Chicago is a tight-knit city, one where nobody’s afraid to roll up their sleeves and lend a helping hand. At CAF, we embody this mentality not just through our work, but through bettering our communities and taking pride in making a difference. In addition to our partnership with Off the Street Club, we’ve also helped raise funding for organizations like The Boyd Initiative and Free Spirit Media.
Giving AF at Every Event
In addition to our philanthropic efforts with our partner organizations, our events serve as additional opportunities to give back. And at award ceremonies, we collect donations with proceeds going to a charitable organzation of the award recipient's choosing. These are just some of the ways we give AF.
ALMA Chicago
Founded in 1989 amidst the AIDS epidemic, ALMA is rooted in advocating for the fair treatment and equality of the Latinx LGBTQ+ community. As Latinx and LGBTQ+ people, we are not a monolith, but our histories, accomplishments, struggles, and humanity unites us all in the fight for an equitable and more just society.
Beat the Streets
We believe youth respond to high expectations. We believe that heroes are created with grit, not gifts. We believe investing in youth ready to invest in themselves yields the highest return. We believe youth who are ready to do the work, ready for hard conversations, and ready for an intensely positive coach-athlete relationship are ready to become heroes.
We exist to help our aspiring heroes become Life Champions. To make that happen, we guarantee a coach in every corner for every wrestler who commits to making the arduous journey towards becoming one’s best self, on and off the mat.
Black Boy Literacy Campaign
The numbers were impossible to ignore. Across Chicago, nearly two in three Black boys could not read at grade level by the end of third grade. Not because they weren't brilliant — they were. But brilliance without access, without a champion, without someone who shows up and says your story matters — that brilliance goes unseen. We could not walk away from that.
We are a faith community rooted on the South Side of Chicago, connected to Salem Baptist Church. We believe the Church exists not just for Sunday mornings but for the six other days of the week — for the block, the classroom, and the family table. When we looked at our neighborhood and saw these boys struggling, we didn't wait for a grant. We answered a call.
Literacy is not just an academic milestone — it is liberation. A boy who can read can understand his rights, his history, and his worth. He can write his own future instead of having one written for him. The Chicago Black Boy Literacy Campaign was born from the conviction that 1,000 boys, armed with books and surrounded by men who believe in them, can change the trajectory of 1,000 families — and a whole city.
Center on Halsted
Though Center on Halsted's building opened in 2007, our history goes back much further. We were known as Horizons Community Services, the Midwest's largest LGBTQ social service agency. We are proud of our legacy of advocacy, support, and educational services—the same services that helped form the core of Center on Halsted's programming.
Chicago Animal Care & Control
Chicago Animal Care and Control is equipped with a complete medical complex, full laboratory, radiology, and surgical capabilities for the care of its animals. Chicago Animal Care & Control veterinarians daily evaluate and treat the animals housed in the center.
Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness
CCH asks the question, “What can we do to end homelessness?” Because while it is a big problem, it is also a solvable problem.
Our answer? We advocate for policies and funding to address the root causes of homelessness. Through our community organizing, we build power and center people who have experienced homelessness, because we understand that the people closest to the problems are also closest to the solutions.
Working in Chicago and throughout Illinois, we take the word “coalition” seriously. We partner with service providers, faith communities, allied groups, and concerned individuals to create lasting change.
Through our research and educational outreach, we dispel misconceptions about homelessness and foster a greater understanding within the community. This work is coupled with our Law Project, which provides direct legal assistance to people experiencing homelessness, with a special emphasis on supporting youth.
Flossmoor Art Council
Flossmoor Art Council is committed to promoting the arts in all forms—visual, performing, and literary—to enrich our community and foster unity. We celebrate diversity and inclusion across all neighborhoods of Chicagoland, with a special focus on creating a vibrant hub for the arts in Flossmoor. By bringing people together through artistic expression, we aim to inspire creativity and engage residents of all ages. Through education and engagement, we ensure that the arts serve the greater good, strengthening the cultural fabric of our entire community.
Global Mixx
Since 2005, the Global Mixx Music & Film Weekend Conference, formerly known as the Global Mixx DJ Retreat, has provided invaluable resources and information to aspiring and established professionals in the music, multimedia, and film industries. Our ongoing commitment is to deliver top-quality resources and facilitate networking opportunities for those seeking to gain industry knowledge and build professional connections.
Jack & Jill Monarch Cities Chapter
Jack and Jill boasts 270 chapters nationwide, representing more than 50,000 family members. Each chapter plans annual programming activities guided under a general five point programmatic thrust: cultural awareness, educational development, health (education and advocacy), civic (legislative advocacy and service) and social/recreational areas. Through service projects, Jack and Jill of America creates a medium of contact for children to stimulate their growth and development. Through lobbying, educational programming, dissemination of education materials, and the organization of community and charitable events, Jack and Jill has promoted the public awareness and interests of children including child development, child growth, child quality of life, child care and the promotion of children’s rights.
Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Hospital, a 319-licensed bed acute care safety-net, teaching hospital and Level I Adult Trauma Center, provides a wide array of quality medical, surgical, therapeutic, diagnostic and behavioral health services, including crisis stabilization. The Emergency Department provides care to approximately 41,000 ED patients each year. The Labor and Delivery unit and Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit welcomes over 1,600 newborns annually, caring for both high-risk obstetric patients and providing the highest level of care for premature and critically ill newborns. Mount Sinai Hospital trains more than 700 aspiring health care professionals each year through undergraduate, graduate programs, and four GME-accredited residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, and pharmacy, in addition to four fellowship programs.
Off the Street Club
At the CAF, we give AF about our community. And one of the proudest examples of our efforts to give back is through our partnership with Off the Street Club. For more than a century, and we’ve served thousands of kids in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. Learn more about our involvement with Off the Street Club.
Patrick Lives On
Our Founder, Patricia Frontain, lost her son to a senseless act of violence, took her grief and turned it into a powerful non-profit to help at-risk teens. Patrick Lives On is a group of loving and determined citizens taking a stand in support of the safety of all school-age children in the Chicagoland area with funding for after-school programs.
Patrick Lives On has been providing financial assistance to junior high school students for extra-curricular activities enabling them to lead positive and productive paths in life since 2016. We rely on the kindness of our donors to help at-risk teens.
Prismatic Movement
Since 2016, Prismatic has been a social-emotional learning organization, helping young people build emotional intelligence, understand themselves, and form real relationships. As the world speeds up around them, the human skills we teach have never mattered more: for students' wellbeing, their relationships, and the careers they're growing into.
Urban Theatre Company
UrbanTheater Company, is a cultural hub rooted in Humboldt Park that amplifies the voices of the Puerto Rican Diaspora and BIPOC communities while archiving Chicago history and incubating new work through storytelling, mentorship, and education. Committed to creating a brave space, we preserve cultural identity and inspire transformation and healing through the power of art.