Philanthropic Impact
The ULI Foundation exists to support the Urban Land Institute's mission, working with partners who believe in transforming cities and improving lives everywhere.
Better Angels, a nonprofit tackling Los Angeles homelessness, is working to deliver dignified affordable housing in one third of the time and cost of conventional loans. Eviction-preventing microloans and tech tools empower outreach workers.
With society and the real estate industry significantly behind on achieving the targets set in the Paris Agreement, and worsening affordability in Europe’s housing, ULI Europe’s C Change for Housing program has launched a landmark interactive systems map and companion report to help the real estate industry identify, co-create, and scale the solutions needed to decarbonize existing and future affordable housing.
Whether you’re planning for the coming week, year, or even decade, the key question to ask is: What’s next? But in an era both fraught with uncertainty and brimming with opportunity, it is an increasingly complicated question to answer.
Stephen Pantano has joined ULI Impact Lab as a senior fellow. Most recently, Pantano was the vice president of research and special projects at Rewiring America for three years. He previously served as the chief research officer at the Washington, D.C.-based CLASP (formerly the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program), where he established the global non-profit organization as a thought leader in energy efficiency through technological innovation and policy advancement. Additionally, he worked at ICF International, leading the development of Energy Star specifications for various electronic devices to enhance energy efficiency.
New resilience framework touches on infrastructure, economy, equity, housing, and cultural vitality.
Visionary placemaking leader Carol Coletta, recognized for her transformative impact on urban environments, to receive the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
Each year, the ULI Young Leaders Exchange (YLX) selects a dynamic city as the backdrop for an immersive exploration of urban development. It brings together the most promising minds in real estate, planning, and design across the Americas—not simply to observe but also to engage, collaborate, and shape the industry’s future. To that end, in April, “YLX 2025 Orlando Unbound—The Space Between” welcomed 51 registered attendees representing 22 District Councils, including three returning participants from past exchanges.
Jeff Lubell recently joined ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing as a senior fellow. In this capacity, on a part-time basis, he will provide strategic direction, engage in research, and offer technical support to further the center’s commitment to ensuring that everyone has a home which meets their needs at a price they can afford. He’ll spend the balance of his time working with the Housing Innovations Group, which provides policy consulting services to state and local governments, foundations, nonprofits, and other clients.
On May 8, 2025, ULI Orange County/Inland Empire celebrated the successful conclusion of its inaugural Center for Leadership program. This milestone marked the culmination of an eight-month journey focused on advancing ULI’s commitment to connect active, passionate, and diverse members through the foremost global network of interdisciplinary professionals, as well as inspire best practices for equitable and sustainable land use through content, education, convening, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
Formerly at U.S. Department of Energy, Witteman discusses her mission to integrate sustainability and affordability in commercial real estate, revealing how ULI is leading the charge for decarbonized communities.
The Summer 2025 issue of Urban Land is now available for ULI members. This special issue is dedicated to Project Recovery in Los Angeles, with contributions from member leaders including Lew C. Horne and Claire De Briere. Also covered is the ULI Advisory Services team’s work on Panther Island in Fort Worth, Texas.
Members Only
Recent gifts from Turner Construction Company Foundation, Huntington Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, and Walton Family fuel initiatives
In April, the Urban Land Institute welcomed Vincent Ilustre as the new president of the ULI Foundation, appointing him to lead philanthropic initiatives and strengthen donor engagement. Ilustre was drawn to the role by the strong connection members have with ULI. “There’s a genuine passion for this organization,” he said. “Members don’t just join ULI—they invest in it because it’s helped shape their professional journeys.”
UrbanPlan is a hands-on simulation used to empower participants to shape the future of their built environment by more fully understanding the complex dynamics of urban development and the market and nonmarket forces that shape it. Established 21 years ago in collaboration with the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, UrbanPlan was piloted in the Bay Area as a curriculum for high school and university students. The program now includes a variety of formats, including workshops for public officials and community members, and hosts programs throughout the United States and Canada, Europe, Asia and the United Kingdom.
Winning proposal reimagines Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Waterfront as a model for sharing cities, where density drives innovation and inclusive urban living.
A redevelopment plan for a former industrial site in Cleveland presented by a team of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology students has taken top honors in the 23rd annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. This year’s competition asked students for proposals to create a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income area on a former industrial site in on Cleveland’s East Side.
A group of experts representing ULI visited Buffalo, New York, last November to make recommendations for reviving the city’s Jefferson Avenue Corridor, the main thoroughfare of a historically black area that has suffered a decline in commercial, social, and civic activity and engagement as the result of decades of disinvestment and a recent racially motivated shooting.
The Melville Charitable Trust awarded $75,000 to the ULI Foundation to support the development of 10 Principles for Addressing Homelessness: A Guide for Real Estate & Finance. Awarded in October 2024, the one-year grant is the trust’s first donation to the Urban Land Institute (ULI). It will let ULI’s Homeless to Housed (H2H) initiative create a comprehensive guide intended to connect real estate leaders with not-for-profit housing and service providers and collectively identify ways of catalyzing the production and preservation of more deeply affordable housing that is both cost-effective and rapidly deployable.
“ULI members in San Antonio understand the precariousness of their city’s housing crisis,” says Javier Paredes, principal at StudioMassivo and ULI San Antonio member leader. “They [also] recognize the power of aligning housing with transit to create greater housing stability.” In response to San Antonio’s housing crisis, ULI San Antonio members and staff applied to participate in a local technical assistance grant program from ULI’s Homeless to Housed (H2H) initiative.
In Lafayette, Louisiana, homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are creating strain, prompting NIMBYism among community members and leaving civic leaders uncertain of a clear path forward. Understanding this challenge and the tension it can create throughout a city, ULI members gathered community members and leaders to dig into the difficult challenge of housing the city’s unhoused and most vulnerable residents. Supported by the ULI Homeless to Housed (H2H) grant initiative, Catholic Charities of Acadiana in Lafayette and ULI Louisiana gathered more than 300 residents for a series of community workshops to better understand the challenge and to outline pathways toward more deeply affordable housing and services for people most in need.
Estimates suggest that, on any given night, almost 800 individuals are unsheltered, and more than 3,700 are living in emergency or transitional housing in Philadelphia. Homelessness can often be connected to difficulties in finding affordable housing.
The ULI Foundation Honor Roll recognizes donors based upon their cumulative lifetime giving. The ULI Foundation’s recognition societies honor and thank members and friends who have committed to supporting the Urban Land Institute generously and consistently. Members of these societies enjoy several benefits, including invitations to member-exclusive events and ULI Foundation communications.
Eight months after the devastating 1995 bombing, a 13-member panel delivered a report detailing downtown redevelopment strategies.
ULI has selected Rick Reinhard, principal of Niagara Consulting Group, as the recipient of the 2023–2024 ULI Apgar Thought Leader Award, which recognizes the authors of outstanding works written for Urban Land magazine.
With insights and research from a ULI Technical Advisory Panel and ULI’s Terwilliger Center, the Austin Housing Conservancy fund, a revolutionary approach to preserving workforce housing, was born. Now known as the Texas Housing Conservancy, the fund became the nation’s first to combine a nonprofit investment manager, Affordable Central Texas, with an open-end private equity fund.
Seasoned executive shares passion for the built environment
Joseph E. Brown, a pioneering landscape architect, urban planner, and ULI Life Trustee who championed innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration to solve challenges in the built environment, has passed away at the age of 77. A ULI member for more than three decades, Brown served in many leadership roles in the organization and was a tireless champion of his home district council, ULI San Francisco.
The ULI Foundation has announced a $1 million donation from long-time ULI leader and trailblazer in multi-family and residential real estate, James D. Klingbeil, through the Klingbeil Family Foundation. The gift will support ULI’s Advisory Services program, which has provided holistic and tailored land use solutions and best practices to cities and communities for the past 75 years.
Gift extends Stacks’ long history of leadership in ULI, philanthropic support for community transformation, education, and health care
The ULI Foundation Honor Roll recognizes donors based upon their cumulative lifetime giving. The ULI Foundation’s recognition societies honor and thank members and friends who have committed to supporting the Urban Land Institute generously and consistently. Members of these societies enjoy several benefits, including invitations to member-exclusive events and ULI Foundation communications.
