Iff

Social Impact Accelerator - Program & Initiatives, Hope Starts Here, and Comprehensive Based Placed Initiatives (Early Child Services, and School Services) Early Child services is designed to increase capacity and improve access to quality early care and education across the Midwest states we serve. Providers can receive technical assistance, consulting services, and grants to improve facility quality. School Services is a program in which we work across all education systems with school districts, charter schools and charter school authorizers, private schools, policymakers, and education advocates to increase opportunity and improve outcomes for students. Coordinated and focused efforts allow IFF to strategize, develop, and implement programmatic responses. Informed by data, IFF helps plan, find, finance, and develop schools in the places where they are needed the most.

Real Estate Solutions: This program helps nonprofits make better real estate and space decisions to support growth planning, program changes, and financial and organizational capacity. The goals and objectives of each nonprofit client determine IFF's scope of consulting services, from advising on real estate strategies to solving specific need for additional or new space. Clients choose from a comprehensive menu of fully integrated services based on a proposal tailored to specific needs, all at below market fees. Services provided include feasibility assessments, facilities assessments, strategic facility plans, site search and due diligence, and owner's representative services. Since 1997, 1,734 projects have been worked on in this program and has funded the renovations or construction of over 4.1 million square feet of real estate developed. In addition, this program has created 13,357 K-12 student slots, 5,155 Early Childhood Education slots, and developed 381 housing units.

Community Development Solutions: IFF has worked to strengthen nonprofits and their communities through our expertise in finance, real estate planning and development, and research. IFF will work with local and state government, nonprofit agencies, foundations, and other community groups to help achieve their community development goals by assessing community conditions by analyzing demographic data and trends, inventorying existing community assets, and identifying gaps. IFF also evaluates housing, human services, education, health care, investments, and job environments to provide a community conditions analysis which helps guide stakeholders to develop strategic plans and to prioritize investments. IFF will develop solutions with conceptual projects and programs with strategic partners and facilitate community partnerships by bringing relevant parties together by facilitating partnerships with strategic stakeholders and potential collaborators. Through this work, IFF has helped address a broad range of community needs - from health care, education, housing, child care, healthy food access, and job training. This program also initiates, coordinates, develops, and owns real estate projects that respond to community needs, create jobs, and transforms low-income communities in the Midwest. It acquires, owns and manages community-integrated housing for low-income disabled adults, and redeveloping foreclosed properties near public transit into affordable homes and apartments.

Sector Strategies, Strategic Insights, Community Data Insights, Community Engagement, Performance Impact, and Organizational Learning. We provide data and analysis to help nonprofits, foundations, and governments agencies make better decisions about resource allocation and real estate investment. Our goal is to ensure that investments and programs are targeted to where they are needed the most. We are national leaders in needs assessments that measure the supply of and demand for quality schools in urban school districts. Our initiatives have informed state and local government efforts to expand quality child care in high-needs areas, and led to new models for providing affordable, community-integrated housing to low income persons with disabilities. Community Engagement projects include needs assessment by service and geography, assessment of organizational capacity for existing or new services, qualitative analysis of nonprofit service delivery and client experience, program evaluations, nonprofit financial trends, financial health, and financial management, analysis of population and economic trends, data to support strategic planning, and mapping and analysis of program data. We are also the administrators and program developers of the Chicago Cultural Treasurers program.

Corporate Communication and External Affairs: IFF's corporate communications and external affairs department advances IFF's priorities in the areas of community development finance, the nonprofit sector, charter schools, early care and education, health care and housing. It also supports the growth of IFF in the Midwest. Government policy and spending decisions have big impact on our clients operating environmental and the health of the communities they serve. We engage in public policy to make sure that these decisions are based on solid data, knowledge of the nonprofit sector, and hands-on experience in community development. Our initiative has informed state and local government efforts to expand quality child care in high-need areas, and led to new models for providing affordable, community-integrated housing to low-income persons with disabilities.