The Chicago Community Trust was founded in 1915 by Norman Wait Harris, founder of the Harris Trust and Savings Bank, and his son Albert Wadsworth Harris. The founders were inspired by The Cleveland Foundation, the world’s first community foundation, which was established the year before.[6] Most of the Trust’s funding during 1915-1930 focused on relief and humanitarian work for residents impacted by Chicago’s rapid industrialization. The Trust awarded its first grant in 1916, to United Charities for $5,000. The first major gift was from James A. Patton, “the grain king,” for $1 million in 1924. The first bequest of $30,687 came two years later from the estate of Alex Demond. In the early 1920s, the Trust commissioned landmark social surveys that identified the needs of those incarcerated at the Cook County Jail, immigrants, children with disabilities, single women, veterans, and the elderly.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Frank Loomis, executive director of the Trust, and Edward L. Ryerson Jr., Trust Executive Committee member, coordinated multiple relief drives through the Governor’s Commission on Unemployment and Relief and the Emergency Welfare Fund of Cook County. These drives raised $22 million from 1930-1933 and inspired the creation of multiple campaigns and funds, including the precursor to the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. The Trust made a grant to the 1933 Century of Progress world’s fair in Chicago, which was visited by nearly 40 million people.
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