Power of Ideas How Foundations Can Generate Knowledge to Spark
Change In October, New York City Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott did
something out of the ordinary at a press briefing: He built his
remarks around a new RAND study, Hours of Opportunity, to help
demonstrate the value of the investments that the city, in
partnership with The Wallace Foundation, has made in finding new
ways to coordinate and support after-school programs. This
prominent attention from City Hall for a research study was
unusual. What was not unusual was that a research study figured
prominently in a Wallace Foundation initiative. Photo courtesy
of the Wallace Foundation M. Christine DeVita is president of
The Wallace Foundation, whose mission is to improve learning and
enrichment opportunities for children. At Wallace, we believe
that credible, independent research is an indispensable part of
developing solutions to important, unsolved social problems. We
came to this conclusion as a result of an assessment we
undertook about a decade a