Community Desk Chicago is a dynamic nonprofit intermediary reshaping how real estate development and economic empowerment unfold across Chicago’s South and West Sides. Their mission is rooted in a simple but powerful belief: every Chicagoan deserves to live in a thriving, holistic community—with access to housing, jobs, education, and retail.
What Community Desk Chicago Does
Community Desk Chicago bridges the gap between vision and execution for local nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and community developers by offering:
- Capital Access: Aggregating risk-tolerant funding to support community-led development
- Technical Support: Coaching and guidance for organizations navigating real estate projects
- Ownership Models: Implementing shared ownership strategies to help residents build wealth
- Corridor Activation: Revitalizing underused commercial corridors with amenities residents want
Signature Programs
Budgets and Bricks: Helps small businesses transition from temporary spaces to permanent brick-and-mortar locations.
CorridorLive!: Works with local leaders to activate vacant properties and combat blight without triggering gentrification.
Neighborhood Developers Initiative: Provides hands-on coaching to nonprofits with limited real estate experience, building long-term capacity.
Community Investment Vehicles (CIVs): Innovative funding models that allow residents to pool resources and co-own neighborhood properties.
Wealth Our Way (W.O.W.) Grant Program
Launched in partnership with the City of Chicago, this $4.1M initiative supports shared-ownership projects like worker cooperatives and CIVs. Grants of up to $500,000 are awarded to redevelop community-owned properties, with technical assistance provided over 16 months.
Why It Matters
Community Desk Chicago isn’t just about buildings—it’s about shifting power. By equipping local leaders with tools to own, develop, and sustain their neighborhoods, they’re fostering generational wealth and reversing decades of disinvestment.
Community Desk Chicago Diversity Statement
Our strengths to serve our clients is driven by the ability to leverage our unique talents and contributions. Our organization exists for the benefit of creating a path towards advancing the needs and goals of under-resourced communities. As a result, it is important that our clients see a reflection of us in them. Throughout our work, we support diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to age, disability status, economic circumstance, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
To learn more visit communitydeskchicago.org