The Institute for Local Innovations (ILI) is a mission-driven nonprofit that empowers underrepresented communities to lead their own transformation. Through groundbreaking work at the intersection of storytelling, data, design, and technology, ILI amplifies resident voices, advances equity, and drives systems-level change. From Africatown to Chicago’s South Side, ILI helps communities document lived experience, uncover environmental and public health injustices, and build actionable solutions rooted in local wisdom and digital tools.
What sets ILI apart is its commitment to shifting power. Through platforms like Mi Rialiti and the COMPENDIUM curriculum, we train community members—especially youth, women, and frontline residents—to become data storytellers, civic designers, and equity innovators. Our model strengthens local leadership, informs just policy, and brings philanthropy, academia, and government into alignment with grassroots priorities.
Your support fuels more than programs—it helps rewrite the rules of engagement. It means iPads in the hands of Black girls in STEM. It means digital storytelling nodes in rural and urban communities. It means a future where communities don’t just have a seat at the table—they set the agenda.

Stand with ILI. Invest in the people who live the issues—and are building the solutions. Help us power innovation, equity, and transformation from the ground up.