Tenet 1—Promoting “THISS:” promoting, instilling, and/or reflecting the values of individual[1] and/or organizational[1] thrift, humility, industry, self-sacrifice, and/or self-sufficiency.- Tenet 2—Relieving Human Suffering: relieving human suffering by: (1) performing research and/or promoting education regarding the treatment of disease; (2) assisting youth who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, have troubled childhoods, have physical or mental disabilities, or experience emotional disorders; (3) addressing the concerns of the elderly; and/or (4) providing succor to humankind during time of natural or human-made disasters.
- Tenet 3—Developing Individual Self-Esteem and Dignity: developing within individuals, especially youth from underserved and/or under-resourced communities, a sense of self-esteem and dignity.[2]
- Tenet 4—Encouraging Vigorous Athletic Activity: encouraging vigorous athletic activity, leading to physical health and/or spiritual well-being.
- Tenet 5—Developing Regional Solutions to Chicago’s Regional Challenges: developing regional solutions to Chicago’s regional challenges, thereby protecting and/or improving the quality of life for all its citizens.
[1] Successful applicants seeking a capacity building grant typically connect to this tenet. If the request is for a program that builds the capacity of its participants, the organization needs to connect to individual thrift, humility, industry, self-sacrifice, and/or self-sufficiency. If the purpose of the request is to build the institutional capacity of the non-profit itself, such as funding for board development or hiring additional staff to assist with fundraising, the applicant needs to connect to organizational thrift, humility, industry, self-sacrifice, and self-sufficiency. Where a grant applicant seeks funding for institutional capacity building that directly links to increasing capacity for its program participants, the agency needs to connect both to organizational and individual thrift, humility, industry, self-sacrifice, and self-sufficiency.
[2] It is safe to say that just about every non-profit organization could connect to this particular tenet of The Trust's Values Statement. If an applicant elects to connect to this particular Value, it should first consider the following:
- The focus of this particular Value is on youth from underserved and/or under-resourced communities;
- The applicant must explain why it is working to develop a sense of self-esteem and dignity within the program participants, i.e., why the program participants lack a sense of self-esteem and dignity in the first place;
- The applicant must provide measurable goals/outcomes for developing a sense of self-esteem and dignity within the individuals it serves; and
- The applicant must demonstrate that it has in place a reliable evaluation tool, such as pre- and post-tests, to measure achievement of the foregoing goals/outcomes/outputs.