Chicago non-profit

The Big Shoulders Fund is a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1986 by a prominent group of business leaders, inspired by the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, to sustain the inner-city Catholic school system. The mission of the Big Shoulders Fund is to provide support to the Catholic schools who serve the poor and disadvantaged in the neediest parts of inner-city Chicago. As the second largest private school system in the United States, city leaders and educators acknowledge that inner-city Catholic schools are a central component of the city’s educational network of schools. Even though more than half of our students come from families that are at or below the poverty level, they test well above the national norm. For 25 years, the Big Shoulders Fund has provided support to inner-city Chicago Catholic schools, which currently offer nearly 24,000 children the gift of a quality, values-based education. Since its inception, the Big Shoulders Fund has raised over $200 million and currently awards $10 to $12 million annually in grants and scholarships. We are unique among not-for-profits, as 100% of donor funds are given directly to the schools we support. The Big Shoulders Fund schools are the poorest in resources and housed in the oldest physical structures in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The criteria that are used to designate a Big Shoulders Fund school include:located in the City of Chicago, Title I eligibility and participation and school has twenty percent or more of its students receiving free and reduced lunches through the school’s lunch program. The Big Shoulders Fund schools educate a broad cross-section of races, ethnic and religious backgrounds and social classes: 80 percent of our students are minority, 32 percent of our students are not Catholic and 61 percent of our students live at or below the poverty line. However, the high graduation and low dropout rates are testaments to the efficacy of our schools– 96 percent of our students will graduate from high school and 87 percent of these graduates will enter college. It is the goal of our schools’ faculty to help each student achieve academic success in an environment that is supportive and focused on the development of the whole person. By educating these students, we are breaking the cycle of poverty in our inner-city.