Community Shares is a network of nonprofit organizations created to connect, fund, and raise awareness for community groups that focus on long-term solutions to social problems.
Our member organizations address the root causes of social problems facing our neighborhoods, our community, and our region. They provide education, promote health care, empower women and children, shelter animals, advance home ownership, advocate for individual rights, and work to end discrimination and violence.
Our workplace giving program, the Combined Charities Campaign, is the easiest and best opportunity to support charitable organizations through payroll contribution.
Our member organizations address the root causes of social problems facing our neighborhoods, our community, and our region. They provide education, promote health care, empower women and children, shelter animals, advance home ownership, advocate for individual rights, and work to end discrimination and violence.
Our workplace giving program, the Combined Charities Campaign, is the easiest and best opportunity to support charitable organizations through payroll contribution.
Our Impact
Join us to create change in your community and make an impact on the causes you value most.
- Provide housing and prevent homelessness
- Support our heroes
- Empower women, children, and families
- Foster arts, culture, and humanities
- Create a just society
- Improve health and nutrition
- Promote animal welfare
History
Community Shares of Illinois was created in 2003 through a merger of the Illinois Women’s Funding Federation (IWFF) and the Public Interest Fund of Illinois (PIFI). By combining forces as Community Shares, these two organizations strengthened their ability to support their members and the important work they do in our communities each and every day.
IWFF was founded in 1988 to establish a source of permanent, unrestricted funding for programs benefiting women and families; to increase public awareness of issues affecting women and their families; and to encourage contributions to programs dedicated to helping women overcome poverty, lack of education, abuse, and discrimination.
In 1992, nineteen citizen and advocacy groups formed the Public Interest Fund of Illinois (PIFI) to support non-profit organizations in Illinois engaged in social change, citizen education and empowerment; and those that work to enable people, particularly the poor, to achieve fuller participation in society by eliminating social, economic, cultural, and political barriers.
Both PIFI and IWFF were part of a growing movement in the United States to open employee/workplace donation programs to organizations that had been traditionally excluded from these programs. Today, Community Shares of Illinois continues that tradition and works closely with a variety of sister federations as a member of Community Shares USA.
IWFF was founded in 1988 to establish a source of permanent, unrestricted funding for programs benefiting women and families; to increase public awareness of issues affecting women and their families; and to encourage contributions to programs dedicated to helping women overcome poverty, lack of education, abuse, and discrimination.
In 1992, nineteen citizen and advocacy groups formed the Public Interest Fund of Illinois (PIFI) to support non-profit organizations in Illinois engaged in social change, citizen education and empowerment; and those that work to enable people, particularly the poor, to achieve fuller participation in society by eliminating social, economic, cultural, and political barriers.
Both PIFI and IWFF were part of a growing movement in the United States to open employee/workplace donation programs to organizations that had been traditionally excluded from these programs. Today, Community Shares of Illinois continues that tradition and works closely with a variety of sister federations as a member of Community Shares USA.