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Summer 2025
Dear community supporters, partners, and friends,
True transformation happens when we work together to honor and uplift the strength, creativity, and wisdom already present in our communities.
The incredible work of our grantee partners is showcased in this end of summer e-newsletter, including how they are:
Training the next generation of innovative scientists
Regrading shorelines and reestablishing habitat
Creating art from a place of fulfillment
Elevating the voices of immigrant and refugee high school students
Advancing Jewish law knowledge amongst Orthodox women scholars
We aim to continue sharing stories and resources that spark inspiration, and we encourage you to reflect on what you can do to fuel lasting change.
As we approach Rosh Hashana, a time of reflection, renewal, and hope, may we continue to be inspired by the resilience and creativity within our communities.
Elizabeth Walder
President & CEO
Elizabeth Walder, President & CEO, Walder Foundation
SCIENCE INNOVATION
Why Early Research Opportunities Matter: Building the Next Generation of Scientists in Chicago
Students in Northwestern University's summer undergraduate research program participating in science communications training. Photo courtesy of NSF-Simons NITMB.
In early 2025, the National Science Foundation informed many research institutions in Chicago and beyond that funding through their Research Experiences for Undergraduates program would be cut.
The path to scientific discovery often begins with aspiring scientists being given opportunities to test their thoughts and theories with the support and guidance of talented teachers, mentors, and peers. Undergraduate research programs offer more than summer employment—they’re career launching pads.
Hear from faculty and students of Northwestern University's Quantitative Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates program—one of five programs funded in part by Walder Foundation this summer—about their learning and professional development experiences.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
From Brownfields to Greenfields: Advancing Ecological Resilience in the Calumet Region
Stephen Bell of Chicago Parks District (center), Adam Ferguson of the Field Museum (far left), and Paul Botts of The Wetlands Initiative (center right) share insights with Sustainability and Research Innovation Congress excursion participants at the Ford Calumet Environmental Center in June 2025.
How do Chicago area post-industrial landscapes, plagued by decades of perpetual wastewater and chemical contaminants, become dynamic ecological sanctuaries and recreation areas once more?
Learn about habitat and wildlife restoration and conservation efforts underway in the Chicago region from information collected during a field trip of the June 2025 Sustainability and Research Innovation Congress and through Walder Foundation grantee The Wetlands Initiative and 2022 Biota Award recipient Adam Ferguson of the Field Museum.
PERFORMING ARTS
Art at the Center: Equity, Care, and Transformation
2024 Walder Foundation Platform Award recipients pose on stage during an October 2024 celebration event.
When arts workers are offered equitable compensation and the space to prioritize self-care and artistic growth, the work they create may feel and be experienced as more resonant, innovative, and deeply personal. Rather than producing solely for commercial value, they may be able to create from a place of fulfillment—resulting in work that reflects their identities, communities, and lived experiences.
To illustrate the transformative impact of arts worker support, read more about efforts of seven recipients of the 2024 Walder Foundation Platform Awards.
MIGRATION AND IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
Telling Their Own Stories: Green Card Youth Voices Comes to Chicago
Student presents her story at the Green Card Youth Voices - Chicago book soft launch event. Photo courtesy of Green Card Voices.
“The first explosion I heard in my home country changed everything for me,” shared a Chicago-area student from Ukraine during a soft launch event for the book, Green Card Youth Voices - Chicago. “I didn’t realize how lucky I was before it."
Green Card Youth Voices - Chicago features 30 personal essays by immigrant and refugee students from five continents and 19 different countries. Read more about how this book came to be and the students whose stories fill its pages.
JEWISH LIFE
International Halakha Scholars Program Equips Orthodox Women with Skills and Scholarship in Jewish Law
IHSP cohort members during a May 2025 learning and connection event in Chicago.
Ohr Torah Stone’s International Halakha Scholars Program (IHSP) was established in 2021 to provide Orthodox Jewish women educators, scholars, and communal leaders around the world with the opportunity to study the intricacies of Jewish law in the key areas of the Sabbath (Shabbos), death and mourning (aveilus), Jewish dietary law (kashrus), and family purity laws (niddah)—all at an advanced level equivalent to that of rabbinic students.
“The IHSP program will profoundly deepen and enrich the Torah-centered inspiration, connection, and meaning that graduates will bring to Jewish communities across the globe," shares Jennifer Raskas, one of the steering committee members who helped establish this program. "This is an impact that will last for generations to come.”
WALDER HIGHLIGHTS
On May 27, Walder Foundation and Gratz College announced 15 exceptional Orthodox Jewish women were selected to join the inaugural Walder Fellowship cohort of Gratz College’s newest Ph.D. program. The fully funded, leadership-focused Executive Ph.D in Jewish Studies equips a generation of thought leaders with high-caliber research and writing skills, as well as specialization in core areas of Jewish tradition, history, and culture.
On June 16, Walder Foundation announced over $1.4 million in total funding that will support six Chicago-based conservation and biodiversity scientists through the Foundation’s 2025 Biota Awards program. Funds will be used to advance research and solutions aimed at understanding, protecting, and restoring the unique and diverse ecosystems in Chicago and around the world.
Walder Foundation's Lighting the Way: A Philanthropic Guide to Supporting Migration for a Welcoming Chicago is now available for download.
This comprehensive guide is designed for private funders, nonprofit leaders, civic partners, and individual donors who want to better understand and support the migration ecosystem in the Chicago region.
The application cycle for the 2026 Walder Foundation Biota Awards, a program to fund early-career researchers based in Illinois who seek to restore, protect, and conserve biodiversity locally and around the world, opened in July. Applications are due October 21, 2025.
Learn more about award requirements and how to apply, and review past Biota Award projects and recipients.
WALDER WHEREABOUTS
On August 27, Juliana Kerr, Senior Program Director, Migration and Immigrant Communities, presented a webinar exploring how philanthropy can support immigrant inclusion through grantmaking, partnerships, and narrative change. The webinar was hosted by Council on Foundations.
In September, Elizabeth Walder, President & CEO, will address the growing trend of place-based grantmaking in science philanthropy, alongside fellow panelist Emily Young, Vice President of Programs at the Prebys Foundation, and panel moderator Lou Muglia, President and CEO of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, during a Science Philanthropy Alliance webinar.
In October, Walder Foundation, through the Center for Species Survival, will sponsor the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi. Taking place once every four years, this forum is the largest knowledge marketplace for conservation and sustainable development science, practice, and innovation.
