Now you can get “Chicago Is Not Broke” via Issuu!

Buy a copy at www.wearenotbroke.org! $15 + tax & shipping…

CivicLab Illuminates ALL TIFs in Illinois!

The CivicLab is proud to release the first ever Illumination of ALL the Tax Increment Financing Districts of Illinois! We crawled through 1,454 reports from 535 municipalities. We’re looking at some BIG numbers! Get the headlines and the data at https://tifreports.com/illinois-illumination. This work was made possible by a grant from the Muckrock Foundation.

Join Us for 187th Public Meeting!

Join us in Pilsen on April 27th for our 187th public meeting since we launched the TIF Illumination Project in 2013! This meeting, “TIF 101,” is hosted by El Pueblo Manda (The People Rule) and will be at 1952 W. 21st Street. RSVP via Facebook.

Chicago TIFs Still Racist – Our 2021 Chicago TIF Review

You can grab our exclusive review of ALL of Chicago’s TIF Disctricts for 2021 by filling out a short form. Read this article on the report on Heartland Signal (3/20/23).

Get the Book With $5 Billion in Answers!

“There are only a few people courageous enough to sift through the lies and tangled webs that proves Chicago isn’t broke, but the politics are. Most people won’t take the time to do the research, but Tom Tresser and his team have and this book should be on your list.” – Karen Lewis, President, Chicago Teachers Union

Purchase a copy of “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve” by clicking here ($15 + tax/shipping). You can contribute to our work here (we are a nonprofit organization).

>> You can make a tax-deductible investment in our work via the Action Network. <<

Get Trained To Win For Justice!

The POWER Institute is our training arm. You can experience PAST WORKSHOPS by clicking here

Listen to an interview on WGN AM radio FROM June 2022 with an update on our TIF work and approach to civic training! Read about our training work in the August 2022 issue of Gazette Chicago.

CivicLab Partners With Houston City Councilwoman Tarsha Jackson

Tarsha Jackson is a fierce and effective organizer and fighter for justice in Texas. She was elected to Houston’s City Council District B and has also founded a community service organization to serve the people of the District, the Urban Community Network. She brought the full CivicLab team (Ama Johnson, Jonathan Peck, Phillip Thomas, and Tom Tresser) to Houston for three days of planning and organizational development. She wrote “This past Thursday and Friday, District B and Urban Community Network, the nonprofit I founded, spent some time reflecting on how we serve the community, how we care for ourselves and how we can be stronger leaders. The goal of both organizations is to ease inequities in District B and build up our community leaders. Thank you to The CivicLab for leading us on this journey of self-discovery and growth!” It was an honor and a ton of civic fun to meet Ms. Jackson and her kick-ass comrades! We will continue to help Councilwoman Jackson with strategic planning and capacity building services through mid-2023.

CivicLab Partners With Illinois Access to Justice Coalition

We’re proud to have been selected as the ILA2J training partner!

The Illinois Access To Justice Coalition is an Illinois state-wide program of over 60 front-line organizations that seeks to mitigate the devastating consequences of all forms of detention and incarceration and the resulting crippling effects on historically marginalized communities. The CivicLab provided over 50 workshops on organizational development, strategic planning, program development, resource development, and civic engagement. We also provided executive coaching to a select number of leaders from member organizations. We are doing this via our POWER Institute, which has been offering civic training and consulting services to nonprofits and social justice organizations since 2017. Over 7,000 people have been trained to win for justice. Contact us at info@civiclab.us.

Watch “TIF 201” Video

We delivered the comprehensive workshop “TIF 201 – Chicago Details + Organizing Strategies” on October 16, 2021. This video is available for rental viewing and is one hour, 43 minutes in length. We cover (1) the basics of how TIFs work – why we call them a slush fund, (2) the complete details of the TIFs of Chicago for 2020, Cook County, and Illinois – NO ONE else can give you this info!, (3) The public policy issues TIFs raise – the harms they do do our communities – which represent organizing hooks for civic engagement and policy change. Reach us at info@civiclab.us.

MIT Agrees With Us – TIFs Are Racist!

We are proud to announce that the CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project was a finalist for the MIT Solve Global Challenge “Antiracist Technology in the U.S.”! Seven winners were chosen from the 15 finalists for this challenge.  There are four other global challenges and over 1,800 solutions were submitted from 29 countries! Watch the pitch video below…

2 minutes, 55 seconds!

Other News…

Read about our training work on the front page of the August 2022 issue of Gazette Chicago.

We’ve been working with the awesome Detroit People’s Platform on exposing TIFs and organizing for economic justice in Motor City.

Our analysis of the TIFs of the 28th Ward was front page news in the December 2021 edition of the Gazette Chicago!

Our analysis of Chicago’s TIFs for 2020 is front page news in the November 2021 edition of Gazette Chicago – “City has $2 billion in TIF money ‘slush fund but it is not spending it, CivicLab charges”

The Chicago Tribune covers our TIF work in this article: “What’s a TIF and where do your tax dollars go? This group wants to help people get answers”

CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser was interviewed on WBEZ’s “Reset” Program as part of the “Re-Imagine Chicago Series”

Summary of Chicago 2020 TIF Impacts Available! To get our comprehensive report on ALL of Chicago’s 2020 TIF activities please complete this short form. NO ONE has the data and insights on TIFs that we do. You’ll get your report in a few days, at most. Thanks!

No one else has this data!

Our CEO, Jonathan Peck, was honored as “2021 Champion of Social Justice” by Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy!

February 26, 2021
Jonathan Peck, CEO of the CivicLab
April 2019 – 7 Aldermen-Elect Protest the Lincoln Yards TIF!
End TIFs now!
Join the campaign – sign our online petition!

The CivicLab(r) is a Black-led Chicago-based 501 c 3 tax-exempt nonprofit community-facing “do tank” dedicated to accelerating and deepening grassroots democracy, government accountability, civic engagement, and social justice efforts through collaboration, education and innovation.GuideStar Silver Certificate

We seek to expand civic imagination about what is possible for Chicago’s future.

We recruit, develop, equip and inform new leaders to take us to that future.

Our method is: Investigate. Fabricate. Educate. Activate. Liberate. Repeat.

186 community meetings and 14,000 people engaged since 2013. 260,000+ people grabbed our online presentations. 7,000+ people trained. 500+ contributors. Over 250 volunteers engaged and activated. 16 candidates for public office trained. Working with activists in 15 cities. 2023 will be our tenth year and we’re JUST getting started.

33rd Ward TIF Forum

You can make a tax-deductible investment in our work via the Action Network.

He wasn't kidding.

CivicLab programs

Our work is funded in part by Illinois Humanities with support from the Crossroads Fund, The Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation, the Muckrock Foundation and from Leonard C. Goodman and from many small donors. Thank you!

CivicLab (r) Reg. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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