Arts of Life is a place where creative people with intellectual and developmental disabilities produce works of art and earn an income. Now their colorful work fills the gallery at the Design Museum of Chicago in a group exhibition called “Community on the Make: Arts of Life 2000-2025.”

Nonprofit organizations around the country are under stress. They’ve seen cuts to their funding from the federal government — but the community needs they try to meet are more pressing than ever.

Most of the funding went to organizations outside the Chicago metro area. Nonprofit outlets received 30% of the money. The vast majority of news organizations in Illinois are for-profit.

Darren Walker’s post-Ford Foundation future is starting to take shape, as the outgoing president is now set to join the Chicago-based Obama Foundation’s board of directors.

Bill Gates says he will donate 99% of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation, which will now close in 2045, earlier than previously planned. Today, that would be worth an estimated $107 billion.

The Chicago Fair Trade Museum is hosting what it's billing as “Chicago's biggest community clothing swap,” Friday through Sunday.

The lawsuit challenges two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders ending government support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The orders call DEI programs illegal and immoral discrimination.

Now, Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking to join the legal fight, in alignment with President Donald Trump’s mission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion practices designed to end discrimination and lift underrepresented groups.

The freeze threatened to hold up trillions of dollars in funding for basic government functions like health care, infrastructure and support for children and veterans.

Charitable giving dropped more than 2% in 2023, according to a Giving USA report. But local organizations are making efforts to reach their donation goals just in time for the new year. 

Residents on the city’s Northwest Side may be losing access to programs provided by a local community organization. The nonprofit Hermosa Neighborhood Association says it’s set to lose state funding in June. As the grant end date approaches, community organizers are working to figure out what comes next.

The Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network is urging people to become organ donors. According to the nonprofit, while 95% of people in the U.S. support donation, fewer than 60% are registered organ and tissue donors.

Chance the Rapper’s charity SocialWorks, founded in 2016, aims to empower youth through the arts, education and civic engagement.

Cindy Eggleton, Brilliant Detroit CEO, told The Associated Press that her group will branch out to three additional cities – Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland – starting next year and will change the group’s name to Brilliant Cities. The early childhood education nonprofit that supports children in underserved communities “from belly to 8.”

The National Park Foundation, which Congress created in the 1960s to support national parks, will receive the donation from Indianapolis-based foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. The park foundation described the gift on Monday as the largest grant in history benefiting U.S. national parks.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made threats to ramp up his efforts to send asylum-seekers to Chicago while the city is in the national spotlight. Local organizations and officials say they’re preparing for that possibility as the city approaches two years since the arrival of the first bus in Chicago.