Shared Learning

Homeownership is deeply tied to prosperity, wealth, and the American dream. But the credit needed to achieve homeownership remains out of reach for many people of color, resulting in significant and persistent racial disparities across New York state.

A labor market study in the Buffalo Niagara region. This study focuses on workforce development challenges, key industries, and the local workforce ecosystem, with recommendations to address workforce shortages, diversity issues, talent retention challenges, and alignment between education and employer needs. ​This study outlines various recommendations for initiatives in Buffalo.

In a series of posts on the CEP blog in summer 2020, leaders from more than a dozen policy-oriented foundations responded to five key questions that arose from the CEP research report, Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why. This series, packaged here in its entirety, shares these funders’ thoughts — in their own words — on why and how foundations can effectively engage in public policy to achieve their goals.

Developed through a collaborative effort in 2021, the RRP is a $300 million private and public co-investment in three interconnected geographic areas. Investment in these areas catalyzes economic growth for the entire region. Each area is at a different stage in its economic development, so the level of project detail provided herein varies.

To better understand foundations and public policy influence, CEP studied the perspective of foundation leaders across the country on this topic, through surveys and in-depth interviews. This report shares what they learned.

This report summarizes the results of a field scan conducted between January and August 2021 as part of this strategy refresh.

In this two-part series, a collaboration with Arizona Grantmakers Forum and the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, we walk through the fundamentals of trust-based philanthropy. 

Amplifying black excellence. One business at a time.  Unveiling the hidden gems: Celebrating black excellence in business, community, and culture!

Stakeholder engagement is the art and science of becoming more connected as a grantmaker. It is based on the belief that those closest to a problem have important insights that will help shape solutions.

This suite of self-assessment resources addresses all of these imperatives, but with a unique twist: It helps funders like you respond to the current moment of social foment and the enduring drive for long-overdue justice by exploring your own power.

ZERO-SUM THEORY: Many white Americans view race as a zero-sum game: There’s an us and a them, and what’s good for them is bad for us.

Evidence that board diversity benefits firms is mixed. A 2015 meta-analysis of 140 research studies of the relationship between female board representation and performance found a positive relationship with accounting returns, but no significant relationship with market performance. Other research has found no relationship to performance at all.

There is a hunger for fresh approaches and urgent demand for novel policy methods that can break through our political gridlock, address the problems of our time and create new avenues for thriving individuals and communities. Targeted universalism is an approach that supports the needs of the particular while reminding us that we are all part of the same social fabric.

In this episode we hear from john a. powell, who is our director, and a professor of law and African American Studies here at UC Berkeley. In the interview we discuss a brand new primer we’ve just published on the targeted universalism policy approach, a model conceptualized by professor powell. 

Laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of color, often end up benefiting all of society.

This report seeks to expand the narrative associated with racial equity by adding a compelling economic argument to the social justice goal.

This lookback summarizes progress by the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable (GBRER) over the past five years (2017 - 2022) and articulates emerging strengths and challenges of its development processes and organization.

Opportunity in the Queen City was initiated by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo in early 2022, with support from the John R. Oishei Foundation, in an effort to further a vibrant and inclusive Greater Buffalo region with opportunity for all.

As this report makes clear, the region continues to face challenges, yet there are numerous bright spots that point to positive transformation.

This report, the Harder We Run, uses the State of Black Buffalo Project as a reference point to determine if African Americans have made progress over the past thirty-one years. It aims to determine if the Black socioeconomic trajectory is trending upward or downward. “Progress” is a shadowy term that requires careful definition.

This paper outlines a bold vision and a strategic approach to show how we can change the Black East Side into a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family.

We write these words as practitioners, working in partnership with community, centering the needs, lived experiences, wisdom and leadership of our Indigenous, Black and brown neighbors.

What does the existing literature say about patterns and possibilities on the Eastside of Buffalo?

In partnership with the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, The John R. Oishei Foundation prepared a compendium of actionable research and neighborhood investment plans that are inherently connected to the East Side neighborhood of Buffalo.

Objectives: Continue processing together the root causes of racial inequities in Buffalo. Delve more deeply into strategies deployed by other place-based foundations centering racial
equity and community. Advise consultants on usefulness/applicability of peer foundations’ experience to Oishei’s strategic options. Practice elements of a learning organization.

In this blog post, you can learn how a systems approach can help you unite a community around an issue, map a system for change, and design a strategy to shift the status quo.

Website that includes trainings and tools for policy advocates, organizers, community members, volunteers, and others working toward a more just and equitable New York.

The Buffalo Common Council established the Affordable Housing Task Force (AHTF or Task Force) to develop policy recommendations that address the lack of affordable housing in the City of Buffalo. This document is the first of two reports the Task Force  intends to release in 2023-2024. It focuses on implementing pre-existing policies and making small changes to enhance them.

This document consists of an introduction and four parts, all designed to create a fact-based foundation for thinking and making decisions about a range of housing and neighborhood-related issues.

LISC listened to hundreds of community members around their priorities for health, housing, jobs, small business, mobility, safety, development priorities, and culture. They analyzed demographics, economics, employment and housing trends, reviewed existing plans, examined neighborhood conditions, and interviewed stakeholders.

This report examines key variables that explain the black-white homeownership gap and estimates the role that income, education, credit score, and marital status play both nationally and locally in 105 MSAs with large black populations.

How lending practices have prevented New Yorkers of color from purchasing homes and deepened wealth inequality.

This report provides empirical research on a set of problems that if solved, can significantly improve the racial wealth gap.

This analysis of the current economic environment, as well as citation of the barriers to homeownership that Blacks face, provides a roadmap on what areas we must address to increase Black homeownership and wealth. 

This brief provides detailed information about the people in Erie County who are / were experiencing homelessness as well as the reasons they lost their housing. 

Examples from Buffalo and around the nation prove that vacant urban land can be repurposed for affordable housing, community gardens, urban farms, parks, playgrounds, trails, green infrastructure, public art, and other beneficial uses.

The Four-Year Strategic Plan is centered around four strategic priorities:

Thriving neighborhoods and people
Smart and sustainable infrastructure
Climate resilience
Economic opportunities and mobility

This paper outlines a bold vision and a strategic approach to show how we can change the Black East Side into a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family.

The vision of Aspen FSP’s New Wealth Agenda is a future in which everyone has enough wealth to maintain financial stability and resilience, to invest in their family’s well-being, and to participate fully in society, the economy, and our democracy. We can create that future by 2050 by achieving a ten-fold increase in the wealth of households of color and the bottom 50 percent of the population by net worth.

Throughout this edition, we look at the practice of emergent learning, advocating for an approach that is adaptive, inclusive, transparent, and curious. In the development of this issue, our formative conversations with guest editors Melanie Matthews and Shantelice White resonated with urgent themes regarding the processes and mindsets that allow learning to thrive.

Having wealth, or a family’s assets minus their debts, is important not just for the rich—everyone needs wealth to thrive. Yet building the amount of wealth needed to thrive is a major challenge. Nearly 13 million U.S. households have negative net worth. Millions more are low wealth; not having the assets or liquidity needed to maintain financial stability and invest in themselves.