Chicago Community Jail Support Update
Published on March 11, 2024 by E
Dearest Friends of Chicago Community Jail Support,
Thank you so much for being a part of the incredible network of solidarity offering safety, comfort and support to our neighbors being released from Cook County Jail these past four years. This message is both an update and an urgent request for your help!
We learned at the end of February that our fiscal sponsor, Open Collective, is winding down their operations and therefore we cannot accept donations through their platform after March 15th! We will have until September 30th to use the funds we have in Open Collective, making it essential that we build up a reserve of funds to maintain our operations through the summer as we work on determining CCJS’s financial future.
As of this email, we have just over $11,000; our goal is to get to $20,000 to operate without disruptions until we resolve our fiscal sponsor situation. On average, CCJS’s monthly expenses are about $6,500. This amount covers clothing, rides, supplies (e.g. food, drinks, cigarettes, bus passes), short-term housing/hotel stays, and living expenses for individuals released from CCJ who we’ve connected with on the ground.
If you are a RECURRING DONOR:
- Be aware that your recurring donation will not renew after March 1st.
- If you have capacity to make a larger lump-sum donation by March 15th, that would be hugely helpful to keep operations running!
- Please share this on your social media and with your networks! You can find an Instagram graphic linked here and on our page @chicommunityjailsupport
If you are a CCJS VOLUNTEER:
- Please share this on your social media and with your networks! You can find an Instagram graphic linked here and on our page @chicommunityjailsupport
- Join an upcoming Financial Working Group meeting! There’s no pressure to actively speak in these meetings, but it’s important for as many people as possible to understand and help contribute to decision making on CCJS’s financial future. Your perspective is important!
- Fill out this when2meet if you’d like us to consider your availability when scheduling the next meeting.
- We’ll provide an update in the CCJS Discord server of when the meeting will be. If you’re not on the Discord and would like to be notified of the meeting time, please email [email protected] and we’ll add you to a list to be notified by email.
Thank you so much for everything you do!
All the best,
Chicago Community Jail Support
Chicago Community Jail Support
Shannon Wray
Posted on March 14, 2024
Just wanted to provide a few points of clarification.
Your fiscal host Open Collective Foundation is shutting down. The Open Collective platform will still remain and be operational for a wide range of other fiscal hosts. You can view Open Collectives official statement here.
Your contributions will be paused on the 15th of March and can be reactivated if you transition to another fiscal host on the Open Collective platform. We have provided some resources here on your fiscal hosting options: https://blog.opencollective.com/fiscal-hosting-options/
You have until the 30th of September to spend down your funds with Open Collective Foundation but we are providing alternatives options like the ability to duplicate your collective. Read more about this here.
Please do reach out to our team if we can be of any further support.
Thanks, Shannon
Operations Orchestrator
Open Collective