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Announcing Launch of Bright Promises COVID-19 Response Fund

Help low-income children and families during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.

About the Bright Promises COVID-19 Response Fund

At Bright Promises Foundation, we are dedicated to remaining adaptive and responsive to the most pressing needs of low-income children and their families. The COVID-19 outbreak places these children and families at unprecedented risk. While we do not know what the coming weeks and months hold, we know that children and families across Greater Metropolitan Chicago will need our help and support more than ever.


The Bright Promises COVID-19 Response Fund is a targeted, fast-action fund created to support the immediate needs of low-income families while also providing a lifeline to the agencies serving low-income families to ensure that the organizations and infrastructure necessary for recovery remain intact.

A first round of immediate response grants will be made to child-serving organizations focused in the following areas:

  • Domestic abuse and child abuse services
  • Food and shelter for homeless children and families
  • Telehealth and mental health services for children
  • Childcare for first responders and essential workers


We must act now to combat the immediate and long-term educational, economic, and health effects that low-income children and their families are facing. Please join us in supporting low-income children and their families across Metropolitan Chicago. We hope that you will consider a donation to ensure Chicago children and families receive the help they need during these uncertain and complex times. Bright Promises will be working closely with our current and past partner organizations to identify their urgent needs. Through our years of focusing on children’s exposure to trauma and the need to support their social emotional development, we have significant expertise in directing funds towards those needs that may be urgent, but not always addressed by larger funds or funders.

It is critical that we recognize the mental health, trauma and social emotional impact this crisis has on our most vulnerable children.  The challenges their families are facing present enormous obstacles and stressors on top of their normal life. While the state and nation’s concern for people’s physical health is paramount, we must not lose sight of the emotional toil this takes on our children.


We are stepping up to these challenges now by creating the Bright Promises COVID-19 Response Fund because we believe the time is right to provide more resources to those organizations on the front lines helping children and their families.


Learn more...

How to Give

  • To Give Online:
    To donate online, visit www.brightpromises.org/support; select “COVID-19 Response Fund” from the dropdown menu.
  • To Give by Mail:
    To donate by check, please note “COVID-19 Response Fund” on the check and make checks payable to Bright Promises Foundation. Please mail by US Postal Service to Bright Promises Foundation |  70 East Lake Street, Suite 1120 I Chicago, IL 60601.
  • To Give from a Donor Advised Fund:
    Please recommend a grant through your donor advised fund sponsor to Bright Promises Foundation, with the stated purpose Bright Promises COVID-19 Response Fund and indicate who it is from.

Questions?