Funders' Collaboration
DuPage Funders’ Collaboration
The DuPage Funders’ Collaboration was established in 2007 following the release of a publication by the Chicago Community Trust and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, entitled A Report on the Chicago Region’s Health and Human Services Sector. This report highlighted the changes in the region (including DuPage) and challenges being faced by the health and human services sector today. Demographic shifts are rapidly occurring, private and public funding streams remain flat or are declining, and board and staff leadership for non-profits is limited. Recognizing these challenges as opportunities to achieve greater impact, a local group of private and public funders convened the DuPage Funders’ Collaboration to examine ways to promote efficiency in the sector through improved cross-system planning, evaluation of strategic and programmatic impacts, enhanced knowledge sharing and dissemination, and an informed resource allocation process.
The goals of the Collaboration are:
- To improve the availability of timely and accurate research, data, and other information for health and human services planning, fund distribution, and policy development;
- To gain acceptance as a trusted, objective, and inclusive collaboration that provides information, public policy analysis, research, and evaluation that is useful for advocacy positioning, community cooperation, and resource mobilization; and
- To improve the efficiency of the health and human services sector in DuPage County through collaborative planning and technical assistance and training on nonprofit management.
The DuPage Funders’ Collaboration includes several public and private funders such as the DuPage County Department of Community Services, the United Way of DuPage/West Cook, the DuPage Community Foundation, the Community Memorial Foundation, the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, the Gustafson Foundation, the Northeast Illinois Area Agency on Aging, the DuPage County Health Department, the Illinois Department of Human Services, and others. It is focusing on: (a) developing common messages regarding the health and human services needs in the DuPage area; and (b) using their resources (information, funding, professional networks, influence, etc.) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health and human services system. The DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform staffs the effort with the financial support of several of these funders.