As we celebrate our fifth year of sharing, connecting, and learning, help us build toward the future!

With your help our sixth year will include:

Adding new, high-demand tools for you to borrow
Repairing and maintaining our 10,000+ tools
Launching demonstrations and workshops about tool use and safety
Increasing staff pay and benefits and hiring more staff
Opening more days and hours
Keeping up with our rising rent and insurance costs

visual representation of the size of each tool library contributor group: one full-time staff member, three part-time staff members, 11 board members, dozens of volunteers, and over 8,000 members

Some memorable milestones from our fifth year:

Winning the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Creative Places" award at the 2024 Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards
Hiring our amazing Tool Librarians!
Hosting dozens of repair fairs
Throwing our first in-house fundraiser party
Throwing our first community celebration event at the National Museum of Mexican Art
Drastically growing our membership base!
Giving away 4,426 free seed packets
Donating several truckloads of tools in Working Bikes shipping containers to Africa and South America

New here? Welcome! The Chicago Tool Library is a 501c3 nonprofit on Chicago's West Side. Our mission is to provide equitable access to tools, equipment, and information to allow all Chicagoans to learn, share, and create. We are a forward-thinking organization hoping to help our city reshape its relationship to ownership, consumption, and creativity.

You can learn more about us by visiting our website: www.chicagotoollibrary.org

EIN: 83-3111020

Chicago Tool Library's 5-Year Milestone Campaign

The more we share, the more we have!

Team Members