Civic Consulting Alliance

The Civic Consulting Alliance, founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. This award provides general operating support to the Civic Consulting Alliance.

The Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA), founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro-bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. With this award, CCA supports the Cook County Assessor’s Office in commissioning a comprehensive audit of its current practices and procedures for assessing property tax, as a basis for reforms that will address the structural inequities in the current assessment model and practices.

The Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA), founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro-bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. With this award, CCA supports the City of Chicago to establish a new Office of Violence Prevention that draws on community input and other data to reduce gun violence and improve community safety in the city.

The Civic Consulting Alliance, founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro-bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. This award provides general operating support to the Civic Consulting Alliance.

The Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA), founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro-bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. With this award, CCA undertakes two related projects. First, it supports several components of the Chicago Police Department’s reform agenda. Second, it provides strategic oversight and project management to the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, a collaboration of philanthropic institutions committed to reducing gun violence and improving police legitimacy in Chicago.

The Civic Consulting Alliance, founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro-bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. This grant supports Phase II of the South Suburban Economic Growth Initiative to develop a comprehensive economic growth plan and strategy for Chicago’s south suburbs, a mixed industrial and residential area that forms part of the bi-state (Illinois and Indiana) Calumet industrial region. The Phase I planning confirmed the region’s continuing strengths as a transportation, distribution, and logistics hub, and its continuing importance as a metals manufacturing cluster. Phase I also confirmed the importance of the area's biodiverse natural environment to the Midwest, and identified the active network of organizations and individuals working to improve economic opportunity. Phase II entails ongoing planning and program development with a four-pronged focus: enhancing innovation in larger firms with growth potential; improving performance of small and medium-sized businesses with regional markets and for export; upgrading residents’ skills to better align with emerging job opportunities; and strategically enhancing housing and quality of life amenities in the area’s diverse communities.

The Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA), founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, fields pro bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. This proposal supports CCA’s convening of national experts and key South Suburban leaders to explore innovative development entities that have been effective in redeveloping similarly large industrial areas such as Calumet and to consider how to adapt the most appropriate of these to the South Suburbs initiative. This consideration of various models will result in the recommendation of an appropriate sub-regional organization form that will drive redevelopment in Cook County’s South Suburbs. In addition, the paper will outline more generalized learnings for the field about different types of development agencies, and how to adapt various models to different economic circumstances within the Chicago area and beyond.

Founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago in 1987, the Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA) provides pro bono teams of consultants to work with government leaders to improve public administration and services. As part of its commitment to improving Chicago, CCA is providing project management and administrative support to Partners in Philanthropy (PiP) – a coalition of philanthropic partners – to determine a coordinated response to the intertwined crises of rising violence and loss of police legitimacy in the city. This award enables CCA to provide staffing support for PiP meetings, developing funding priorities, and creating a grantmaking agenda. The project is designed to help alleviate the current crisis thereby allowing the city to focus on resolving underlying issues that lead to violence.

The Civic Consulting Alliance (the Alliance), founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, has since 1987 fielded pro bono teams of business experts and government leaders to improve public administration and services in and for the City of Chicago and the surrounding region. This grant supports Phase 1 of the development of a comprehensive economic growth plan for Chicago’s south suburbs, a mixed industrial and residential area that forms part of the bi-state (Illinois and Indiana) Calumet industrial region. Funding supports market analyses, initial identification of economic opportunities, interviews with local and regional stakeholders, and consensus building among key leaders from the more than 40 political jurisdictions that are part of the south suburban and greater Chicago metropolitan region.

The Civic Consulting Alliance provides pro bono teams of public sector and business experts to work with government leaders to improve public administration and services, helping governments function better by building the capacity of public-private partnerships, finding solutions to public sector challenges, and catalyzing new approaches to work in specific areas, such as Cook County jail system reform, local responses to high levels of gun violence, and the effectiveness of the Chicago Public Schools and City College systems. With this, and similar grants from other philanthropies, CCA will continue to deliver high-quality pro bono services to the City of Chicago and Cook County.

Founded by the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Civic Consulting Alliance provides pro bono teams of business experts to work with government leaders to improve public administration and service, including, last year, pro bono services valued at over $20 million to improve public sector functions in Chicago. The Alliance is playing a critical role in helping to restructure, cut costs, and improve operations against a backdrop of unprecedented City and County budget deficits. This grant will help the Alliance respond to a greatly-increased volume of requests for help from the City of Chicago and Cook County.

To support an inventory of anti-violence programs in Chicago.

To support an inventory of anti-violence programs in Chicago.

In support of training and technical assistance for community development practitioners.

In support of training and technical assistance for community development practitioners (over six months).

In support of economic planning for the neighborhood surrounding Madden Park/Wells public housing.

In support of general operations and technical assistance to the Chicago Housing Authority (over three years).