A Look Back at 2025

A year of resilience, collaboration, and community power

Communities across the HCF region, still recovering from the long-term effects of public health crises, faced new challenges this year as economic pressures and a shifting social and political environment further strained their safety and well-being. Despite these pressures, community members and our grantee partners demonstrated remarkable resilience by supporting one another and filling critical gaps for those in need.

Challenges Across Our Region This Year

Communities across our region faced compounding challenges caused by federal actions, economic strain, and barriers to essential services. Unfortunately, we expect the effects of these challenges to continue to unfold beyond 2025.

Some key developments that shaped local community health and well-being this year include:

Heightened Federal Scrutiny on Nonprofits: The nonprofit sector faced unprecedented federal scrutiny, including investigations, threats to tax-exempt status of organizations, and funding disruptions, creating sector-wide uncertainty. Many across the country scaled back DEI efforts, limited advocacy, or were impacted by anti-LGBTQIA+ policies. Despite these challenges, locally, our partners stayed focused on their missions, and we provided responsive support to keep their work moving on the ground.
Federal and State Actions Affecting Access to Care and Safety: In July, Illinois ended the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, cutting Medicaid-like coverage for 32,000 IL residents aged 42-64, including over 10,000 in Cook County, and placing a financial strain on Federally Qualified Health Centers. Federally, H.R. 1 (2025) codified soon-to-be implemented cuts to Medicaid and restrictions to other public benefits programs, such as SNAP. These historic cuts to the social safety net, along with the impending increases in ACA insurance premiums, will likely have devastating consequences for the health and well-being of our service region, our state, and country.
Immigration Enforcement Creating Fear: Aggressive immigration enforcement fueled fear and instability in our region. This environment discouraged families from seeking essential services, heightened emotional stress due to detainments, led to dangerous interactions with immigration enforcement, and created economic hardship for people and local small businesses. Yet, communities mobilized to defend immigrant rights, expand mutual aid, and ensure families were not left alone in moments of crisis.
Setbacks for Housing and Homelessness Programs: Critical services for unhoused individuals were jeopardized following a July executive order that criminalized homelessness and cut funding for Housing First and harm reduction programs, undermining our partners’ ongoing efforts to address systemic housing instability. New federal HUD rules will also significantly reduce funding for permanent supportive housing in Illinois, putting more than 8,500 formerly unhoused people (many with disabilities or chronic health needs) at risk of losing stable housing. Together, these actions reverse progress towards evidence-based, compassionate responses to homelessness and create immediate challenges for local providers, including several of our grantee partners.
Government Shutdown Uncertainty and Food Assistance Cuts: When the government shutdown ended in early November, nearly two million Illinois residents finally received their full SNAP benefits after weeks of delays and reductions. Food insecurity surged sharply during the SNAP disruption, causing Chicago-area food pantries in our region to experience a threefold increase in demand, especially in the hardest-hit communities, such as Austin and North Lawndale, where almost half of residents rely on SNAP. New federal work requirements effective in December further restrict eligibility, deepening inequities and increasing pressure on local organizations to meet the growing demand for food.

HCF Highlights

2025 Grantmaking At-A-Glance

Communities continue to navigate the lasting effects of public health crises, economic challenges, and a complex social and political environment that affect safety and well-being. In response, this year we deepened our support for efforts that strengthen local networks of care, elevate community leadership, and improve the conditions that influence health.

Grant Totals

Gen Ops (Multi-Year)
$4,450,000 · 32 organizations

Gen Ops (Annual)
$1,785,000 · 37 organizations

Bold Investments
$770,000 · 8 organizations

Responsive Funding
$212,600 · 13 organizations

Board & Staff Transitions

We announced the promotion of Tina Ramirez Moon to Director of Programs this year. Tina joined HCF in 2018 and recently spearheaded the development of our Healing & Resilience framework to support local leadership, foster healing-informed organizational cultures, and cultivate a resilient health ecosystem. As Director of Programs, Tina will lead HCF’s programmatic strategy and oversee the development, implementation, and evolution of our grantmaking approach.

Earlier this year, we welcomed two new board members—Dr. Sofia Adawy Akintunde and Fabiola Zavala. Dr. Sofia is a first-generation Egyptian American executive health leader who has dedicated her entire professional career to public service. Currently, she is the Chief Medical Officer of the South Side Healthy Community Organization, where she leads value-based healthcare strategy and innovation across a coalition of 13 partner organizations serving Chicago’s South Side. Fabiola is a first-generation Latina public health and healthcare professional and currently serves as the Regional Director of Community Health at UChicago Medicine Advent Health overseeing community benefit work for four hospitals across Cook, Will and DuPage Counties.

In December, we honored our outgoing founding board members—Amalia Rioja, Carl Bergetz, Elyse Forkosh Cutler (not pictured), Deputy Gov. Grace Hou, and Joseph McInerney—whose steady leadership, vision, and commitment since 2016 helped shape HCF’s approach to community-centered health philanthropy, leaving a lasting impact on how we show up for partners and the region we serve.

Learning From Our Partners

We released our learning report that analyzed the 2023-2024 grant term and highlighted how our partners used our general operating support to advance health equity through their work. Learnings from that grant term guided initiatives such as our Resilience grantmaking in 2023 and the expansion of multi-year funding to 5 years in 2024.

Read the team’s thought pieces about our grantmaking strategies.

Read former Director of Programs Nora Garcia’s reflection on the evolution and expansion of our multi-year funding strategy.

Read Director of Programs Tina Ramirez Moon’s reflection on how our healing and resilience approach to capacity building is strengthening organizations and supporting long-term systems change.

Read Program Manager of Learning & Evaluation Gillian Knight’s reflection on how our investments support a more connected, responsive health ecosystem, and the essential roles our partners play in advancing community health across diverse needs.

Read Program Manager of Policy & Advocacy Julián Lazalde’s reflection on how our commitment to systems change drives our efforts to address structural inequities and advance health equity.

Bringing People Together in This Moment

This year, our team played a leading role in coordinating peer funders and nonprofit partners to navigate federal actions and meet urgent community needs in our region and across Illinois.

In March, Julián Lazalde, Program Manager of Policy & Advocacy, facilitated a session on federal immigration policy updates and their impact on legal service providers in Illinois with the Philanthropic Strategic Response Network, a group of over 30 peer foundations. In October, we joined together the Philanthropic Strategic Response Network and our grantee partner, Brave Space Alliance, to host a briefing on Chicago Area Trans Supports, an effort led by our Program Manager of Learning & Evaluation, Gillian Knight.

We joined the Strategy Table, a quarterly convening held by the Illinois Community Power Fund, a collaboration that helps HCF align its systems-change approach with a multi-decade, power-building strategy. In addition, our Director of Programs, Tina Ramirez Moon, was selected to be a 2025 Líderes Fellow with Hispanics in Philanthropy, joining a cohort of Latinx leaders working to transform philanthropy and the wider social sector.

A September presidential memo raised concern about the potential targeting by the federal government of nonprofits, including foundations, that finance or support “domestic terrorism and political violence.” We joined 700+ organizations in the Unite in Advance coalition to protect philanthropic freedom to give and the sector’s ability to advocate for communities. See one of our statements here.

Our team’s expertise and leadership continue to be highly respected at both local and national levels, as we participated in multiple speaking engagement panels this year.

In May, Gillian Knight spoke on the panel “The State of Homelessness: Exploring a Shifting Policy Landscape,” hosted by our grantee partner Housing Forward. Panelists, including representatives from our partner the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County, discussed trends in homelessness and federal and statewide changes that affect housing.

In August, HCF President Maria Pesqueira spoke with Julia Morita, MD, President & CEO of the Joyce Foundation, at the closing session of the National Association of Community Health Centers Health Conference and EXPO. With moderator Cara James, PhD, President & CEO at Grantmakers in Health, they discussed diverse topics, including philanthropy’s role in this moment. Maria also spoke with peer funders about HCF’s access to quality health services grantmaking priority and its connection to supporting immigrant communities’ health and well-being across our region.

In November, Julián Lazalde had the opportunity to speak at the 2025 Grantmakers in Health Health Policy Exchange in Arlington, VA. Julián joined members from The Colorado Health Foundation and the National Health Law Program on the panel to discuss the health costs of immigration policy. During the panel, Julián shared how the presence of immigration enforcement across our service region this year has affected community members’ access to care.

Grantee Partner Achievements

Our grantee and community partners led bold efforts this year to improve health and well-being in our region and across the state. While this is not an exhaustive list, these examples highlight how communities are driving solutions to local challenges and advancing health equity, with HCF supporting their efforts through advocacy, convening, and collaboration.

Credit: Lamar Johnson Collaborative

The Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation officially opened its doors on Juneteenth 2025. The Aspire Center was a collaborative community project led by our partner, Austin Coming Together, and born from the “Austin Forward. Together” quality-of-life plan.

The three-story, 85,000-square-foot building provides essential services, including education, high-performing workforce training, social services, and small business support to Austin community members. It is located on the former Robert Emmet Elementary School lot, a Chicago Public School that closed in 2013.

The Aspire Center provides Austin community members with a state-of-the-art, multi-use space to collaborate and build their skills and wealth.

Several of our grantee partners were recognized as Notable Leaders in Philanthropy by Crain’s Chicago Business. This recognition highlights local nonprofit leaders who are making an impact across the Chicago region.

2025 Notable Leaders in Philanthropy include Martin Castro, President & CEO at Casa Central, Channyn Parker, former CEO at Brave Space Alliance, Itedal Shalabi & Nareman Taha, Co-Founders & Co-Executive Directors at Arab American Family Services, Audra Wilson, President & CEO at Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

Credit: Crain’s Chicago Business

Credit: Arab American Family Services/FB

During Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, Arab American Family Services (AAFS) gained its certification as a rape crisis center by the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, marking a historic milestone as the first Arab American organization in the state to receive this designation.

In November, Tawazun, AAFS’s new behavioral health department, opened. It is the first mental health facility rooted in culturally affirming services for Arab people in the Cook County area.

To help safeguard healthcare coverage for uninsured and underinsured individuals in our region, the Health First Fund (which HCF contributed to) approved a $500,000 grant to Protect Our Care Illinois, a statewide coalition of healthcare advocates, providers, and consumers joining together to protect and defend Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, via the Health First Fund. Nine of the 50 Illinois ZIP codes with the highest Medicaid expansion enrollments are in our service region, including 60629, which has the second-highest enrollment in the state.

Two of our grantee partners were recognized at the 48th Annual Peter Lisagor Awards for exemplary journalism in May. Our partner, Cicero Independiente, won Best Reporting on Environment/Climate Change for Rooting Our Risk: Cicero’s Challenge to Build a Safe Inclusive Park by Leslie Hurtado. HCF Bold Investment partner, LWC Studios’ 100 Latina Birthdays podcast, won Best Community Reporting in Audio for its second season.

Credit: Chicago Headline Club

During Pride Month, TaskForce Prevention & Community Services was selected to be the inaugural “Out Front” Leader at the 2025 Chicago Pride Parade.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also recognized TaskForce in June with a special grant to support their work affirming and protecting LGBTQIA+ youth on Chicago’s West Side.

This year marked the seventh year of the evolving West Suburban CHW Initiative, supported by Community Memorial Foundation, The Coleman Foundation, Healthy Communities Foundation, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, and Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI). In July, the Year 6 (2024) report, Piecing the Mosaic: Strengthening Community Health Through Partnership, was published, highlighting the progress in building healthier communities across Suburban Cook County since 2018.

The Initiative also presented at the Illinois Public Health Association’s 84th Annual Public Health Workforce Conference in September. Individuals from supporting organizations, including our Program Manager of Learning & Evaluation, Gillian Knight, shared more about how the Initiative’s public-private partnership is sustaining and elevating the CHW workforce in suburban Cook County.

Credit: Housing Forward/FB

In September, Housing Forward celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the new Anderson Emergency Shelter in Oak Park. The shelter is named after lifelong housing advocate Pat Anderson, one of the founding members of Tri-Village P.A.D.S., the 1992 homelessness program, which eventually became Housing Forward.

The Anderson Emergency Shelter is a 40-bed emergency overnight shelter with laundry facilities, a communal dining space, and a small commercial kitchen where volunteers can prepare and serve meals.

During the government shutdown and SNAP disruption, food insecurity surged sharply, and local organizations and food pantries in our region experienced a threefold increase in demand. Our partner Beyond Hunger provided food to a record number of households in a single weekend—the highest in nearly 50 years—in early November.

At the same time, immigration enforcement added further strain, deterring many from grocery shopping and working, and prompting partners like Dion’s Chicago Dream to collaborate with trusted community organizations to expand home deliveries in the region.

A Dion’s Chicago Dream delivery truck at their Dream Draft event in August. Credit: Dario Durham

Credit: Chicago Innovation Awards/FB

Urban Growers Collective was awarded the Climate Champion Award at the 2025 Chicago Innovation Awards in November. This award highlights Urban Growers Collective’s Green Era anaerobic digester, located at the heart of the Green Era Campus, which diverts food waste from landfills to produce clean energy and nutrient-rich compost. The Green Era anaerobic digester is the Midwest’s first self-sustaining anaerobic digester.

Looking Ahead

Achieving health equity requires more than improving access to care. It means reimagining the systemic conditions that influence people’s health every day, including housing, food, and other systems.

Civic Health & Community Power

We are centering civic health and community power as key drivers of community health, deepening our focus as a health conversion foundation. The expanded University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s model of health shows how community conditions are shaped by levers of power through institutions, laws, policies, and funding, demonstrating that power itself is a determinant of health.

For us, applying this model in practice means investing in efforts that build community power by centering local health leadership, strengthening networks of trust, and supporting civic health and civic engagement. These strategies ensure residents most affected by structural inequities can participate in decisions that impact their lives.