Discover the latest research & reports produced, supported or shared bythe Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation
To better understand the offerings of and access to youth sports in urban, suburban and rural communities, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation commissioned three regional studies by the Aspen Institute's Sport & Society Program, in partnership with local community foundations:
This report was commissioned by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation.
Learn moreThis framework plan for the Joe Louis Greenway — a 27.5-mile path that will connect neighborhoods throughout Detroit — outlines the background, context, and plans for the project in two volumes. This includes highlighting the vision for the Greenway, the planning process, and the economic and cultural opportunities that the Greenway presents. The framework plan also explains the design and construction details of the project.
The Buffalo Parks Master Plan from the Trust for Public Land (TPL) provides a detailed overview of Buffalo’s parks, their management, and the different benefits that the parks create. TPL also lifts the city’s community priorities for its parks and the opportunities available to improve the park system. Alongside this, TPL offers implementation strategies that the city of Buffalo and other stakeholders can take to promote a more equitable parks system.
This report from the University at Buffalo Regional Institute (UBRI) complements the Imagine LaSalle community vision document by summarizing the focus group’s reflections from their visits to 21 parks in New York City, Chicago, and Cincinnati. UBRI proposes four different park management models to explore how these 21 parks are managed. From this, UBRI draws conclusions on whether these parks fit into these models, what entails effective discussions on park management, and what structures and investments promote high-quality park experiences for visitors.
Launched in 2018, Imagine LaSalle was a multi-year initiative that engaged the Buffalo community to imagine a new vision for the former LaSalle Park. In partnership with the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, and the City of Buffalo, the University at Buffalo Regional Institute (UBRI) led this engagement effort. UBRI formed a focus group of Buffalo community members, taking the group on tours of LaSalle and parks in New York City, Chicago, and Cincinnati. UBRI also gathered input from Buffalo youth and conducted a community survey to understand how residents connect to the park and what improvements they desire. This community vision report summarizes the Imagine LaSalle initiative and the community insights that helped guide the transformation of LaSalle Park into Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park.
This opportunity report from the Buffalo Sewer Authority presents Rain Check 2.0: Buffalo’s green infrastructure efforts geared toward addressing the city’s stormwater runoff challenges. Building on Rain Check 1.0, this report details Buffalo’s stormwater issues and the important regional context, identifies potential green infrastructure technologies and network-focused approaches to address these challenges, and highlights the culture and collaboration that can emerge from this initiative.
This playbook from KABOOM!, produced with the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative and The Sports Facilities Companies, examines courts and fields in Southeast Michigan and Western New York. Building on the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s Built to Play initiative, this playbook uses surveys, focus groups, and an equity analysis to reveal significant gaps in access and playspace inequity. The report offers a roadmap for cross-sector collaboration to close these gaps, with lessons applicable nationwide.
Launched in 2018, Built to Play is a partnership between the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, KABOOM!, and The Skatepark Project to create and sustain innovative play spaces and parks across Southeast Michigan and Western New York. Informed by the Aspen Institute’s State of Play reports, the initiative has led to the development of over 90 play spaces and skateparks. This evaluation by Gehl uses qualitative and quantitative methods to assess outcomes at the individual, site, community, and system levels. Key findings show that Built to Play sites promote free play, improve access for historically marginalized groups, and reflect community voices and local pride in their design. The report also offers recommendations for future play space and skatepark development based on the lessons learned.
In 2024, the Michigan Community College Association partnered with Public Policy Associates to convene a Dual Enrollment Work Group. Drawing on input from the group and a statewide and national scan of dual enrollment policies conducted by researcher John Fink, this report offers recommendations to strengthen dual enrollment opportunities for Michigan high school students.
This Brookings case study from Western New York highlights how federal, state, and philanthropic investments are being leveraged to grow the region’s advanced manufacturing cluster. With $25 million from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge and $29 million from state and philanthropic partners, two coalitions are expanding training, supporting technology adoption, and rehabilitating industrial buildings. Designed to counter historic disinvestment, these efforts aim to extend inclusive growth opportunities into rural and remote areas of the Southern Tier while positioning advanced manufacturing as a driver of regional growth.
Michigan Community Resources (MCR) produced this 2025 assessment of the needs of nonprofits in Michigan (particularly those in Detroit and Southeast Michigan) and the resource gaps that these nonprofits face. Through surveys and interviews with nonprofit representatives, MCR provides insight into the strengths, challenges, and needs for these nonprofits, including findings related to funding, capacity, structural inequities, and geographic trends across Detroit’s nonprofit ecosystem.
Commissioned by the state of Michigan’s Governor’s Office of Foundation Liaison, Altarum and the Citizens Research Council of Michigan produced this report assessing the state’s future. Through a landscape scan, literature review, and interviews, the authors outline key trends and opportunities across Michigan’s workforce, environment, infrastructure, public health, demographics, and public sector.
With support from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, Causewave Community Partners researched the need for a nonprofit leadership pipeline in Western New York. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, surveys, and a national scan, the report examines the experiences and decisions of mid-level nonprofit staff, highlighting challenges related to retention, work-life balance, and workplace bias.
This report from the Center for Governmental Research, in partnership with the Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo, assesses the state of capacity building for nonprofits in nine counties in Western New York. Utilizing surveys, interviews, and focus groups, the study collected qualitative and quantitative data to create an asset map highlighting gaps and needs in the region. The report offers recommendations for funding practices, cross-sector networks, and organizational-level strategies to strengthen nonprofit capacity.
This 2019 report prepared by Michigan Community Resources, in partnership with the Michigan Nonprofit Association, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work, and the University of Michigan Technical Assistance Center, explores opportunities to strengthen nonprofit capacity building in Southeast Michigan. Drawing on capacity building literature reviews, program evaluation data, focus groups, and expert interviews, the report proposes a comprehensive capacity building system for Southeast Michigan.
This collection of opportunity reports from the Michigan Municipal League (MML) analyzes the entrepreneurship and small business ecosystem in cities and villages in Southeast Michigan, detailing short-term and long-term opportunities to improve and strengthen these ecosystems.
In 2021, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, Empire State Development, and the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, launched the Regional Revitalization Partnership (RRP). This $300 million community-driven economic development strategy invests in three interconnected urban areas to catalyze regional growth, build community wealth, and leverage public-private co-investments. The report highlights key investments, collaborative planning, and the potential of RRP to serve as a model for inclusive, scalable economic revitalization across New York State and beyond.
As a part of a broader effort to improve Western New York’s regional food system, this report from SCALE Inc. highlights the landscape, strengths, challenges, and inequities of the area’s food system. Using surveys, stakeholder interviews, site visits, and existing research, SCALE offers recommendations to improve equity and access, support farmers and producers, strengthen markets and institutions, and expand financing and investment opportunities.
The “Working While Caring” report focuses on the challenges faced by individuals who are balancing caregiving responsibilities with employment. A significant proportion of adults in the workforce identify as caregivers of older adults, often experiencing strain that negatively impacts their health and employment. The report details barriers within the healthcare system, care payment system, community services, and workplace that contribute to these challenges. It discusses the efforts of employers, particularly in Southeast Michigan, to raise awareness of these issues and develop practical solutions to support caregivers among their workforce. The report emphasizes a “move the needle” approach, aiming for systemic changes rather than surface-level solutions while also offering innovative and immediate intervention recommendations.
In the summer of 2020, FrameWorks began evaluating American mindsets on care work during the COVID-19 pandemic through its Culture Change Project. Using bimonthly national surveys and peer discourse sessions, the evaluation assessed how people perceive the importance, value, and conditions of care work. Findings show that care workers remain widely recognized as essential, while also highlighting gaps in understanding systemic factors, economic context, and structural inequities that shape care work. This report also emphasizes the need to develop “frames” that better communicate about direct caregiver work, and its findings can help inform how to build stronger frames.
In 2019, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation funded the Transformational Healthcare Readiness through Innovative Vocational Education (THRIVE) initiative to support newly hired caregivers. Piloted in three health systems, THRIVE provided risk assessments, training, and one-on-one coaching to promote caregiver retention. The RAND Corporation evaluated THRIVE’s implementation to assess its effectiveness, identify program strengths, and draw lessons for improving caregiver support and retention strategies. Insight from THRIVE’s evaluation has informed the Foundation’s CareFront project, an initiative with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to test ideas in select health systems that may help address turnover in direct care workforce.
In 2020, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York commissioned The Philanthropic Initiative to carry out an environmental scan of memory cafés. Memory cafés provide safe, welcoming spaces for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers to socialize, engage in creative activities, and access supportive resources. The scan examines café models, demonstrated benefits, best practices, funding strategies, and regional growth patterns.
To inspire more 6th–12th graders to pursue STEM, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation launched STEM 2035, supporting 17 organizations in Southeast Michigan and Western New York. Compass Evaluation & Consulting conducted a mixed-methods evaluation to assess the impact of funding, technical assistance from the PEAR Institute, and peer learning communities on program quality and youth engagement. Findings show the cohort model fostered collaboration, strengthened organizational capacity, and led to lasting improvements.
To expand access to out-of-school (OST) STEM programming in Southeast Michigan and Western New York, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation launched STEM19, awarding one-year grants of $50,000 – $100,000 to organizations providing OST STEM programming in the two regions. Compass Evaluation & Consulting conducted a mixed-methods evaluation to examine whether STEM19 improved program quality and organizational capacity to serve traditionally underrepresented youth. Findings showed that participation strengthened programming through improved content quality, deeper knowledge of STEM best practices, and enhanced capacity to engage underrepresented youth.
To better understand partner perceptions and how to best serve its communities, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation collaborated with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to administer their Grantee and Applicant Perception surveys. To complement these findings, the foundation enlisted the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University to conduct interviews with key partners. This two-part process utilized CEP’s refined surveys and custom interviews to capture comprehensive perspectives from intermediaries and grantees.
To learn more about the impact of the Generator Z program, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation engaged an evaluation team led by a team from the University at Pittsburgh School of Education. The team aimed to shape its mixed-methods evaluation approach to align with the spirit of the overall Generator Z initiative by rooting the evaluation in adolescent and youth development research and elevating youth voices throughout their report.
View the 2021 through 2022 Biennial Report for the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. The report covers highlights of the foundation’s 2021 and 2022 programmatic grant commitments made in its two regions of Southeast Michigan and Western New York, spotlights on the Foundation’s special initiatives, and the Foundation’s 2022 financials.
This report was written and published by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
This report was written and published by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
This report is the result of a three-month rapid discovery process from Victor & Company to better understand Western New York’s (WNY) entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through interviews with regional stakeholders and a review of the existing literature, Victor & Company present findings on the ecosystem’s strengths, challenges, and future opportunities, as the authors offer strategies to […]
This report was written and published by Victor & Company, led by Victor W. Hwang, with support from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation
This report was written and published by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
This report is the result of a yearlong planning process that engaged nearly 500 community stakeholders. “The State of Economic Equity” presents 22 economic equity indicators through the lens of geographic and racial/ethnic equity, in six focus areas: income and wealth building, access to quality employment, business and entrepreneurship, education, health, and neighborhoods and housing. This report illustrates the deep disparities that persist in Detroit and provides recommendations that provide a path to an economically equitable Detroit in which all Detroiters are meeting their unique needs, prospering, and fully and fairly participating in all aspects of economic life within a thriving city and region.
This report was published by Detroit Future City, with support, in part, by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
View the 2019 Annual Report for the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. The report covers highlights of the foundation’s 2019 programmatic grant commitments made in its two regions of Southeast Michigan and Western New York, spotlights on the Foundation’s special initiatives, and the Foundation’s 2019 audited financials.
This report was written and published by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
COVID-19’s devastating impact is likely to be more severe and long-lasting in “legacy cities,” or older industrial cities, like Detroit, especially for minority communities. But promising, new collaborative local efforts and leadership—particularly if they are shored up by key policy fixes—can make a difference in whether and how legacy cities recover from the crisis and emerge stronger on the other side.
This report was published by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings with support, in part, by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
This report is focused on connected and automated vehicles (CAV) and will analyze the current and emerging technology workforce in southeast Michigan. It examines occupations that are critical in developing CAV by analyzing data on the workforce’s employment trends, local demand, entry requirements, and regional specialties.
This report was published by the Workforce Intelligence Network with support by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
This report is focused on cybersecurity and will analyze the current and emerging technology workforce in southeast Michigan. Where appropriate, national comparisons are included as well. This report builds upon and updates the original Cybersecurity Skills Gap Analysis published by WIN in 2017 in connection with the Office of Economic Adjustment, Department of Defense.
This report was published by the Workforce Intelligence Network with support by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
The is the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s first official “Report of Activities” to the community. The report offers listings of the Foundation’s 2016, 2017 and 2018 programmatic grant commitments made in its two regions of Southeast Michigan and Western New York. The report also includes the Foundation’s 2017 audited financials.
This report was written and published by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
To gain a better understanding of the “state of family caregiving,” the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation engaged Practica Group, a partnership of anthropologists and marketers, to conduct research and gain broad cultural insight into the everyday lives of this growing community. By presenting these findings, the Foundation strives to provide fresh perspectives on the life of caregivers, the challenges they face, their successes and joys.
This publication was researched by Practica Group with support from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation
This report by Michigan Future, Inc., offers detailed ideas on how state policymakers can implement the placemaking recommendations in its previous state policy report: A Path to Good-paying Careers for all Michiganders: A 21st Century State Policy Agenda. As with that report, Michigan Future’s goal is to offer ideas that will engage readers in a conversation about how Michigan can meet the economic challenges of the future.
This report was published by Michigan Future, Inc. with support, in part, by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
An in-depth analysis of the key attributes of dozens of older industrial cities across the country, this report argues that bottom-up efforts to better leverage their advantages, and address their disadvantages, can help achieve improved economic growth, prosperity, and inclusion for all.
This report was published by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings with support, in part, by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
This report was published by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings with support, in part, by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
This report offers an independent assessment of the state of play for kids and sports in the eight-county region comprising Western New York—Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming counties. It is anchored in the notion that all stakeholders will benefit if all children in the region, regardless of zip code or ability, are provided access to a quality sport experience.
This report was produced by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program with support from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
This report offers an independent assessment of the state of play for kids and sports in the seven-county region comprising Southeast Michigan—Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe, and St. Clair counties. It is anchored in the notion that all stakeholders will benefit if all children in the region, regardless of zip code or ability, are provided access to a quality sport experience.
The report was produced by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program with support from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
This report offers an independent assessment of the state of play for kids and sports in the six counties within Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes—Livingston, Ontario, Monroe, Wayne, Seneca, and Yates counties. It is anchored in the notion that all stakeholders will benefit if all children in the region, regardless of zip code or ability, are provided access to a quality sport experience.
The report was produced by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program with support from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
Youth sports have fundamentally changed over the generations – from casual, unstructured play to more organized programs run by adults – and the end result has been noticeable: Fewer kids playing and staying active, and more kids overweight and obese. But a new report – touted as the first of its kind nationally – outlines […]
The report was produced by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program with support from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
Michigan kids need to get moving, according to a study of youth sports released today. The study found that while 85% of parent think their children would benefit from playing a sport or being active, only 13% of kids are getting the recommended daily hour of physical activity. The study, called State of Play, was […]
The report was produced by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program with support from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, in partnership with the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
