A grant from the Marguerite Casey Foundation will support the work of the Smart Cities Research Lab on economic and social responsibility, led by Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College.

Baldwin, author of In the shadow of the ivory tower: How universities are plundering our citiesfounded the Smart Cities Research Lab in 2021 with a focus on research, but over the summer of 2020, its work began to expand to include advocacy.

“After George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were killed and community groups saw the work I was doing with my book and that the lab was an extension of that, they said, ‘We need you to get out there and support our communities,'” Baldwin said.

The Smart Cities Research Lab is part of the Trinity Social Justice Institute (TSJI) and studies and advises on best practices for building equitable urban communities. Part of the lab’s work focuses on the fact that universities are nonprofits, meaning their property is largely tax-exempt, Baldwin said. “This often has a detrimental impact on the budgets of their respective communities, as property taxes help fund city budgets, including public schools and public infrastructure,” he said.

The Lab is leading a series of nationwide PILOT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) campaigns that urge nonprofit organizations—particularly colleges, universities, and their medical centers—to contribute to municipal budgets.

In 2021, organizers in New Haven, with support from Baldwin’s lab, helped secure a commitment from Yale University to increase the school’s voluntary payments to the city by $52 million over six years. The lab is also working with local politicians and community members on similar issues in Baltimore, St. Louis, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and even the Netherlands.

The grant comes from the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Public Dollars for Public Good initiative. It will be distributed over three years to fund administrative staff and student researchers, allowing Baldwin to spend more time in the communities whose campaigns the lab supports. “It helps me organize gatherings in these spaces so the organizations and stakeholders can come together to achieve equitable and racially just development in the future,” Baldwin said. “Our campaigns are an attempt to redirect public funds back to the public. The Marguerite Casey Foundation saw this as a direct reflection of the kind of work it wants to support.”

The Smart Cities Research Lab also studies topics directly related to the courses Baldwin teaches at Trinity, providing students with training and research experience. Baldwin’s former students at Trinity include a doctoral student from Berlin, an urban planner who earned an advanced degree from UC Berkeley, and two others who worked in the New York City Department of Education.

Baldwin sees his work as helping colleges, universities and other institutions truly serve the public good. “With the lab and this particular campaign, we are making sure that the missions and efforts of the institutions are reflected in their daily actions,” he said. “The lab is an attempt to move from mere research to action.”

“To Trinity’s credit, it has been very supportive of this work, from the president down,” Baldwin added. “In the true spirit of academic freedom and social inquiry, this is an institution that is open to letting scholars like me pursue our work to its logical conclusion, even if it means casting a critical eye on the institution.”

In addition to awarding the fellowship, the Marguerite Casey Foundation named Baldwin a Freedom Scholar in 2022. Baldwin previously served as an advisor for Public Dollars for Public Good for the foundation.

“The work I do – which is both academic and volunteer – can be very difficult to get support,” Baldwin said. “It means a lot to me that there are these kinds of funders who support work that fits into a hybrid space.”

The Marguerite Casey Foundation’s mission is to “work toward a country where our government prioritizes the needs of marginalized and underrepresented people, families, and communities.” According to the foundation, “recipients of grants from the Public Dollars for Public Good program organize communities and release federal funds to help all of us reimagine what our world could look like by demanding that our public dollars ensure that everyone can live a good life.”