Tom Tresser has been working for social justice and protecting the Commons in Chicago for over 40 years. He calls himself a public defender and civic educator and you have been reading his work for some time.

Will you consider a non-deductible contribution to help cover the costs of his work for 2025 – Tom is on a fixed income and spent over $15,000 delivering a range of programs and services this year.

In 2025 his work incuded launching The 100K Project, a national movement to inspire and equip 100,000 creative folks -- artists, librarians, nurses, social workers, educators, and scientists to run for local office. Working with the National Guild for Community Arts Education, Tom designed and delivered an eight week online leadeship and canidate training proram designed for artists and creative workers.

Tom first organized training for artists to run for local office in 1991.

Headline: Since 1979, the Leadership Institute has trained hundreds of thousands of conservative activists to win public office at all levels of government. In 2024, they had a budget of $52 million and hundreds of their trainees hold positions of power across the USA.

Tom produced the 2024 annual TIF Report - No one in America covers the TIF scam like he does. The TIF Illumnation Project has issued the only comprehensive and easy-to-understand annual report of all of Chicago's TIF acivity since 2013. People from all over the country reach out to him to help them understand and fight TIF funded projects (like privately owned sports stadiums).

You can read his take on the latest TIF outrage, the bailout of LaSalle Street developers, here.

Headline: In 2024 Chicago’s 121 TIFs removed $1.2 billion! At the start of 2025 there was $3.2 billion in the TIF acccounts – public dollars that are available to be gifted to private developers at the whim of the mayor and aldermen. The mayor and City Council often dip deeply into the TIF piggy bank when they are seeking to balance the city’s budget. That’s exactly what happened this year as the recently passed 2026 budget will include $1 billion taken from the TIF accounts.

Tom organized to stop the privatization of Lincoln Park and worked to defeat Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics - saving Chicago taxpayers at least $20 billion! He has trained over 5,000 people to lead in public life and delivered over 300 public community forums and civic workshops. His book "Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve" has helped expand Chicago's collective civic imagination.

You can susbcribe to Tom’s “CivicNotes” weekly email at https://tresser.substack.com and you can purchase a copy of the book with $5 billion in sustainable and progressive revenue solutions for Chicago at www.tinyurl.com/Order-Broke-Book or www.tinyurl.com/CINB-ISSUU. You can also get the inside story of the No Games Chicago campaign by getting a copy of Tom’s book, published by Routledge Press in 2024, at www.nogameschicagobook.com. You can also download a PDF of the workshops Tom can deliver at www.tinyurl.com/Tresser-training.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to Tom’s work, please click over to the 100K Project’s fundraising page maintained by our fiscal sponor, Fractured Atlas, at www.tinyurl.com/Invest-100K-Project.

Thank you for you support!