About
Our Background
Openhill was incubated under the auspices of the Community Building Initiative, a public/private sector alliance led by the City of Chicago and not-for-profit Green Street Project.
The Initiative was started in autumn 2006 to support the communty pursuits of nonprofits, faith-based organizations and businesses. Sean Harden, head of Community Affairs for Chicago Public Schools, serves as the Initiative’s Chair. Green Street Project serves as the Initiative’s project lead and fiscal agent.
Over the next 18 months, the Initiative convened over 1,000 civic and grassroots leaders to several town hall-style meetings at Chicago City Hall to ask them how their community-building pursuits could best be supported. Participants reported that they wanted increased social capital--defined as the quality, quantity and utility of relationships--and that they wanted technology tools to help those relationships happen. To meet the community's needs, the Initiative encouraged $1.3 million worth of private-sector investments into a new enterprise, called Openhill.
Community Commitment
Openhill has a deep commitment to the community:
20% Nonprofit Owned
Openhill was launched as a socially-responsible company by committed organizations, such as the City of Chicago, nonprofit Green Street Project and IBM. To "pay it forward" we teamed with those who gave us our start to co-found CityPartners, which helps launch socially-responsible companies that profitably address civic issues. Openhill proudly issued 20% of its stock to nonprofit CityPartners.
