Get to know the Walder Foundation! Established in 2018 by Joseph and Elizabeth Walder, the Walder Foundation champions Chicago by investing in five key pillars: Performing Arts, Science Innovation, Environmental Sustainability, Migration and Immigrant Communities, and Jewish Life.
🎥: Courtesy Walder Foundation
#WalderFoundation #Chicago #ArtsFunding #EnvironmentalSustainability
Congrats to 2024 Platform Award recipient Robyn Mineko Williams on being included in the @chicago_reader 's #AAPIMonth spotlight featuring Asian American artists who are nourishing the performing arts landscape in Chicago and beyond!💃
Robyn's 2024 work Hisako’s House, inspired by her grandmother’s experiences in an American internment camp in the 1940s, was recently transformed for an installation at @skf_konstnarshuset in Stockholm, Sweden. The installation opens tomorrow and runs through June 13.
📰 Read more about Robyn and this installation: chicagoreader.com
➡️ Learn more about Walder Foundation's Platform Awards: platformawards.org
Chicago faces a critical need for a robust and diverse pipeline of immigration legal advocates, especially as demand grows and workforce shortages intensify.
@The@resurrectionproject 's Colibrí Fellowship, @ijcorps , and @depaullaw ’s Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic are helping recruit, train, and mentor the next generation of legal professionals who will sustain this work for years to come.
Read more about some Chicago area organizations' efforts and Walder Foundation’s legal ecosystem funding approach and strategies at 🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
2022 Biota Awardee, Noé U. de la Sancha has been selected as a 2026-2027 U.S. Fulbright Scholar!
With this grant, Dr. de la Sancha will continue his 20-plus years of research in Paraguay, studying the affects of deforestation on small mammals and biodiversity as a whole. This work builds on research funded through Walder Foundation’s Biota Awards program. Congrats, Noé!
Learn more about Noé’s research at biotaawards.org.
💧 Tackling flooding takes more than rain gardens. Aligned systems, shared data, and community leadership are necessary. Meet some organizations that are strengthening Chicago’s green stormwater infrastructure by aligning systems, collecting and sharing data, and engaging communities:
➡️@alliance4greatlakes
➡️@chicago_doe
➡️@healthyschools
➡️@metroplanners
Read more at 🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
Diaspora-led and community-based organizations are working to expand their immigration legal services programs to be able to take on complex immigration law.
Groups like @unitedafricanorganization , @indoamericancenter , @institutochicago , and @syriancommunitynetwork are working to ensure that high‑quality legal services are available in trusted spaces where community members already feel supported.
Read more about how these organizations are responding to a complex legal landscape at 🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
🎉Congratulations to 2024 Platform Awardee @avery_r_young on the world premiere of his debut opera, safronia, at @lyricopera last weekend! 🎉
The response has been resounding. Writing for the @chicagotribune , Chris Jones called safronia a “very potent new American opera.” In @thirdcoastreview , Kathy D. Hey described it as “a story of loss, redemption, and the soul of the Great Migration,” while @rollingout critic Eddy “Precise” Lamarre praised the work as a “soulful, spiritual… masterpiece.”
@courttheatre has announced that they will be adding the opera to their 2026-2027 season, with safronia slotted for May 14 - June 13, 2027. Save the dates!
🤩Learn more about how young and fellow Platform Awardees are strengthening cultural institutions and contributing to a thriving performing arts ecosystem in #Chicago and beyond: platformawards.org
Photo credits: Kyle Flubacker and Sulyiman Stokes
A global event takes collaboration.
Chicago’s cultural community has stepped up. 🤝🎵
In one week, Chicago will host @intljazzday !
Take a look at the positive social and economic impact anticipated for Chicago. #JazzDay
Read more at🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
Chicago is getting wetter, and our infrastructure is feeling it. 🌧️
🎥 On #EarthDay2026, learn more about nature-based solutions, and get a peek into some Chicago area organizations (@alliance4greatlakes , @chicago_doe , @healthyschools , and @metroplanners ) engaged in green stormwater infrastructure efforts. #Sustainability #EarthDay
Read more at 🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
P.S. Follow along as we will be sharing more about these organizations' efforts again soon!
We are so grateful for the incredible partners who make the JWE Conference possible.
A huge thank you to the Walder Foundation for their generous support of this year’s conference. Their commitment to empowering Jewish communities is a value we share deeply.
Swipe to learn more about the Walder Foundation and comment HER to receive a link to tickets 🔗
📍 JWE Conference | April 27 | Newark, NJ
Chicagoland organizations with a history of handling highly complex immigration cases are facing unprecedented demand.
Organizations such as @immigrantjustice , @nslegalaid , @eriehouse , and the Midwest Immigration Defender’s Alliance are working to build highly coordinated and responsive legal infrastructure for the region.
Read our full article featuring how they’re responding and Walder Foundation’s legal ecosystem funding approach and strategies at 🔗 in bio.
🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected
