Contact: [email protected], (202) 261-5709

WASHINGTON, DC, October 1, 2024 — Urban Institute staff, trustees, and leaders past and present were saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Joel Fleishman. A teacher, scholar, lawyer, author, and leading expert on American philanthropy, Fleishman served on Urban’s board of trustees intermittently from 1977 until 2015, including 11 years as chair, and played a critical role in the organization’s history.

His legacy includes helping to establish Urban’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and inspiring an award for Urban researchers named in his honor. The Joel Fleishman Innovation Fund award supports innovative inquiries that have the potential to advance knowledge and accelerate solutions to critical challenges, while enabling staff to pursue their passions. With Fleishman funding, Urban researchers have explored algorithmic bias in home appraisals, access to opportunity by race and ethnicity across metropolitan areas, and new walkability metrics in the Washington, DC, region.

“Almost every aspect of Joel’s life embodied his faith’s admonition to repair the world,” said Sarah Rosen Wartell, Urban’s president. “He strove to improve public policy, with facts and evidence, and to improve philanthropy, with discipline, transparency, and accountability — all in service of humanity. The years he devoted to the Urban Institute, like so many other organizations he helped to found, govern, or lead, enhanced our capacity to aid changemakers to improve lives and strengthen communities.”

Jamie S. Gorelick served with Fleishman on Urban’s board of trustees from 2004 to 2015 and succeeded him as board chair in 2014, a position she still holds. “Joel was kind, thoughtful, astonishingly broad-gauged, and unsurprisingly passionate about public policy,” Gorelick said. “A problem solver who brought people together, Joel cared deeply about Urban and its mission.”

Outside of Urban, Fleishman’s many accomplishments included serving as the founding director and professor of law and public policy of what is now the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, president of the Atlantic Philanthropic Service Company, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the author of numerous books on philanthropy.

“I offer our condolences to Joel’s family, friends, and the many people he touched during what was truly a remarkable life,” Wartell said. “He will be missed.”

About the Urban Institute

The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity. We are a trusted source for changemakers who seek to strengthen decisionmaking, create inclusive economic growth, and improve the well-being of families and communities. For more than 50 years, Urban has delivered facts that inspire solutions—and this remains our charge today.