During these difficult times, giving back is more important than ever. Better amplifies online matching grant campaigns of $10,000 or more for free; here are a few great causes we’ve helped below.
Music Institute of Chicago
The Music Institute of Chicago, founded in 1931, has continued to operate their school, delivering lessons and classes through interactive videoconferencing to meet the needs of their community. They are also working hard to continue to support faculty and staff. To help meet the responsibility, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees has created the Nichols COVID-19 Support Fund to aid the effort. To donate, visit musicinst.org/giving.
Chicago Architecture Center Grant
The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is one of the city’s most important and beloved nonprofit cultural organizations. Because of COVID-19, CAC has pivoted to virtual tours and educational programming, but the loss of the main source of revenue is a huge toll on the nonprofit. To help CAC continue to offer these important programs to students at home with limited access to their normal learning opportunities, please visit architecture.org.
UNICEF Water for Guinea
Safe water is a basic human right, yet there are nearly 4 million people in rural Guinea that do not have access to it. Water for Guinea, a project from UNICEF and Glencoe resident Wendy Serrino, focuses on improving the quality of water and in turn, improving lives, in this West African nation. For more information about Water for Guinea and to donate to this cause, please visit waterforguinea.org.
Better Helps Frontline Workers
Three-hundred meals delivered with the Anthony Rizzo Foundation’s Hope44 Meal Program and local restaurant, Nick’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill.
The Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Chicago Cubs First Baseman Anthony Rizzo. The mission of the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation is to raise money for cancer research and to provide support to children and their families battling the disease. During the pandemic, they recognized the importance of supporting frontline healthcare workers. They pivoted to provide meals for these healthcare workers by partnering with local restaurants, like Nick’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill in Wilmette, through their Hope44 Meal Program. Better was able to support their efforts by donating $3000, which provided 150 meals for healthcare workers at Vista Medical Center in Waukegan and another 150 meals for those at Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
In partnership with Napolita and Pescadero, Better helped to provide 100 meals to Advocate Lutheran General.
In partnership with local restaurants Pescadero and Napolita in Wilmette, Better was able to help provide 100 meals to healthcare workers at Advocate Lutheran General Main Emergency Department and Pediatric Emergency Department. Advocate Lutheran General Hospital is a non-profit teaching hospital located in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois. Founded in 1897, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital is the sixth largest hospital in the Chicago area, and it operates a Level I trauma center. The Pescadero and Napolita family have continued to provide meals for healthcare workers at different facilities throughout the pandemic, while also raising funds to support their employees.
Donated $5000 and matched to Bucketlisters to help provide approximately 1,500 meals to healthcare workers.
Bucket Listers is a media company that creates curated lists of amazing experiences in over 15 different cities around the world, with seven of those in the U.S. During the coronavirus pandemic, they turned their passion for exploring into helping, pivoting to provide meals for healthcare workers around the country. Make it Better Media Group (Marin Magazine and Better) was able to pledge to match $5,000 towards meals, which meant our donation allowed them to send $10,000 worth of meals to hospitals in San Francisco and Chicago. In total, they were able to raise over $120,000 throughout all seven cities they operate in, and delivered over 5,000 meals to 100 different hospitals.
10K Matching Grants Amplified by Better.net
YWCA Evanston/North Shore
Eliminating racism and empowering women
Grant: YWCA is committed to making our communities more just and equitable.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Catherine Carpenter, Mary Pierson, and Roshni Flynn. Susan and Nick Noyes made a generous gift towards reaching the YWCA’s $10,000 goal.
Chicago Architecture Center
The importance of design
Grant: To help, CAC pivot to virtual tours and educational programming.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Ms. Drake gave a generous gift. She is the founder of AWESOME. Susan and Nick Noyes gave a generous gift towards reaching the CAC’s $15,000 goal.
The Music Institute of Chicago
Providing widely accessible music teaching, performing and service activities
Grant: Allows the Music Institute to operate their school, delivering lessons and classes through interactive videoconferencing.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Alexandra Nichols started off the fund with a leadership gift of $1,000,000. Susan and Nick Noyes are offering $10,000 towards a matching grant campaign.
UNICEF’s Water for Guinea
Improving water quality in Guinea
Grant: The second phase of Water for Guinea will expand the program to build more wells, serve more villages and bring sustainable drinking water to 180,000 more people.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Susan and Nick Noyes have pledged to match financial gifts to UNICEF’s Water for Guinea Project up to $10,000.
Chicago Red Cross
Alleviating the impacts of natural disasters and emergencies
Grant: To maintain a sufficient supply of blood to help patients in need and prevent any shortages and provide critical relief services to people affected by disasters big and small.
Donors & Participating Organizations: The Edwardson Family Foundation and Nick and Susan Noyes.
Richard H. Driehaus Museum
Offering fellowships to Chicago-based artists of color
Grant: To offer fellowships to emerging Chicago-based artists.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Anonymous donors.
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago
Enriching and uniting communities
Grant: The new 606Art Program, which uses art as a form of therapy to help youth from the South and West sides of Chicago cope with trauma and violence.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Better.
Bright Promises Foundation
Improving the lives of at-risk youth
Grant: To fund The Elevating Youth Voices initiative, which has engaged hundreds of diverse youth leaders from across Chicagoland who are working to address issues like youth homelessness and gun violence.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Better.
Chicago Humanities Festival
Creating conversations that honor diversity
Grant: Working to promote, support, and expand the public humanities.
Donors & Participating Organizations: Better.
More from Better:
- A Recipe for Success: How Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Has Managed To Thrive Through Crisis
- Staying Healthy and Giving Back In The Time of COVID-19: A Conversation With Karen Malkin
- How to Save Chicago’s Oldest Deli From Coronavirus Closure
Madison Muller is the Assistant Digital Editor at Better. A recent graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, she approaches our contemporary media environment with compassion and candor. She is interested in writing about the intersectionality of social justice issues in marginalized communities and environmentalism. Madison proudly supports Action Now, a community organization that empowers and uplifts residents on Chicago’s West Side.
She also encourages reading and supporting The Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.
