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In recognition of its 34 years of work to increase access
to economic and financial resources in lower-income and minority communities,
Woodstock Institute was a recipient of the 2007 John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Organizations. The award includes a major grant to increase
institutional capacity and ensure the long-term stability of Woodstock
Institute. The seven awardees included:
Action Health Incorporated, a reproductive rights organization in Nigeria, the Institute for Security and
Democracy, a policy reform organization in Mexico City,
the Institute for Law and Public Policy, a group that champions constitutional
and legal reform in Russia,
and another Chicago
organization, the prize winning documentary film organization, Kartemquin
Films.
By broadening
access to responsible credit and well-priced banking, financial and insurance
services, Woodstock Institute has helped expand economic opportunity for
individuals and strengthened targeted communities.
"We have always sought to document how national
financial and economic policy and practice plays out at the neighborhood
level," said Malcolm Bush, Woodstock Institute president since 1992. "This award will help us build on our
successes and continue to produce pathbreaking community level research in Chicago and other cities
around the country to impact state and federal policy.”
“Woodstock has had a major impact on policies and
practices in such areas as access to mortgage finance, small business lending,
retail banking products, and strategies to build and protect modest assets for
moderate income people,” said Tom Feltner, Woodstock’s policy and
communications director.
"Structural economic change, the improvement of
local and federal economic policies, and persuading the financial service
industry to treat the average family fairly are long-term projects,” said Bush.
"We are deeply grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for its steadfast
commitment to our work because of the time it takes to effect policy change,
the unpredictable way in which that change happens, and because of the
controversy that surrounds many of the issues we work on.”
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