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Home > What We Fund > Regional Assets

Expanding the Impact of Regional Assets

One of our region's greatest assets is its cluster of colleges and universities. The 22 colleges and universities located in Western New York draw thousands of students to the region and are among the largest employers in the area. These strong creative institutions are essential to our region’s vitality.  

In addition, the wide array of cultural institutions throughout the Buffalo Niagara region draws thousands of visitors from around the world annually. Our vibrant cultural and educational institutions stimulate an economy based on knowledge, innovation and progress.

Our targeted outcomes in the Expanding the Impact of Regional Assets focus area are:

  • Increased number of local and tourist visitors to cultural sites, including natural and heritage attractions
  • Increased cooperation between area colleges and universities in order to attract and retain more students and academic professors
  • Additional involvement of colleges and universities in community improvement activities that support the Foundation's goals
  • Heightened promotion and support of efforts by the cultural and educational sectors to attract new funding and resources to the region
  • Joint promotion and development of regional attractions and assets by local funders

Our strategies to realize these outcomes include:

  • Leverage and support of WNY's substantial intellectual and cultural resources to the greatest extent possible
  • Connecting the resources of colleges and universities with efforts to improve the wider community and deploy the resources of arts and cultural organizations in efforts related to community advancement and improvement
  • Fostering the ability to assess, plan for, and implement collaborative community improvement activities that reflect institutional missions and leverage internal resources 
    For more information on Regional Assets, visit our Knowledge Management Library.
  • Partnering with colleges and universities on programs and activities that support other Foundation focus areas by means such as studying the economic impact of local colleges and universities and convening their leaders to determine opportunities for collaboration and increasing community impact
  • Arts and cultural organization support that strengthens programs and operations, including investing in capacity-building and organizational development activities such as: 
    • Strategic planning 
    • Implementation projects
    • Staff development
    • Technological improvements
    • Successful inter-organizational alignments, such as shared purchasing, administration and mergers
  • Broadening audiences to strengthen programs and cultural institutions including investing in:
    • New and innovative programs in schools, community centers, faith-based institutions, and health-related institutions, and across ages and cultures
    • Specific efforts that appeal to multi-cultural and younger populations, and promote opportunities to expand cross-cultural offerings
  • Convening organizational leaders to align goals, objectives and strategies and by identifying opportunities for collaboration