The Chicago-based Driehaus Foundation has announced legacy grants totaling $5 million in support of historic preservation, the arts, and investigative journalism.

Recipients include Preservation Chicago, a grassroots historical preservation group, which was awarded $2.3 million over two years to establish an endowment fund and hire a full-time development director, and the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, an arts and culture funder collaborative, which will receive $1.5 million to provide three-year unrestricted grants to Chicago-area arts organizations serving minorities, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities. Additional recipients include the Better Government Association, a nonprofit news organization, which was awarded $1.43 million over three years to expand its reach beyond Chicago and establish investigative partnerships with newsrooms in Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, and Champaign, and the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, South Carolina, which will receive $125,000.

A Chicago native, Richard Driehaus launched his career in 1968 at former Chicago investment bank A.G. Becker. He died in March 2021 at the age of 78.

“The world of nonprofits out there, especially in Chicago, it’s just limitless opportunities,” Driehaus Foundation executive director Anne Lazar told the Chicago Tribune. “And as resourced as we are, it allows us to be flexible and seek out new ways in how can we support that work, make impact, and do it in Richard’s spirit.”