Chicago Council on Global Affairs Receives $5 Million Gift from Pritzker Foundation

JANUARY 16, 2019

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs announced today it has received a $5 million multi-year commitment from the Pritzker Foundation to support its annual three-day global cities forum. Launched in 2015, the forum convenes civic, business, cultural and academic leaders from around the world to raise provocative questions about the influence of global cities and how they can solve pressing global challenges. The forum will be named the Pritzker Forum on Global Cities in honor of the commitment made to the Council’s Second Century Campaign.

“Urbanization is the most dynamic and consequential force of the 21st century, and cities are looking to each other to solve common problems more than ever,” said Ambassador Ivo H. Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “This generous gift from the Pritzker Foundation will enhance the Council’s ability to create connections among global thought leaders and decision makers to develop innovative solutions in their own cities.”

The 2019 Pritzker Forum on Global Cities, in partnership with the Financial Times, will take place June 5-7 in Chicago at Revel Fulton Market. Through in-depth panels, intimate discussions, innovative flash talks, intensive workshops, and informal networking, forum participants garner new ideas and understanding to improve efficacy, management, and design of urban networks.

With a centennial anniversary in 2022, the Council is poised for transformative growth. The Second Century Campaign will allow the Council to explore and develop ideas that address large-scale political, cultural, and technological changes and disruptions that are driving historical shifts in the global order. This gift from the Pritzker Foundation builds on gifts to the Second Century Campaign from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation for which the main hall of the Council’s conference center was named and the Crown Family to establish the Council’s new Lester Crown Center on U.S. Foreign Policy.