Across Chicago, nonprofits are facing a reckoning. Organizations that once provided diapers in Humboldt Park have seen federal support disappear. Entire food pantries in Ravenswood have closed their doors. Nonprofit professionals are being asked to do more with less — all while serving the city’s most vulnerable communities.
I work at The Honeycomb Project, where we mobilize families to volunteer with nonprofits across the city. We support their missions through sustainable monthly family volunteer projects, donation drives and by amplifying their work to our network of over 5,000 youth and family volunteers.
I’ve seen firsthand how strained our sector has become. And I’ve also seen how often the people doing this work feel isolated from one another. In building relationships with nonprofit partners, we began to notice a growing need: Professionals across the sector wanted to connect with each other, just as I was connecting with them through my role. Because relationship-building is central to my work, I saw an opportunity to facilitate connections between my partners as well.
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For example, when staff from Chicago Furniture Bank met peers from Digs with Dignity — both Honeycomb partners — they began collaborating. Chicago Furniture Bank now provides surplus furniture to Digs with Dignity, helping to furnish homes for people transitioning out of homelessness. In a moment when nonprofits are urgently struggling, these kinds of connections aren’t just helpful — they’re invaluable.
The result is Chicago Nonprofit Connect, a growing peer network I co-created with Sage Rossman of Urban Rivers. With the support and backing of both our organizations, we’ve been building a community to connect nonprofit professionals across the city. Our mission is simple: to create a space for resource-sharing, partnership-building and mutual support across the sector.
What began as a few conversations among colleagues has quickly grown into a citywide community. Our LinkedIn group now includes over 300 nonprofit professionals representing more than 150 organizations across Chicago. Our Slack workspace hosts daily exchanges — introductions, grant opportunities, urgent asks and candid advice on everything from software tools to email communication strategies.
Through roundtable discussions, informal meet-ups and digital resource hubs, Chicago Nonprofit Connect is doing more than just connecting professionals — We’re fostering a culture of community in a field that too often feels isolating. The challenges we face are immense, but so is the potential for collective action. In a sector held together by ingenuity, burnout and deep care, Chicago Nonprofit Connect offers something simple but powerful: solidarity.
Josie Flanagan, manager of programs and partnerships, The Honeycomb Project
Don’t bury the lede
Tuesday’s letter to the editor by reader James Ross about the Sun-Times needing to spotlight the havoc the Trump administration is causing hit the nail on the head. When it is time to renew our subscription to your paper again, I certainly will take this into consideration. Speak up! It is absolutely now or never time in what’s left of America.
Richard Snowdon, Oriole Park