Civic and Social Service Sector

For the past 25 years, Ancora has completed projects on behalf of mission-driven organizations. Non-profits formed around a clear and overriding sense of purpose can be tremendously powerful and effective, however often these organizations can benefit from 3rd party assistance in aligning effort, priorities and resources. Ancora has helped small and large entities more effectively achieve their vision and change the world in the way they were formed to do. We have helped our clients:

• Identify and align grant funding to leading-edge trends in education, economic development and environmental conservation.
• Create and launch a new philanthropic model for neighborhood revitalization through geographically integrated social service partnerships.
• Execute comprehensive effort to expand diversity and range of backgrounds represented in the leadership of major arts and cultural institutions.

Chicago Foundation for Women

The Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) works to make a region – and a world – in which all women and girls have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and live in safe, just, and healthy communities.

As they approached their third decade of service to the women and girls of the Chicago region, the Foundation looked to leverage its robust network, proven track record and experience to develop a public forum to unite the Chicago are around a shared women’s agenda – identifying the areas of greatest need and developing priorities and strategies for advancing women and girls in Chicago.

Ancora Associates teamed with Saathi Impact Consulting to assist CFW in creating Chicago’s civic plan for women and girls, the 100% Project. Launched in September 2015, it is a breakthrough plan building on the unique strengths of the Chicagoland civic community to catalyze change for women and girls. Our goal: economically secure, healthy and safe women and girls for a thriving community and region.

Bridge Communities

In today’s difficult economic climate, families have numerous challenges. When challenges prove too great, families can turn to Bridge Communities. Bridge Communities transitions homeless families in DuPage County to self-sufficiency by working with partners to provide mentoring, housing and supportive services. They envision a community where all families are healthy, financially stable and living in affordable housing.

With an eye toward growth, Bridge secured Ancora Associates to work with them on creating a strategic plan , and to help build a measurement framework to guide and evaluate Bridge Communities’ progress against their mission as they move forward.

Garfield Park Conservatory

A 100-year-old glass conservatory, designed and originally created by one of Chicago’s most famed landscape architects, turned to Ancora for help devising a strategic plan to regain relevance and prominence within Chicago’s cultural landscape.

Located within the 184-acre Garfield Park on Chica go’s West Sid e, the Garfield Park Conservatory is one of the largest and most stunning conservatories in the nation. With more than 3.5 acres of enclosed space, and a landscape design faithful to the original vision of famed landscape architect Jens Jensen, the Garfield Park Conservatory is a cultural gem, urban oasis and historical beacon.

The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance (GPCA), in partnership with the Chicago Park District provides programming and management of the Conservatory. In 2012, GPCA engaged Ancora Associates to help frame a strategic plan covering the next 3-5 years of the Conservatory’s evolution. In partnership with Lord Cultural Resources – the consultants for the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan – Ancora worked with the Conservatory’s Board and senior staff to develop strategies for addressing several years of declining revenues, attendance and attention.

With Ancora’s assistance, GPCA and the Conservatory created a clear vision for the future, repositioning as a leader both locally and nationally, building audience and community, and developing financial and management capacity of the Board and staff.

Grand Victoria Foundation

Foundations are consistently faced with the challenge af knowing whether their grant dollars are having a sufficient impact. Ancora helped Grant Victoria Foundation maximize its return on philanthropic investment through a comprehensive assessment of established best practices and emerging trends across core issue areas of education, economic development and environmental protection.

Grand Victoria Foundation, headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, is dedicated to creating vibrant thriving communities and ecosystems. Grand Victoria’s investments promote economic vitality, protect the natural environment, and strengthen public education systems. Grand Victoria acts as a convening and unifying entity, deploying dollars in ways that will foster conversations and increase collaboration.

After concluding several long-standing statewide initiatives, Grand Victoria Foundation wanted to identify and develop a new grant making strategy to carry the organization forward for the next 3-5 years. Ancora worked with Grand Victoria’s senior leadership team to explore defining organizational priorities, and then by drawing on a network of experts locally and nation ally, Ancora helped Grand Victoria assess additional emerging trends and innovative strategies for creating impact and change. These lessons helped Grand Victor refine and refresh its grant portfolio to ensure fidelity to its mission and optimal philanthropic effectiveness.

METROsquash US Open

A full week of US Open Squash Championship events in Chicago, including 2000+ students participating in an Educational Expo, led to the launch of a Capital Campaign for METROsquash: an after school enrichment organization serving Chicago Public School students.

METROsquash is a hands- on after school enrichment provider, working with students on the south side of Chicago. Blending the sport of squash with academic tutoring, personal mentoring and wellness education, METROsquash engages students from their 6th grade year through college.

During the summer of 2010, Ancora helped METROsquash host the 2010 US Open Squash Championships in Chicago. Headlined by the world ‘s top squash pros, the event also served as a launching pad for METROsquash’s capital campaign for building a dedicated facility with squash courts and classrooms on campus at the University of Chicago. As part of the US Open week, over 2000 students travelled to Millennium Park in downtown Chicago to partake in health, wellness, nutrition and financial literacy programming.

Ancora helped METROsquash craft an experience that highlighted the differentiating and unique characteristics of its program. Ancora assisted with site selection, sponsor development, marketing, technical planning and event logistics. Ancora also secured and managed pro-bono and in-kind assistance from the City of Chicago, the public school system , the Park District and other event partners, ultimately ensuring METROsquash’s ability to convey a clear and consistent message to all supporters, collaborators and stakeholders.

El Valor

Designed program content and led workshops for El Valor, an organization which serves Chicago’s Latino population, to address the demand for diversified board leadership in education, business, government, policy, arts, culture and philanthropy. Provided strategies and advice to Latino professionals for fostering professional growth and actively contributing to community building. Created tiered and sequenced programs to engage a range of professionals from junior associates to senior executives.

Arts and Business Council of Chicago

As any resident will tell you, the depth of civic commitment to a visionary Chicago is unique. A shared obligation to cultural stewardship unites Chica go’s leaders from all sectors. From the 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago, to the 1933 World’s Fair, to 2003′ s Millennium Park, the landscape of Chicago has been literally shaped by the commitment, care and vision of its corporate, political, artistic, and community leaders.

The result is a city which owes its legacy of cultural and artistic relevance to the commitment of prominent citizens, and a metropolis with a tremendous amount of cultural assets to steward. Cultural institutions are the defining features of Chicago’s character (along with a losing baseball team), and the vibrancy and longevity of these institutions depends on the commitments of corporate, politic al, artistic and community leaders responsible for their stewardship.

As Chicago expands this tradition of cultural excellence into the coming century, it’s critical that the voices, ideas and leaders shaping these cultural institutions accurately represent the diverse and multilayered character of the city in which they are grounded.

To this end, the Arts and Business Council of Chicago engaged Ancora Associates to design and execute a multi-pronged strategy for increasing diversity on the Boards of small, mid-size and major cultural institutions throughout Chicago land. Ancora combined careful identification of prospects with recruitment, training and orientation in governance. This fresh infusion of perspective, energy and thinking at multiple iconic museums and campaigns significantly increased representation and ethnic diversity among Board leadership, and strengthened cultural connectivity between arts groups, business interests and community residents.

Creation and Management of Civic Consulting Organization

Formed in 1987, the Financial Research and Advisory Council – now called the Civic Consulting All iance – was recognized by Harvard ‘s Kennedy School as a Top 25 Innovation in Government in 2010.

Ms. Muñana launched a not-for-profit, public-private partnership in Chicago, now known as the Civic Consulting Alliance, to address the City’s most vexing problems. Emphasis was on the delivery of private sector solutions to government’s financial and management problems. Under her direction, this groundbreaking entity and its more than 60 loaned executives from Chicago corporations and foundations, partnered with Chicago’s Mayor and Cabinet on matters ranging from departmental re-engineering and facilities management to procurement and purchasing, to privatization. After two decades, the Civic Consulting Alliance remains the City of Chicago’s most trusted and cost-effective partner and a public-private model for cities worldwide.

United Way of Metropolitan Chicago

As one of Chicagoland’s largest funders, when United Way of Metropolitan Chicago decided to develop a new grantmaking model seeking to unify social service supports across neighborhoods, they turned to Ancora for strategic guidance and assistance with implementation.

As an affiliate of the largest charitable institution in the world, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago serves residents of six counties in Northeastern Illinoi s, reaching more than a million people annually.

In 2010, United Way articulated a new vision called Live United 2020, seeking to advance economic stability for 100,000 households, help 50,000 underperforming students enter high school ready to graduate, and connect over 200,000 people with available health services.

United Way had the philosophy that the best results would be stem from deep engagement in specific neighborhoods, achieved by close collaboration and coordination between a wide range of agencies and service providers. United Way asked Ancora Associates and Ancora’s frequent collaborator, Prager Company, to work with a small team of senior United Way executives to develop an operational model for reaching that vision.

Though a rigorously analytical and data-driven process, Ancora helped United Way identify initial communities for implementation, and developed an action plan for the first pilot of a Live United Neighborhood Network. Ancora and the United Way team worked to develop a model that would be effective, replicable and sustainable.