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  1. What We Fund
    1. Overview: What We Fund
    2. Strengthening Neighborhoods & Building Communities
    3. Self-Sufficiency, Education & Employment
    4. Community Health & Medical Research
    5. Regional Assets
    6. Building Organizational Strength
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  3. Special Initiatives
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      1. Queen City in the 21st Century: Buffalo's Comprehensive Plan
      2. Blueprint Buffalo: Regional Strategies and Local Tools for Reclaiming Vacant Properties in the City and Suburbs of Buffalo
      3. Urban Ecosystem Analysis, Buffalo-Lackawanna
      4. Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America
      5. Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities
      6. Retooling for Growth: Building a 21st Century Economy in America's Older Industrial Areas
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        1. Community Health
          1. Western New York Health Risk Assessment
          2. Every Breath We Take
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      4. Losing Ground: Income and Poverty in Upstate NY
      5. Poverty: A State of Extremes
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      7. Pulling Apart in New York:An Analysis of Income Trends in New York State
      8. Baby-Boom Retirements and Emerging Labor Market Pressures
      9. Factors That Affect Children and Families in Erie County: Poverty, Violence, Child Abuse and Neglect
      10. Children Left Behind: How Metropolitan Areas are Failing America's Children
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    5. Community Health & Medical Research
      1. The Western New York Health Risk Assessment
      2. Every Breath We Take
      3. One Friday, Four Futures Initiative
      4. Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes
    6. Regional Assets
      1. CultureWork
      2. The Vital Center: A Federal-State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region
      3. The Great Lakes Region and the Knowledge Economy: A Roadmap to the Future
      4. The University and the Creative Economy
      5. Buffalo Niagara Partnership Regional Agenda
      6. Erie and Niagara Counties: Framework for Regional Growth
      7. Shared Prosperity, Stronger Regions: An Agenda for Rebuilding America's Older Core Cities
      8. Economic Benefits of Land Conservation
      9. Artists’ Centers: Evolution and Impact on Careers, Neighborhoods and Economies
      10. Buffalo Niagara Cultural Tourism Initiative Strategy
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    7. Building Organizational Strength
      1. New Board of Directors Training Sessions
      2. Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning
      3. Daring to Lead
      4. Beyond Collaboration: Strategic Restructuring of Nonprofit Organizations
      5. The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
      6. Boards of Midsize Nonprofits:Their Needs and Challenges
    8. Knowledge Source March-April 2011
    9. Knowledge Source Jan-Feb 2011
    10. Knowledge Source 11.10
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      7. Board Book 1-26-2011
      8. Investment Committee Meeting Info 1-26-2011
      9. Board Book 5-18-2011

Home > Special Initiatives

Special Initiatives

Beyond Grantmaking

While there are no easy answers to the challenges facing the Buffalo Niagara region, the Oishei Foundation hopes to play a leadership role in catalyzing change by provoking debate, encouraging new thinking, advancing learning and mobilizing parties to work together towards solutions. By focusing our own grantmaking and by working with others to prioritize community needs, the Foundation hopes to be an adaptive community leader. 

To catalyze change in the Buffalo region the Foundation will participate in and encourage partnership and collaboration and continue to expand our leadership role, leveraging and pooling resources to identify and implement innovative, effective solutions.

In this expanded leadership role, the Foundation will dedicate our resources to:

  • Serve as a voice for the Buffalo Niagara region in conversations with national funders
  • Advocate for policies and resources that support Foundation goals and objectives
  • Identify and implement opportunities for collective governance and action around high priority issues
  • Bring national expertise to the region

By acting as a convener of community members and by partnering with public and private organizations, we will affect a significant increase in collaboration and partnerships. Foundation support will be directed to opportunities for collaboration, alignment, and mergers among nonprofit service providers, particularly those that work across sectors and disciplines.

We see the leaders in our region as assets that can be grown and cultivated. We plan to increase opportunities for leadership development by supporting:

  • Leadership training at the neighborhood/local level
  • Nonprofit leadership training
  • Succession planning efforts including executive training and support during transition

We look forward to telling you more about our leadership initiatives as they develop throughout the year. Click here for information the newest events for nonprofit leaders.