CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

ABOUT THIS EVENT

The Breakin’ It Down Conference, curated by Breakin’ It Down, a fiscal sponsorship project of Mujeres Latinas en Accion, is a one-day event of learning, engagement, and empowerment that invests in our communities’ human potential.  It has served more than 3,875 participants to date.  This year, the event builds on the success of last year.  Our endeavor to promote equitable access to critical information affecting our field and communities has been heightened due to recent policy and economic shifts.

Our conference agenda focused on “Choosing Courage” that not only fosters knowledge and skill building but lays the groundwork for what we hope will spark thoughtful discourse, ignite meaningful action, and continue strategic transformational advocacy in pursuit of intersectional racial equity and systemic change in the field.   The day is capped by Speed Networking With Funders, Breakin’ It Down’s signature program, where participants can engage in three 20-minute round-robin style, small group meetings with philanthropic leaders

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The Breakin' It Down conference is designed for seasoned and emerging nonprofit, philanthropy, and fundraising professionals and volunteers serving under-recognized communities in the Chicago area. The conference is also of interest to community activists and students. 

CONFERENCE PANELS AND WORKSHOPS

Each year the Breakin' It Down Planning Committee brings individuals to our conference who focus on areas of nonprofit, philanthropy, and fundraising.   We are very pleased for 2025 to present our participants with distinguished industry and community leaders. 

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Conference Panels

Conference Workshops

Networking skills have never been more crucial to ensure success for nonprofit fund development professionals, including those serving traditionally under-represented and underserved communities.  At the Speed Networking with Funders, take advantage of the opportunity to meet philanthropic leaders for approximately 20 minutes and learn about the foundation's funding priorities, parameters and grant application review process, and then move on to connect with the next philanthropic leader.   

There will be three "meet and greet" rounds formatted in a small group setting.  We encourage participants to prepare two to three questions they would like to ask and bring with them to the session.  Nonprofit and fundraising professionals of all backgrounds are encouraged to attend the 2025 BID event! 

The "Speed Networking with Funders" has been an overwhelmingly popular element at our BID events featuring area funders, which enable an introduction quick enough for participants to meet philanthropic leaders, but long enough for each session to be valuable.  In order to achieve this meaningful goal, the BID Conference has a Non-Solicitation Policy. 

The Albert Pick, Jr. Fund

The Albert Pick, Jr. Fund is a private, independent foundation established in 1947 that provides resources to small community-centered nonprofits that work to empower Chicagoans who are under-resourced with the tools and resources they need to improve their quality of life, particularly those directly impacted by structural racism and social inequities. 

Focus Areas: Civic Activism, Youth Safety & Wellness

Types of Support: General Operating, Project

AMPT: Advancing Nonprofits

AMPT: Advancing Nonprofits (AMPT) is a capacity-building initiative that is committed to strengthening the organizational health and supporting the long-term development of small nonprofits on Chicago’s West and South sides. AMPT prioritizes Black/Latine leaders working to amplify, build power within, and support communities of color in thriving and living happy healthy lives while simultaneously working to transform philanthropy by addressing systemic racial inequities and serving as a model for anti-racist systems and 

Focus Areas: Capacity-Building

Types of Support: Capacity-Building, Cohort-Based Learning

Builders Initiative

Builders Ini­tia­tive invests in and col­lab­o­rates with non-prof­its, busi­ness­es, and oth­ers work­ing towards sus­tain­able solu­tions to soci­etal and envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. We engage with our part­ners in these pri­ma­ry impact areas.

The Chicago Community Trust

We envision a Chicago region where equity is central and opportunity and prosperity are in reach for all. To realize our vision, we mobilize people, ideas, organizations, and resources to improve the lives of people in the Chicago region and beyond.

Christopher Family Foundation

The Christopher Family Foundation supports nonprofit organizations whose work helps strengthen and sustain strong families and communities. Most organizations we support are in Chicago, with particular emphasis on the Austin neighborhood.

Focus Areas: Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Food Security

Types of Support: Projects, General Operating, Multi-Year, Capacity-Building

Circle of Service Foundation

Circle of Service Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants to support great organizations to enhance community, opportunity and well-being.

Focus Areas: Community Services, Education, Jewish Community, Medical Research, Violence Reduction, Skilled Construction Trades

Types of Support: General Operting, Multi-Year, Capacity-Building, Projec

The Coleman Foundation

The Coleman Foundation invests in the efforts of community-based organizations and local institutions to preserve and strengthen the physical health and the economic and emotional well-being of people living in the greater Chicago region.

Focus Areas: Entrepreneurship, Health and Rehabilitation, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Conant Family Foundation

Doris and Howard Conant Sr. believed in the ideals of freedom and equality. Throughout their lives, they worked in and supported movements for peace, gender equity and racial justice  In 2015, the year Doris celebrated her 90th birthday, she transitioned the Conant Family Foundation to include three generations of the Conant family. Doris' grandchildren  — all millennials — now lead the Foundation. They have participated in Resource Generation and Solidaire, and strive for an equitable redistribution of wealth and power.

In 2000, the Conant Family Foundation adopted three focus areas: Abortion Access, Urban Environmental Justice, and Community Organizing for Racial Justice. We also instituted participatory grantmaking for the Community Organizing focus area, so that grants decisions are made by a committee of individuals with lived experience of racial injustice, who live and work in Chicago, and who understand how community organizing works. 

Always in learning mode, the Conant Family Foundation is continually experimenting with ways to shift power dynamics in grantmaking. 

Lloyd A. Fry Foundation

The Lloyd A. Fry Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of the people of Chicago faced with challenges rooted in the systems of inequity. We partner with effective nonprofit organizations that share our commitment to building a community in which all individuals and families have the opportunity to thrive. 

The Fry Foundation funds grants in three primary areas—arts learning, education, and employment—because these sectors align with our goals of improving the quality of life for individuals and communities. These core areas address broad societal needs and foster lasting positive change, helping us move toward our vision of a Chicago that provides education, opportunity, health, and hope for all.

The Julian Grace Foundation

The Julian Grace Foundation is an entrepreneurial private foundation that does high-engagement grant-making in order to create a just, unified, and hopeful world.

The Julian Grace Foundation envisions a just world in which there is renewed hope, socio-economic mobility, unity, and healing within and between individuals, communities, and the environment.

Grand Victoria Foundation

At Grand Victoria Foundation, we are dedicated to leading the charge in advancing racial justice across Illinois. Our grantmaking prioritizes community power-building, supporting organizations that are deeply embedded in and accountable to Black communities and other communities of color.

The Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.We support policy research, development, and advocacy in six program areas: Culture, Democracy, Education & Economic Mobility, Environment, Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform, and Journalism. We focus our grant making primarily in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, while also exploring promising, evidence-informed policy solutions nationally and at the federal level.

MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. The Chicago Commitment program Invests in people, places, and partnerships to advance racial equity and build a more inclusive Chicago. The program focuses on strengthening local organizations including the creative sector; supporting civic partnerships on timely issues; investing in vital communities; and advancing influential leaders with a diversity of experiences and a commitment to racial equity.

Focus Areas: Civic Partnerships; Vital Communities; Advancing Leadership; Culture, Equity, and the Arts

Polk Bros. Foundation

Polk Bros. Foundation is a private independent foundation dedicated to building and strengthening Chicago's families and communities, especially those most affected by poverty and inequity. The Foundation focuses its work at the intersection of Chicago's most pressing issues to address the complex roots and devastating effects of poverty, challenge inequity, and ensure that all Chicagoans have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Since its founding in 1988, the Foundation has partnered with more than 3,000 Chicago nonprofits to build strong communities and families, increase access to quality education and the arts, improve health, and strengthen organizations and the sectors in which they work. Polk Bros. Foundation is one of the largest funders of Chicago nonprofits, granting more than $25 million to nearly 400 nonprofit partners every year, and managing assets greater than $400 million.

Focus Areas: Strong Communities, Strong Families, Education, Health, Arts Access and Learning, Enhanced Capacity

Types of Support: General Operting, Multi-Year, Capacity-Building, Project

Steans Family Foundation

The Steans Family Foundation (SFF) dedicates time, resources, and skills within the North Lawndale community, located on Chicago’s west side, and the North Chicago community, a city just south of Waukegan, 40 miles north of downtown Chicago. SFF believes effective revitalization can occur within the existing social, educational, and economic networks that create and sustain communities. SFF believes that with investment, coupled with a strong policy ecosystem, communities can thrive.

Woods Fund Chicago

Woods Fund Chicago is a grantmaking foundation committed to the promotion of social, economic, and racial justice through the support of community organizing and public policy advocacy that engages people that are most impacted.

Focus Areas: Community Organizing and Public Policy Advocacy 

Types of Support: General Operating, Multi-Year, Capacity-Building

The Annual Conference Committee is a special committee of the Breakin’ It Down Planning Committee that provides strategic leadership in the planning and coordinating site arrangement and operation for the Breakin’ It Down Conference.  The Committee works to ensure an impactful program for the Conference participants.

CHAIR

Athena Williams

VICE CHAIR

Deanna Phillips

MEMBERS

Juan Calixto

Charisma Cannon

Bethany Collins

Shenika Jackson, PhD

Elaine Lehman

Carlil Pittman

Christy Smith-Hall, CFRE, MNA

Vernoica Studnicka

Amira Turner

Audrey Woodley

Selena Yang

Rhea Yap

EX-OFFICIO

Lee Ann Eiland

Gil-Zamora