It’s Money That Matters
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Chicago Matters was launched in 1990, dreamed up by Bruce Newman, then executive director of the Chicago Community Trust, and Bill McCarter, then president of WTTW. At first it was on television only, as the trust’s high-profile signature program. As it moved into other media circa 1994, it continued to be funded exclusively by the trust, in recent years to the tune of about $1 million. WTTW, WBEZ, the Reporter, and the library usually collect their Chicago Matters grants in the fall, but this time, Aronson says, “we wanted to start work in the summer.” The four organizations filed their applications early, seeking approval in the spring, and Aronson was thinking he’d be able to film some of the city’s Music Everywhere events this summer.
The Searle money, about $20 million a year, is income earned from a $350 million fund established by drug magnate John G. Searle, who died in 1978. In 2038 all the money in the fund will go to his family, but until then, in one of those inspired combinations of tax avoidance and community service, the fund’s annual harvest goes to the trust to dole out. Trust spokesperson Jennifer Jobrack says the organization can do that “with or without the approval of the family,” but has always chosen to “listen to them in the interest of having a good relationship” and has “not funded anything over the objections of the family.” The Searles disagree, insisting that their recommendations (they favor community programs, education, and medical research at local universities) and concerns have been disregarded. Unable to take their marbles and go home, they’re trying to do the next best thing. They’ve asked the Illinois attorney general (who oversees charitable trusts) to let them change the fund’s beneficiary from the trust to Northwestern University, where John Searle’s grandson is a board member.
Two years after it shut down to move to a new nest, Raven Theatre will open Marvin’s Room August 18 at 6157 N. Clark. The grocery store renovation took a year longer than planned and $700,000 more than the $1.3 million originally budgeted….It took a nudge from the village to convince reluctant members of the Glencoe Women’s Club to let Writers’ Theatre Chicago move in with them, but they’re about to sign a five-year lease. Writers’ will double its seating to 100 starting with the 2003-’04 season; the club will get help with its leaky roof.
