Message from the Board President

and Executive Director

2025 Year In Review

+ 2026 Journey to Come

Greetings grantee partners, colleagues and friends of the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund,

Happy Women's History Month! Our last newsletter was published around this time one year ago. It turned out to be the beginning of undue scrutiny and structural attacks on civil society and federal government agencies that were unprecedented. While USAID was the earliest and most prominent casualty, long-standing programs and initiatives with the US Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, along with the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, were literally gutted. To say our grantee partners suffered adverse consequences is an understatement. As the months progressed, the severity of the funding cuts they have had to endure has resulted in significant downsizing of programs and operations, sometimes as high as a 60% reduction. Due to the instability of the funding environment, a couple of our grantee partners have closed their doors after being in existence for 40 years. Further, some grantee partners are under threat of investigation that is putting their 501c3 status at risk – an existential threat that is sending ripple effects throughout the nonprofit sector and civil society.

While the Pick Fund had recently completed a strategic plan that we were poised to implement, we knew in good conscience we could not add to the instability our grantees were experiencing. Consequently, in the Spring of 2025 the Pick Fund decided to pause implementation of our strategic plan and instead reflect on how we could “meet the moment” with intentional responsiveness and integrity. We knew there were actions we could take that reflected our values and commitment to furthering racial equity and social justice, particularly in service to the smaller grassroots organizations that we support and that often get overlooked by institutional philanthropy. To that end, in March 2025 the Pick Fund’s Board of Directors made the bold decision to double the grantmaking budget to at least $2 million annually for the next four years through 2028. At the time, this represented a 12-13% increase in the foundation’s annual all-in payout (including operational costs) from its endowment. Further, despite the foreboding uncertainty with the financial markets, the board decided to commit to a minimum dollar amount of $2 million instead of an increased payout percentage, so that no matter how the markets performed the Pick Fund’s commitment would not waver. 

Equally important, Pick Fund staff had one-on-one conversations with all current grantee partners during the Spring and Summer months to learn more about the real time programmatic and organizational challenges they were navigating. These conversations were foundational in informing the Pick Fund’s strategic response grantmaking strategy that was launched in the Fall of 2025:

• Provided 2-year general operating grants as gifts to 53 existing grantee partners in the areas of Civic Activism, Education and Health & Human Services, with grant sizes equal to or above their previous grant awarded.
• Suspended applications in 2025 and utilized staff notes taken during grantee partner conversations in lieu of formal applications. We also continued our practice started in 2023 to review IRS Form 990s in lieu of audits.

• Extended timeline of support for longtime grantee partners scheduled for sunset by another 2 years. Given the instability in the sector, we felt it was imperative to provide additional support that would allow extra time to stabilize their operations and cultivate relationships with new mission-aligned donor partners.

• Increased funding to current Special Initiatives partners. Specifically, we increased our grant awards three-fold to the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund and the Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative in response to detrimental rollbacks of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives coupled with escalated activity from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

• Awarded multi-year ecosystem grants to support capacity building for smaller nonprofits: AMPT: Advancing Nonprofits, Crossroads Fund’s Community Resilience Fund, Forefront’s Nonprofit Resilience Hub, Equality Illinois – IL Pride Connect and Springboard Foundation.

• Awarded six Rapid Response grants to organizations working to fortify multi-racial solidarity and provide on-the-ground legal and direct service support to communities adversely impacted by ICE and CBP activity.

• Doubled the scholarship amount awarded under the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund Law Student Scholarship and made it a final, two-year award.

Further, during our conversations with grantee partners many expressed concerns about their staffs being on the verge of burnout. We know this to be true based on the 2024 study from the Center for Effective Philanthropy that cited burnout as a top concern for nonprofit leaders. Similar report findings are found in the newly-released report from the Nonprofit Finance Fund and its companion funder toolkit that lifts up best practices for improving nonprofit worker well-being, such as sabbaticals and professional development. When we asked ourselves last year what else this moment requires in service to our grantee partners, we realized that providing opportunities to rest and restore had to be part of the equation. Inspired by the Grand Victoria Foundation's Leadership, Rest and Respite Fund started in 2023, the Pick Fund entered into a partnership with Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago to launch the APJF Rest & Respite Capacity Building Pilot. Over the next two years, we will support multiple 5-month program cycles designed to help our grantee partners build the capacity to cultivate rest and respite practices for themselves and within their organizations. We officially launched the pilot during the last week of February with enthusiastic support of our grantee partners and look forward to the journey ahead.

Looking ahead through 2026, the Pick Fund will build on the transformational efforts catalyzed last year and currently underway, as well as begin laying the groundwork to bring on new grantee partners starting in 2027. Please read the rest of our newsletter to learn more about these efforts.

Finally, we want the sector to know that the Pick Fund is standing firm in its commitment to serve under-resourced Chicago communities that are furthering racial equity and social justice. We will continue to strive to model our values and trust-based philanthropy principles in our grantmaking, while leveraging greater support for civil society and the nonprofit ecosystem where feasible and possible.

We cannot end our newsletter message without acknowledging the recent passing of the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., a tireless freedom fighter and world humanitarian leader on whose shoulders we all stand. His famous motto to “keep hope alive” is simple and yet deeply profound – the opposing forces we are facing are counting on us NOT to do so. Hopelessness and despair lead to giving up one’s soul and conviction to fight and maintain one’s moral ground. Our ancestors are counting on us to take the baton and run the next leg of the marathon for social justice. Please… Keep. Hope. Alive.

With gratitude for your partnership and in solidarity,

Alberto Morales                                                           Heather D. Parish

Board President                                                           Executive Director

Check out our new website!

New Grantmaking Approach +

Virtual Office Hours are Back!

In October 2025, after conversations we had with all of our grantee partners earlier in the year, we posted correspondence on our website that shared important updates on how the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund (APJF) will approach grantmaking in the years ahead. To our grantees and the wider nonprofit community navigating this time of uncertainty, we wanted to be clear: we pick YOU. Our new grantmaking approach reflects our desire to provide stability by standing firmly with our current partners for the next two years while continuing to strengthen our long-term commitments.

These decisions did not come lightly and are grounded in feedback from our community. Many of you told us you wanted funding that was more flexible, less administratively burdensome and more responsive to the realities you face. Consequently, we paused implementation of our 2024 strategic plan in order to listen more deeply and adjust. Our new approach is a continuation of the direction we set in our plan, and a response to the challenges of today.

However, as a smaller foundation we are also clear that we cannot be a "forever" funder. We believe the Pick Fund can have greater impact in the ecosystem by prioritizing support for early-stage and emerging organizations that can benefit from early philanthropic support, which can then be leveraged to garner additional support from donors in our sector. To this end, we have moved to an invite-only process with an eye toward bringing on new grantee partners starting in the fall of 2027 once support for some of our current grantee partners sunsets.

You can learn more about the Pick Fund's new grantmaking approach by going to our new website that we launched at the end of last year.

Virtual Office Hours: Although we have moved to an invite-only process, we are open to learning about the work of organizations we may not know about and that may be a good fit for future support from the Pick Fund in the areas of Civic Activism and Youth Safety and Wellness. If you are a past, current or prospective grantee partner, we invite you to schedule 30 minutes with our team to share your work, ask questions or just connect. Pick Fund staff will be holding virtual office hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays through May.

Please use the following Calendly links to meet with

Heather Parish, Executive Director:

https://calendly.com/heather-apjf/one-on-one-meeting

Alexis Allegra, Grants & Operations Administrator: 

https://calendly.com/alexis-albertpickjrfund/grantee-meetings

Current grantee partners: Please note that we will be prioritizing conversations with all current grantee partners during the months of June - August in preparation for the Fall 2026 board meeting. Unless it's an urgent matter we ask that you wait to meet with us during the summer months.

We look forward to talking with you!

Pictured above left to right: Shelley Davis, Ahmadou Dramé, Heather Parish, Verónica Cortez, Anna Lee and Rachel Lindsey at the Fry Foundation's 13th Annual Diverse Trustees Reception.

Pictured above left to right: Alberto Morales, Anna Lee, Elva Gonzalez, Verónica Cortez, Nikki Will Stein, Heather Parish, Laura Glick, Rachel Lindsey and Ahmadou Dramé at Impact House.

We are excited to announce the official launch the APJF Rest & Respite Pilot that was co-designed in partnership with Pilar Audain, Executive Director of TRHT Greater Chicago! As described during the launch information session on February 25th, the pilot will be offered for the next two years and provide existing grantee partners a $10,000 grant to engage in rest and respite practices of their choosing in one of the following cohorts:

• Cohort A: Full grant provided to the executive director / designated leader.
• Cohort B: Grant split equally between the executive director and staff to engage in collective activities.

Participating grantee partners will have access to a curated list of healing practitioners offering a wide range of rest and respite experiences from which to choose. Further, executive directors / designated leaders will participate in monthly peer learning circles to reinforce how they incorporate rest and respite practices for themselves and encourage their staff members to do the same.

The initiative was informed by surveying Pick Fund grantee partners during the months of December and January as to the type of rest and respite activities they wanted to learn more about and engage in. Forty-six (46) staff members representing 33 organizations responded, with one-third requesting to engage in Cohort A and two-thirds requesting to engage in Cohort B. Each cohort will be comprised of 10-12 members / organizations, run in five-month cycles that also allow for leaders / organizations to expend the grant funds over a 10-month period. A program evaluation will be completed at the end of Year 1 and help inform program offerings for Year 2.

While we are prioritizing support for grantee partners who responded to the survey, if you are an existing Pick Fund grantee partner and want to learn more about future opportunities to participate, please contact APJF Program Manager Pilar Audain at pilar@solidarityhealschi.com.

2025-26 Law Scholarship Recipient

The Albert Pick, Jr. Fund Law Student Scholarship Program was established in 2003 to assist a first-year or second-year law student who is a long-term resident of Chicago studying at a Chicago area law school: DePaul University College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago Kent College of Law, Loyola University College of Law and University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Law. The scholarship is offered each year to support full-time study for a student that demonstrates financial need with preference given to historically underrepresented students. While the annual scholarship amount was $5,000 in the past, in the spirit of increasing its impact, the Pick Fund Board of Directors made the decision to double the annual award to $10,000 and offer it for two years to the same student. In the Fall of 2025, the two-year scholarship was awarded to Stefanee Monterroso, a second-year law student at UIC College of Law. Read Stefanee's personal statement below which highlights her background and impressive accomplishments. Congratulations Stefanee!

"I am deeply grateful to the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund for the incredible opportunity the Law Student Scholarship will provide. I am a first-generation law student from a small town in Nebraska and I moved to Chicago after high school to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). There, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Disability Studies with a minor in Public Policy. Since moving to Chicago, I have committed my work and education to advocacy for human rights and justice for underserved communities.

Currently, I am a second-year student at UIC Law with an interest in criminal defense and disability rights. I am also on the board of the Criminal Law Society and active in our school’s Latino Law Student Association. This past summer, I worked for the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in their Homicide Division and plan to continue clerking there throughout the remainder of law school. My long-term career goal is to work as an Assistant Public Defender and be in the position to advocate for those in underserved communities."

If you work at a nonprofit or love someone who does, you're going to want to read this!

The Nonprofit Finance Fund just released a report highlighting the importance of employee well-being, positing that it is just as important as the organization's overall mission. Equally important, the companion report "The Heart of the Sector: How Funders Can Support Nonprofit Worker Well-Being" is a must-read for our sector.