Grantees' Impact
The McCormick Foundation Citizenship Program gives grants to organizations that support
civic engagement and volunteerism, civic dialogue and honor veterans and soldiers.
Did you know?
- Since 2000, the McCormick Foundation Citizenship Program has dedicated
nearly $2.9 million to programs that promote youth civic engagement and volunteerism
in the Chicago area;
- $3 million to organizations that honor soldiers and veterans and their families and;
- $4 million to promoting civic dialogue on timely issues of national concern
How Foundation Funding and Citizenship Grantees Make a Difference
Funding from the McCormick Foundation Citizenship Program has resulted in
the following:
Honoring Soldiers and Veterans
- Since 1993, AMVETS and the American Battle Monuments Commission has installed 14
memorial carillons at American Cemeteries in France and Belgium in honor of those
who lost their lives serving in the US military.
- Through the First Infantry Division Foundation and the Society of the First Infantry
Division, the Foundation’s Citizenship Program provides emergency support to the
families of soldiers wounded and killed in Iraq.
- Bugles Across America has trained and recruited more than 5,000 volunteer horn players
to play taps at funerals and memorials for fallen U.S. soldiers in all 50 states
and overseas. These volunteers have participated in nearly 45,000 military funerals
since the organization was founded in 2000.
Civic Dialogue
- In 2006 the Citizenship Program hosted nine conferences on topics that included
outsourcing national security, the needs of young veterans and how to promote an ethic of community
service and civic engagement.
Civic Engagement
- With funding from the foundation's Citizenship Program, the Mikva Challenge
Foundation trained and placed nearly 800 high school seniors in polling places throughout
Chicago to serve as election judges during the November 2006 elections.
- Since 2001, our funds have helped the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago engage
over 1,300 local high school students and their teachers each year in public policy
discussions and community service projects.
- In the Fall of 2006, a grant from the Citizenship Program
allowed the DuPage Regional Office of Education, to convene the Regional Summit on Civic Education.
The Summit launched a public dialogue on how to build local support for greater emphasis
on civic education and responsibility.