The following is a transcript of ULI Foundation Chairman Jeff Stack’s remarks at the 2015 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California.
Good afternoon! It’s a pleasure to be with you in San Francisco! I am very proud to be chairing the ULI Foundation during its 45th anniversary year. For 45 years, the Foundation has supported ULI’s efforts to make a better world through better communities. That’s a long time, but we’re just getting started. I believe the best is yet to come.
All of us are here this week because we believe in ULI’s mission, and we believe in doing our part to advance it. We believe in giving back to our Institute. In my view, there is no better way to give back to ULI than with a gift to the ULI Foundation.
By contributing to the Foundation, you are contributing to the impact ULI is making on people’s lives every day. You are helping ULI create communities that are more prosperous, more sustainable, and more livable. Perhaps most important, you are helping ULI influence those who will be building the communities of tomorrow.
Not too many years from now, a whole new generation of land use professionals will be deciding what to build, what to save, and what to replace. Whether they settle for just good enough—or they push themselves to go above and beyond—will be determined by what they learn from ULI’s legacy.
ULI takes on complex challenges like how to build affordable housing. How to make places more walkable. How to build for resilience.
These are quality-of-life issues that determine the future of our communities, because they affect how people choose to live and the quality of life they achieve. For nearly 80 years, ULI’s involvement in these issues has led to better decisions on how communities grow, and ultimately, to better outcomes. You can help us keep the momentum going with a gift to the Foundation.
ULI’s body of work—the content, programs and services funded by the Foundation—helps reinforce the Institute’s longstanding reputation as the preeminent authority on leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.
Here are just a few examples of the outstanding work that the Foundation supports:
- The much anticipated Emerging Trends in Real Estate report—just released today.
- The Greenprint Center’s Building Performance report, which tracks progress made by Greenprint members in cutting energy use and carbon emissions.
- America in 2015, a key report on consumer preferences for housing and communities.
- The awards programs showcasing best practices—the Global Awards for Excellence, Urban Open Space Awards, and the Kemp-Larson housing awards.
- ULI’s work on building healthy places and building resilient communities; and,
- Our Advisory Services program, which has helped more than 600 communities around the world solve the toughest development problems.
Join the ULI Governors
Each of you can help us build on ULI’s success. When you joined ULI, you became vested in its future. Today, I’m asking you to take that commitment to the next level. I’m asking you to give to the Foundation, and to consider becoming a ULI Foundation Governor.
I’m very proud that we have added 16 Governors to our roster over the past 12 months. We owe each of them a special thanks for their dedication to the Foundation and ULI.
The Governor program is incredibly important to what ULI does, and we strongly encourage our Governors to participate in ULI programs and activities. An excellent choice for volunteering is the UrbanPlan program, which is ULI’s popular design and development course for high school and college students.
UrbanPlan started right here in San Francisco, as the brainchild of ULI leaders Ron Nahas, Doug Abbey and Steve Chamberlin, who wanted the next generation to learn the importance of what’s built and where it’s built.
The program caught on quickly, and over the past 10 years, it’s reached more than 26,000 high school and university students in the U.S., and has now been brought to Europe. More than 2,000 ULI members have participated in UrbanPlan—that’s more volunteers than any other ULI program.
On Monday evening, the Foundation hosted a highly successful gala at San Francisco’s City Hall to honor longtime Foundation Governor and industry icon George Marcus, and—just as important—to raise funds for UrbanPlan. Through the gala, we raised more than $225,000 for this excellent program. Urban plan really sums up the essence of ULI—demonstrating leadership, sharing knowledge, and giving back.
I’d like to take a couple of minutes to show you a brief video about UrbanPlan, so you can see its powerful impact for yourself. After the video, Mike Hayde, our very capable chair of the Foundation’s Annual Fund, will take the podium to share a few thoughts about how we can keep the momentum going for the Fund.
Thank you for supporting ULI and the Foundation. You are helping ULI stretch its reach and touch the lives of more and more people each year.
