History
The WOW (originally Wieboldt Organizing Workshop) Chicago Capacity Building Cohort was created by the Wieboldt Foundation in 2022, supported by a three-year funding commitment from the Chicago Community Trust. The cohort was designed to help community organizing-focused organizations address local challenges while building lasting power. In 2023, workshop sessions were opened to groups beyond the cohort and to organizing groups in the suburbs of Chicago.
In 2024, with the conclusion of the Trust’s three-year grant, the Illinois Community Power Fund (ILCPF) inherited the program.
Under ILCPF, the WOW Cohort is being evolved into a statewide model to support community organizing groups across Illinois. 2025 marks the first year the cohort is hosted out of ILCPF, and the program is actively planning to launch additional cohorts in other regions of the state starting in 2026. Applications for the current cohort are now closed.
About
Our cohort programming seeks to provide capacity building support to smaller community organizing focused non-profits in Illinois to strengthen, stabilize and enhance the impact of their community organizing.
Capacity building can translate to better equipment, stronger community organizing skills or rigor, and streamlined operations to maximize impact and effectiveness. The initiative fosters collaboration among a cohort of community organizing groups for the sustainability of the ecosystem.
What some of our grantee partners have to say about the program.
By being a part of the cohort, organizations including staff and volunteer leaders, will get access to monthly workshops with community organizing and infrastructure training that strengthen organizations’ local campaigns, a full Midwest Academy training open to all members that need it within the organization, a personal Organizing Coach, $30,000 in technical assistance funds, a personal Fundraising Coach, and the opportunity to connect with organizations similar to theirs across the city and state. We work with a number of partner consulting firms and organizations to make our programming happen:
Current and Previous Grantees of the Program
2025 Cohort:
Alliance of the South East (ASE)
Good Kids Mad City (GKMC)
Lugenia Burns Hope Center
Raise Your Hand IL
United African Organization (UAO)
Vietnamese Association of IL (VAI)
Westside Rising
2024 Cohort
Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL)
Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD)
Proyecto de Acción de los Suburbios del Oeste (PASO)
Northside Action for Justice
Westside Rising
2023 Cohort
Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE)
Good Kids Mad City (GKMC)
Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD)
Northside Action for Justice
Not Me We
Pilsen Alliance
Working Family Solidarity
2022 Cohort
Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE)
Black Oaks Center
Not Me We
People Community for Recovery (PCR)
People Matter
Pilsen Alliance
Working Family Solidarity
Timeline
We host the cohort every year. We typically release the application for the following year in October with a deadline in December. Organizations are selected in January, and begin programming in February.
Application
As part of the application and criteria for selection, applicants will be expected to:
Identify a specific campaign they want to advance through their participation in the cohort;
Verify 3 consecutive years of existence as a base-building community organization;
Confirm an organizing budget no greater than $500,000;
Complete a self-assessment of various organizational capacities;
Commit at least 10 hours per month to the initiative from the executive director, lead organizer and leader/member for a 12-month period.
*No more than 10 applicants will be accepted to join the cohort.
*The maximum number of years an organization can be part of the cohort is two.
For more information or any questions regarding the program, you can contact Vivien Tsou at vivien@ilcpf.org.