Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 12

8:00 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2019 PAVILION MY SONGS TOUR STING A MESSAGE FROM UNITED AIRLINES At United, providing our customers with safe and reliable air transportation is our top priority, but we remain dedicated to making a positive impact in the communities where our customers and employees live and work. As an enthusiastic patron of the arts in Chicago and beyond, United has proudly served as a Ravinia corporate sponsor for more than 20 years. “We’re proud of our long-standing relationship with Ravinia and are delighted to have the opportunity to contrib- ute our resources to the programs and institutions that are vital to the livelihood of the communities we serve,” says Sharon Grant, United’s Vice President of Community Affairs. As the festival’s official airline, we are honored to use our unique resources to transport artists, musicians, and staff from around the globe to the festival each summer. United celebrates the energy that performers and the nearly 600,000 guests bring to our hometown and the global stage each summer. We value this great partnership and are pleased to join Ravinia in welcoming you to the 2019 season. JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. Driving Inclusive Growth on Chicago’s South and West Sides Almost two years ago, JPMorgan Chase made a $40 million, three-year pledge to expand access to oppor- tunity on Chicago’s South and West Sides. We did so because our firm has deep roots in Chicago, and because we know that business thrives when commu- nity thrives. We also believe we have both the respon- sibility and the capability to help solve challenges in our communities. We are proud to report that we have deployed more than half of this $40 million pledge. Even more im- portant, our investment is beginning to make a real impact in people’s lives—which we know is thanks to the tireless, on-the-ground work of our nonprof- it partners. Each person who has graduated from a training program and landed a new job, and each entrepreneur who has gotten financing to expand a business, is the true metric of success. Even while we take this occasion to mark our prog- ress, we are profoundly aware of the challenges Chi- cago continues to face. We recognize our firm’s ef- forts are one part of the broader solution needed to address the decades of disinvestment, concentrated poverty, and associated gun violence that are imped- ing the ability of too many Chicagoans to fulfill their potential. We believe, however, that JPMorgan Chase can make a meaningful contribution doing what we do best: leveraging our firm’s resources and capabili- ties to drive inclusive growth that expands economic opportunity. We are also reflecting on what we have learned or had reaffirmed through our work on the South and West Sides: collaboration among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors is the lynchpin in solving complex challenges; good data is needed to inform and cus- tomize strategies; the business community must de- ploy its full range of expertise and assets—including, but not limited to, philanthropy—to drive impact; and we must apply an innovation mindset to tackling community challenges, taking risks, and scaling what works. Perhaps chief among our reflections is a renewed appreciation for the ways that Chicago’s nonprofits don’t always have access to the data, expertise, and other tools that will enable them to most effectively translate their hard work into greater opportunity for Chicago’s residents. As a result, we are looking more closely at how our firm—through the expertise of our employees—can go beyond writing a check to strengthen the vital organizations that are on the front lines of improving Chicagoans’ lives. There is still much to do, but we feel privileged to work for a firm that applies its formidable assets to helping tackle the biggest issues in our city. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 19 – AUGUST 25, 2019 104