Monthly Gathering · Executive Forum

Purpose-Driven
Organizations in Chicago

An evening for Chicago leaders steering organizations by purpose, not just performance — to eat together, and say the things that don't get said at the boardroom table. Kept small on purpose: 10–12 people a month.

From our community — Call For Culture gatherings

Who this is for

Executive directors, founders, and senior leaders of mission-driven organizations across Chicago — nonprofits, B corps, social enterprises, and companies built around a purpose bigger than the balance sheet. If you're carrying the weight of culture and purpose in your organization, this room is built for honest company.

Executive Directors Founders & CEOs Chief Culture / People Officers Social Enterprise Leaders

About Call For Culture

Call For Culture is a Black-owned, woman-owned community of practice that exists to drive bold social change by raising the bar on the role of workplace culture in positively impacting people and society. We believe that if it's happening in the world, it's happening at work — and it's time to challenge traditional workplace culture that separates the human from the work.

Facilitated by

Angela R. Howard

Founder, Call For Culture & Culture Impact Lab

Angela R. Howard is the founder of Call For Culture and creator of the Culture Impact Lab, the equity-centered conference on workplace culture and change. She built both around a simple belief: culture isn't a talking point, it's a system — and shifting it takes equity, human-centered leadership, and honest company between the people doing the work. Angela facilitates every gathering herself, because the room is the work.

About Culture Impact Lab

Culture Impact Lab is the purpose-driven gathering shaping workplace culture as a catalyst for social change — discussing the social issues impacting work, and making the case that leadership itself is an economic driver for Chicago. It brings together People + Culture leaders, mission-driven executives, founders, and social impact leaders doing that work.

Culture Impact Lab 2026 just wrapped, and the community is already looking ahead: Culture Impact Lab 2027 is being shaped together, starting with the question the room keeps coming back to — how do we want to shape the future of this community? This monthly gathering is where that conversation continues in between.

This month's question

The Connection Tool

"What are the narratives that are preventing us from collaborating across organizations?"

If it's happening in the world, it's happening at work

Chicago's workplaces don't sit outside the city's pressures — they absorb them. Whatever your team is navigating in the world tends to show up in the room, whether or not anyone names it out loud. This gathering exists to name it on purpose.

Leadership as an economic driver

The quality of leadership inside Chicago's organizations isn't a soft metric — it's directly tied to who stays, who gets hired, who invests, and who builds their future here. Strong leadership is economic infrastructure.

Cost of living & housing pressure

Rising rent and housing costs are squeezing hourly and frontline workers hardest, showing up as turnover, second jobs, and commute strain long before it reaches an exit interview.

Commute & transit reliability

CTA and Metra service gaps shape who can reliably get to work on time — and which neighborhoods get written off in hiring, often without anyone deciding that on purpose.

Public safety & neighborhood conditions

Where people feel safe working, closing, or waiting for a bus after dark directly shapes scheduling, retention, and which parts of the city get investment.

The future of flexibility

Return-to-office debates play out differently depending on income — remote flexibility is a benefit some workers have and others were never offered.

Pressure on equity commitments

Legal and political pressure on DEI work is forcing leaders to decide, often in public, what they still stand behind and how they say it.

Immigration & the Chicago workforce

Shifts in immigration policy and enforcement reach into the workforce and the communities many organizations exist to serve, not as an abstraction but as coworkers and clients.

Burnout & economic anxiety

Financial stress and exhaustion don't stay home — they show up as short tempers, disengagement, and culture problems that look like something else on the surface.