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 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 benefitting 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 IWFF and PIFI were part of a growing movement in the United States to open employee/workplace donation programs to organizations that had been traditionally excluded from those 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.