Our Partners

Addressing Homelessness

Saranam (New Mexico)

Saranam was founded in 2004 with the mission to empower families to end their homelessness and poverty through housing, education and supportive communities. It provides a two-year continuum of care in a safe and nurturing environment that motivates families for to long-term success. Saranam provides safe, stable, and fully-furnished transitional housing so families have the capability to concentrate on breaking down the barriers to more secure futures, including education, vocational development and acquiring life skills for independent living. Families reside together in an apartment complex with a playground and community garden and are supplied with basic living items—food, clothing, household goods, childcare and a small stipend.

At the Crossroads (California)

At the Crossroads walks the streets of the Downtown and Mission neighborhoods of San Francisco to reach disconnected youth on their own turf, handing out basic necessities like food, socks, and hygiene supplies, and slowly building counseling relationships. Staff meets with clients 1-to-1 and listens to them talk about anything they want, with no agenda and no judgment. Over time, staff helps them identify goals, figure out who they want to be, and how to become that person. When clients want resources such as jobs, housing, education, health care, and mental health services, At the Crossroads partners with other organizations to meet their needs.

Youth Shelters & Family Services (New Mexico)

Youth Shelters & Family Services helps hundreds of homeless, runaway and at-risk youth each year in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It annually provides thousands of nights of shelter and case management hours through its youth emergency shelter, cold weather shelter, transitional living, rapid rehousing, food pantry, street outreach, counseling, and pregnancy and parenting programs.

Building Futures (California)

Building Futures provides resources, programs and services to help Alameda County residents build futures free from homelessness and family violence. The primary aim of Building Future’s programs and services is ending clients’ homelessness by housing them as quickly as possible and then providing the supportive services they need. Building Futures offers two emergency shelters for homeless women and children, permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless survivors of domestic violence, a 24-hour crisis hotline, domestic violence outreach, education programs and street outreach.

Addressing Food Insecurity

Roadrunner Food Bank (New Mexico)

Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico is the largest non-profit dedicated to solving food insecurity in the state. As a food distribution hub, it provides food to hundreds of affiliated member partners including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and regional food banks. It also distributes food through specialized programs helping children, families and seniors at schools, low-income senior housing sites, senior centers and with and through health care partnerships. Every week 70,000 hungry children, seniors and families are reached through this statewide hunger relief network.

Edible Schoolyard NYC (New York)

Edible Schoolyard NYC’s mission is to support edible education for every child in New York City. It partners with New York City public schools to cultivate healthy students and communities through hands-on cooking and gardening education, transforming children’s relationship with food. Illinois No. 3 Foundation supports its school and community work at the garden at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn.

Artesia Meals on Wheels (New Mexico)

Artesia Meals on Wheels strives to deliver a nutritious, hot meal once-a-day to citizens of the community unable to physically or mentally prepare food on their own.

La Semilla Food Center (New Mexico)

La Semilla Food Center’s mission is to build a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region of southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. It envisions a vibrant food system that prioritizes community and environmental health. La Semilla is committed to building strong community relationships that empower youth and families to grow and cook good food, create positive change, and foster connections between food, health, and local economies.

Written in Red Foundation (New Mexico)

The Written In Red Foundation is dedicated to enriching the lives of citizens in Artesia and Southeast New Mexico. It pursues this vision by promoting education, supporting health care access, providing crisis assistance and offering spiritual guidance. The Illinois No. 3 Foundation grant supports the Written in Red Foundation’s work with local food pantries to keep their shelves stocked with food and household items.

Neighbors Together (New York)

Neighbors Together is committed to ending hunger and poverty in Ocean Hill, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, three of the lowest-income areas in New York City. It provides food and social services five days a week, serving over 10,000 New Yorkers annually, and is focused on eliminating the need for emergency relief programs altogether by creating community advocates and changemakers.

Addressing Education

New Mexico Appleseed (New Mexico)

New Mexico Appleseed corrects structural barriers to opportunity by designing and advocating for effective solutions to poverty through policy, legislative, and market-based reform. While many organizations offer important direct services—serve meals, educate children, and assist the poor—New Mexico Appleseed’s goal is to make systemic change that yields permanent or long-term improvement on issues like hunger, homelessness, family economic security, child maltreatment and education.

The Hidden Genius Project (California)

The Hidden Genius Project trains and mentors Black male youth in technology creation, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills to transform their lives and communities. The organization’s Intensive Immersion Program is a 15-month holistic mentorship experience for rising 9th-11th graders that provides computer science, software development, entrepreneurship, and leadership training. It also offers free single and multi-day events and workshops throughout the year with the express aim of igniting interest and exposing black males, in junior high and above, to mentors, basic computer programming and pathways to tech careers.

GO Project (New York)

The GO Project’s vision is to ensure that all under-resourced families with children who are significantly struggling in New York City public schools have access to coordinated, comprehensive, and effective supplemental resources to ensure their child thrives in school and in life. It serves elementary and middle public school students, and their families, from the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Brooklyn. A grant from the Illinois No, 3 Foundation supports the GO School, GO Families and GO Summer programs.

Changing Lives Coalition (New Mexico)

Changing Lives delivers a variety of types of assistance to the Artesia community. Through its programs, it promotes a safe and healthy community by working to eliminate drugs, gangs, and crime through education, prevention, and intervention. Changing Lives Coalition is dedicated to providing Artesia’s youth with the necessary tools to become productive members of society. Programs are designed to prevent adolescent behavioral problems by providing help in positive self-image, effective life management skills, and achievable goals.

Land Stewardship

Seed2Need (New Mexico)

Seed2Need is dedicated to growing produce for local food pantries and soup kitchens in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties. It has three gardens and an orchard, all located on land donated by local property owners. Crops include tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupe, green chile, green beans, squash, cabbage and broccoli. The orchard includes several varieties of apple, peach, pear, plum, and cherry.

Addressing Arts

Today’s Future Sound (California)

Today’s Future Sound teaches youth the art of music production, beat making, and DJing through programs in and outside of schools. It works with young students, incarcerated juveniles, and veterans to teach skills and discipline, and as a form of healing and therapy. The organization provides schools the resources to support music education in a medium that resonates with students. Its state-of-the-art mobile music studio facilitates instruction on beat making and music production in the context of hip-hop history and culture.

Medical Research

University of Washington, Department of Ophthalmology (Washington)

The focus of the research supported by a grant from the Illinois No. 3 Foundation is to study the mechanisms of disease of patients with inherited retinal degenerative diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, Sorsby Fundus Dystrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, and Usher Syndrome.

Foundation for Women’s Cancer (National)

The Foundation for Women’s Cancer Research Grants and Awards Program was established in 1995 as a vehicle to promote quality research in studies affecting women with gynecologic cancer or those at risk for developing a gynecologic cancer. The cornerstone of the Foundation’s research program has been investment in young investigators just starting their careers in gynecologic cancer research through stimulus grant awards. Since 1995, the Foundation has awarded close to $9M in research funding. These funds have supported 215 research studies. A grant from the Illinois No 3 Foundation supported the establishment of a new young investigators award.