2023 John D. Nichols Impact Award

Presented to The Steans Family Foundation

Accepted by Patricia (Pat) Ford, Executive Director

The Steans Family Foundation is a private grant-making foundation that dedicates times, resources, and skills within a place-based giving model, focusing on communities rather than a particular set of issues. We engage with those communities—listening to their concerns and needs—and then pursue opportunities to further the interests of the communities, always in close partnership with on the ground stakeholders.

Steans Family patriarch Harrison I. Steans, joined by his wife, Lois and their daughters Jennifer, Heather, and Robin, founded the Steans Family Foundation in 1988 after sponsoring the postsecondary aspirations of sixth grade students from the Lathrop Homes in partnership with the I Have A Dream Foundation. In 1996, the Steans Family Foundation began our longstanding partnership with the North Lawndale community to promote high quality education, increase employment opportunities, advocate for health equity, and improve safety for residents. The Steans Family Foundation believes effective revitalization can occur within the existing social, education, and economic networks that create and sustain communities.

The Steans Family Foundation is committed to both systems-level change and on the ground impact to foster thriving communities—and works in partnership with communities through mutual respect and in recognition of their existing assets and resources. We invest approximately $7 million annually in North Lawndale.