We mobilize resources for Illinois communities to advance a transformative vision.
In Illinois, we have a unique, pressing opportunity and responsibility to protect what we’ve won and create what we need.
We have won big collective victories in the past few years such as:
Establishing a permanent fund to invest in communities harmed by the war on drugs
Statewide ballot measure supporting workers’ right to organize
But we have so much more to do. From Quincy to Bloomington-Normal to East St. Louis to Rockford to Cairo – and beyond – communities are addressing critical issues such as housing, community safety, healthcare access, and more.
The time to support them is now.
Together, we can build the durable power needed to advance a transformative vision for Illinois.
VISION, MISSION & VALUES
Vision: Illinois has a statewide ecosystem that is moving at full strength to advance transformative policies and build new models of governance that are genuinely accountable to BIPOC and low-income communities.
Mission: The Illinois Community Power Fund is the state’s donor table committed to resourcing statewide power to advance racial, gender, environmental, and economic justice.
OUR VALUES
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We believe that funding organizing is vital to building statewide power. When communities have durable power and self-determination and are engaged in co-governance, structural changes are won and protected.
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We are building a donor and funder base that understands that we have a stake in and accountability to movements, clear on the power we can wield for movements, and actively driving strategies to move their institutions and networks to mobilize deeper resources for organizing.
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Our work is not done until there is collective justice and liberation for all in Illinois. We hold a transformative approach to philanthropy where we center work that is genuinely accountable to BIPOC and low-income communities and shift power and self-determination to organizing groups.
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We seek to do our work in ways that sustain the people organizing communities across the state and help funders and donors experience the joy of being part of a rigorous, relational community that is transforming our state.
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We center and believe the lived experiences and analysis of organizing groups. We hold our work in a continuous cycle of learning, practice, and adaptation to ensure that we are grounding our work in clear analysis of how structural change happens.
Meet the Team
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Amanda directs ILCPF’s strategies to create new philanthropic structures that are genuinely accountable to the Illinois organizing ecosystem. Her work is driven by the belief that how we fund organizing is a critical site for practicing the discipline and interdependence needed for transforming our world.
Amanda was born and raised in East Central Illinois. Prior to ILCPF, she served as the founding Director of Neighborhood Funders Group’s Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders where she built the region’s only program dedicated to training and coordinating funders to resource organizing. Her past work also includes managing an equity initiative within a family foundation, facilitating participatory grantmaking processes to fund Asian and Pacific Islander-led power building, building data systems for violence prevention programs, coordinating youth organizing programs, and supporting racial and environmental justice campaigns.
Amanda holds a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois and Master's degree in Social Administration from the University of Chicago.
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Kira leads individual donor organizing strategy at ILCPF and creates opportunities for individual donors to connect on a deeper level with our work and think through how they can show up as their whole selves as we fight for a more just Illinois.
Kira was raised in New York City and moved to Chicago to work as a tenant organizer. Deeply moved by tenants’ commitment to building power for safe and dignified homes, she sought to build spaces for her own people, wealthy white folks, to apply similar organizing skills and commit to larger movements. Since then, she created a donor organizing program as Development Director at Tenant Education Network, building the Donor Organizing Committee, which tooled donors to better understand tenant organizing and in turn, fundraise their communities. She also organizes with Resource Generation and consults with HouseUS Fund. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Oberlin College
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Vivien directs ILCPF’s capacity-building strategy ensuring that Illinois groups have the resources needed to hone organizing practice and discipline.
Vivien is an experienced organizer with 13 years working in social service and community organizing non-profits. Her passion is developing community leaders and organizers, building infrastructure, and creating a sustainable ecosystem for movement work. Her connection to the work comes from her family’s immigrant experience and wanting to build a better world for the future of her son and the next generation.
Prior to ILCPF, she was at the Wieboldt Foundation for 3 years to lead capacity building programming around community organizing for grantees as well as a community organizing internship, both being brought over to ILCPF. Before that, she was the National Field Director at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum for 2 years where she led their 2020 national voter outreach campaign in 13 states and in over 16 AAPI languages. Before NAPAWF, she was the Lead Housing Organizer at ONE Northside, a community organizing group on the northeast side of Chicago for 5 years. In her time at ONE Northside, she has organized directly with local tenants and was part of a team that passed an ordinance to preserve over 1,000 units of affordable housing. She has worked on affordable housing campaigns around homelessness, tent city, Section 8 and SRO tenant rights, local development and anti-gentrification, as well as holding the Chicago Housing Authority accountable.
She graduated from the University of Georgia with a dual Bachelor’s in Psychology and Anthropology.
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Tanya Watkins (she/her) is a mother, writer, Black womanist, community
organizer, and prison abolitionist. A proud South Side Chicago native,
she studied writing at Columbia College Chicago and later served as an
elected official in Chicago’s South Suburbs.
Tanya’s organizing journey began in 2010 as a leader with Southsiders
Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), a multi-issue, faith-based
social justice organization dedicated to building power in Chicago’s
Southland. Over the years, she has led numerous campaigns to reimagine
community safety and transform the justice system, most notably
spearheading SOUL’s fight to end cash bail in Illinois – resulting in
a landmark victory for the state with the implementation of the
Pretrial Fairness Act in September 2023.
Following the election of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Tanya served
as Co-Chair of his Public Safety Transition Sub-Committee. After more
than eight years of leadership, she transitioned from her role as
Executive Director of SOUL and its sister C4 organization, SOUL in
Action, in January 2025.
Steering Committee
Jawanza Malone, Chair
Wieboldt Foundation
Brenda Sears
Voqal Partners
Eilene Ladson
Paul M Angell Foundation
Erica Bland
SEIU Healthcare
Mathilda DeDios
Voqal Partners
Jane Kimondo
Crossroads Fund
Jay Travis
Needmor Fund for Social Justice
Steve Moon
Grand Victoria Foundation
Michelle Morales
Woods Fund Chicago
Andrea Ortiz-Landin
Woods Fund Chicago
Irene Juaniza
Woods Fund Chicago
Michael Aguhar
Crossroads Fund
Tuyet Ngo
Grand Victoria Foundation