1717 Deerfield Road Deerfield, IL 60015 https://baumfund.org/

Primary Contact

Loretta Namovic
Senior Director of Strategy & External Relations
[email protected]

Organization Type

Family Foundation

Mission

The Alvin H. Baum Family Fund strives to better the lives of those who live and work predominantly in the Chicagoland area. Through innovative grants and collaborations, the Fund helps ignite new ideas and promote solutions to ensure healthier, more equitable, and peaceful communities.

Funding Areas

• Education
• Environment
• Health and Human Services
• Violence Prevention

Other Staff

Sarah Lyman, Executive Director
[email protected]

The 2018 Funders Forum was held in Los Angeles in conjunction with the National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. Seventy individuals representing 34 different foundations and United Ways joined us as we explored philanthropy’s role in preventing and ending family and youth homelessness.

It's not too late to join Funders Together's newest community of practice focused on employment and homelessness.

What started as as pilot program through funding from the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, Secure Jobs thrived through a systems change approach facilitated through public-private partnerships.

Imagine yourself a single parent without a job, determined to lift your young family out of the misery of homelessness and into the security of stable housing. You need to work – and you want to work – but your first priority, understandably, is finding a place for your family to live.

Funders Together CEO, Amanda Andere, shares why it is so important to use the powerful tool of influence and story telling to end homelessness.

Funders Together Los Angeles hosted a panel discussion to examine traditional workforce models, the current role social enterprises play in employing LA’s homeless and formerly homeless communities, and new opportunities in the field.

At Funders Together, we work to facilitate information sharing and scale best practices. One of the ways we do this is through issue- and community-based learning communities.

Current Communities

PSOs for Housing Justice 

PSOs for Housing Justice, led by Funders Together to End Homelessness and Funders for Housing and Opportunity, convenes cross-sector issue-based philanthropy serving- and mobilizing- organizations (often called PSOs) to strengthen our collective work towards racial justice and liberation through a housing justice focus.

Learn more about PSOs for Housing Justice

Health Funders for Housing Justice 

Health Funders for Housing Justice centers on the inextricable link between healthcare and homelessness systems and the belief that housing is healthcare. This network is open to health systems, healthcare conversion foundations, and staff at any other type of funder interested in housing and health. 

Learn more about Health Funders for Housing Justice

California Homelessness & Housing Policy Funders Network

This network provides dedicated and candid space for California funders at various knowledge levels to gain insight around various issues related to housing and homelessness policy in the state, aims to lead funders to move towards policy engagement, and aids the understanding and knowledge of policies that directly impact housing affordability and stability across California.

Learn more about the California Homelessness & Housing Policy Funders Network

Funders Network for Youth Success 

Born from our youth-focused community of practice, Foundations for Youth Success, the Funders Network for Youth Success is a national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to prevent and end youth homelessness. Members of this network receive resources, opportunities convene with colleagues and partners working in the youth homelessness field, and much more. Participation in this network is open to full and basic members. 

Learn more about the Funders Network for Youth Success

Foundations for Racial Equity

Despite all the programs and structures designed to prevent and end homelessness and because of historical and contemporary structural racism, people of color disproportionately experience homelessness. To truly end homelessness, we must change the systems that perpetuate racial inequity. Doing so is not an easy or quick task, but together, we can take steps to educate ourselves and use our voices to push the field toward greater racial equity.    

To address this, Funders Together to End Homelessness is launching a two-year community of practice called Foundations for Racial Equity to help funders move the needle toward greater racial equity in homelessness and housing.  

From 2019-2020, we will convene philanthropic leaders working at national and local levels to build relationships with other funders, learn together about systemic racism in housing and homelessness, and lead the field in creating a more equitable world. 

Learn more about Foundations for Racial Equity.

United Ways Partnering to End Homelessness

United Ways are distinct and valued organizations within the Funders Together membership, providing both funding and direct services, along with advocacy and convening power within their communities. This network gathers United Way full members of Funders Together every other month for peer learning, problem-solving, accountability, and relationship-building. 

Sign up for the United Ways network by emailing Michael Durham, Director of Networks.

Past Communities

Foundations for Employment and Housing

Communities across the country are increasingly becoming aware of the need to connect the homelessness and employment systems to better serve vulnerable populations with both housing and jobs. This learning community is exploring the intersections of the homelessness and employment systems, and the role of funders in advancing the efforts of both. This community started in 2018 and concluded in 2020.

Learn more about Foundations for Employment and Housing.

Foundations for Youth Success (FYS)

From 2015-2016, Funders Together to End Homelessness hosted a Community of Practice focused on funders’ roles in ending youth and young adult homelessness. This community, Foundations for Youth Success (FYS), brought together philanthropic leaders -- large, national funders as well as those working at the local level -- to identify best practices in implementing effective solutions for our young people. Throughout this two-year initiative, members participated in regular virtual meetings and came together in person twice a year. 

Resources and learnings from this community can be found on the youth homelessness page. 

Join our new Funders Network for Youth Success for continued learning with FYS participants and other funders by emailing Michael Durham, Director of Networks and Programs, at [email protected]

Communities across the country are increasingly becoming aware of the need to connect the homelessness and employment systems to better serve vulnerable populations with both housing and jobs. 

Funders Together to End Homelessness is planning several resources and events around the intersection of employment and homelessness systems and the funder's role in advancing the efforts of both.

By signing up below, you will receive email updates about our work.

Across the country, communities -- and funders -- are creating systems that work for families.