CME Group Foundation today announced that it has awarded over $2.2 million in grants to further support higher education and career initiatives across Chicago and Illinois.

"Every stage of the pipeline from classroom to career has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic," said  Kassie Davis, Executive Director of the CME Group Foundation. "It is more important than ever to support organizations that help low-income students get to college or post-secondary training, graduate and get a strong first job."

These grants include $700,000 to support CME Group Foundation Scholars. The CME Group Foundation Scholarship Program was created for minority students majoring in finance and computer science related majors within targeted universities. The scholarships will cover up to $20,000 for each recipient for the 2021-22 school year, with potential for renewal for three years up to the 2024-25 school year.

Funding also includes $100,000 over two years to support Bottom Line, which partners with first-generation college students from under-resourced communities to help them get into and through college and successfully launch a career, as well as $100,000 over two years to support One Million Degrees, a holistic, wraparound support model dedicated to accelerating community college students' progress on career pathways to economic mobility.

For more than a decade, CME Group Foundation has served as an advocate for early childhood, K-12 and higher education and has funded transformative projects that promote real, measurable impact.

A complete list of these 2021 grantees follows:

• Scholarship America to support CME Group Foundation Scholars ($700,000 in 2021)
• Genesys Works ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Braven ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• America Needs You ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• Youth Job Center ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Wall Street Bound ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Greenwood Project ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Bottom Line ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• One Million Degrees ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• College Possible ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• UChicago Network for College Success ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Better Future Forward ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• iMentor ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• OneGoal ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• Posse Foundation ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Associated Colleges of Illinois ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Partnership for College Completion ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• The Chicago Community Trust to support Progressive Pathways ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• Empower Illinois to support the Future of Illinois Program ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• University of Chicago Consortium on School Research ($25,000 in 2021 and $25,000 in 2022)
• Advance Illinois to support the Illinois 60 X 25 Network ($50,000 in 2021 and $50,000 in 2022)
• Rock the Street, Wall Street ($25,000 in 2021)
• Northwestern University to support STEAMbassadors ($50,000 in 2021)

For more information about CME Group Foundation, please visit the website: www.cmegroupfoundation.org.