Meet Our Researchers
Malcolm Bush, Ph.D.
Dr. Malcolm Bush of the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall has now assisted the Eleanor Foundation in our two most recent sponsored research studies, including the one leading to our latest report, Changing Conditions in a Changing World. Dr. Bush is widely recognized as an expert on economic development issues relating to urban populations. Learn more about our researchers.
Learning and Listening: The Path to Our Grant-Making
Programs informed by thoughtful research
In 2002, the Eleanor Foundation embarked on its present strategy: to support innovative programs to meet the needs of single working women in the Chicago region who were striving to achieve economic self-sufficiency. We focused on working female heads-of-households who made between $10,000 and $30,000 a year.
To meet the needs of these women—who live not only in Chicago but throughout the suburbs throughout the entire metropolitan region, we knew it was critical to go beyond the numbers. Not only did we need to establish the size of our target population; we also needed to learn what their specific needs were.
Research had to support our grant-making, helping us to guide the service organizations we collaborate with to tailor their services to the needs of our women.
The Eleanor Foundation embarked on a program of research that continues to this day: to learn where these women live, how they think about themselves, what their principal challenges are, which services they need, and where they prefer to access those services. We sponsored studies by some of the most prominent researchers in the field. And we learned vitally important things:
- That the female heads-of-households who fall within our target demographic number more than a third of a million;
- That the proportion of these women who live in the Chicago region is growing faster in the suburbs than in the city;
- That these women are ethnically diverse, and have vastly different educational and social backgrounds;
- That these women have average annual income of less than $20,000—a critically low level, especially for those with children;
- That fewer than 6% of these women access any types of social services—public or private; and,
- That more than 40% of the women in this population must pay more than 50% of their income on housing alone.
Our research has also given us vitally important information in how to structure our grants. The women in our target population need four specific services to overcome the barriers to economic independence:
- Job-skills training and career development counseling
- Access to safe and affordable housing
- Dependable childcare
- Financial coaching and improved access to credit
With these needs identified through our ongoing research, we target our grant-making to organizations that address one or more of these needs, and create long-term partnerships with successful programs. That is the Eleanor Network—and strengthening it is our mission.
© 2012 The Eleanor Foundation. All Rights Reserved.