has a positive historical track record of working in communities of color, and the company secures a nonprofit fiscal sponsor to submit the application.
- A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit 501c3 organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of charitable projects that do not have their own 501c3 charitable status. “Fiscal sponsorship” refers to the formal agreement between the fiscal sponsor organization and the sponsored project/organization. The Trust requires the fiscal sponsorship agreement to be documented in a MOU (memorandum of understanding) or contract, applicants can submit the MOU in the format of their choosing.

A nonprofit community developer could be a nonprofit community development corporation (CDC) or a nonprofit organization that has demonstrated capacity for real estate development projects. Additionally, it includes nonprofits that have an ownership interest in a community-based real estate development project.

Pre-Application Information:

2022 Project Scope Deadlines:
- Review Cycle 1: Feb. 25th
- Review Cycle 2: April 29th
- Review Cycle 3: Jun. 24th
- Review Cycle 4: Aug. 26th
- Review Cycle 5: Oct. 14th

2023 Project Scope Deadlines:
- Project Scope Deadline 1: Jan. 25th

Project Scopes are reviewed in batches every other month. To give applicants insight into the review cycles, Project Scope deadlines are listed above. If your Project Scope is submitted after a specified deadline, it will simply be evaluated with the next batch.

Project Scope: Submit at any time

Full Application: Invite only, dependent on Project Scope review

Award Announcement: Approximately eight weeks after Full Application review

Award Disbursement: Full amount, in a single payment

GrantCentral 101: https://www.cct.org/grants/grantcentral-101/

Additional Funding Information:

Estimated Size of Grant:

Up to $100,000 (average grant is $75,000)

Term of Contract:

12 months, Pre-Development Fund grants must be spent within one year (grant extensions must be approved by Trust staff)

Contact Information:

Submit project scope at:
https://forms.gle/caxVWdP8qUpYqgHXA

For technical questions about your GrantCentral application, please contact the grants management staff at grants@cct.org.

For questions about this funding opportunity, please contact Chris Eagan, Program Manager of Community Impact, at ceagan@cct.org.