The Wilder Research Team will collaborate with individuals and organizations who are in need of assessing impact, identifying needs, or planning for the future for research and evaluation needs. The Research Team provides: - Community engagement framework to guide those most impacted by findings and partnering with communities to understand strengths, opportunities, and service needs to inform action for effective solutions - Data collection and analysis that includes qualitative and quantitative approaches like web, mailed, telephone, surveys, focus groups, discussions, talking circles, facilitated activities, mapping, and arts-based approaches. Analysts help make sense of data and uses culturally responsive approaches for data collection. - Research and program evaluation to work with local and national partners on needs assessments, environmental scans, literature reviews, economic analyses, and more - Strategic planning and decision-making in carefully designed activities and facilitated discussions to help organizations use data to make important decisions. Services include strategic planning, data parties, theory of change, and logic model development. - Use of plain language, graphics, and visualized data to create easy-to-understand research findings for any audience. Products tailored to needs include issue briefs, summaries, reports, infographics, and arts-based deliverables.

The council strives to improve the understanding of philanthropy by the general public, elected and appointed public officials, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, academicians, the media, and other special interest groups. These services include: - Minnesota grantmakers online: a web-based directory of foundations and corporate giving programs in Minnesota - Opportunities for education and information on private philanthropy and the grant making process through periodic public meetings and seminars - Periodic research on the extent and nature of private philanthropy, including analysis of giving trends in Minnesota - Quarterly newspaper, Giving Forum, covering activities and trends of interest to nonprofit organizations and the general public

- Consults on a wide range of topics from demographic changes and needs of older people to programs and services for a variety of organizations, individuals, and businesses - Leverages resources, grants or contract funds to local providers - Plans and develops with local partners a variety of home and community-based services for older people so that they can stay in their own homes and communities - Provides demographic and service need analysis that informs policymakers, the public, and the media