The Solidarity Fund was established by a group of Chicago and national foundations to provide support to local groups whose work is grounded in advancing social justice, racial equity and immigrant rights, and who recently lost funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CCHD based its decision to defund these groups on their membership in a coalition of advocates for immigration fairness and reform, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), which in May 2013 expressed support for marriage equality in Illinois. Gay marriage was signed into law in Illnois in November of 2013. The Solidarity Fund was able to raise and grant more than $250,000 in support of organizations whose CCHD were immediately defunded.