The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

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OVERVIEW: This funder supports New York City causes related food and nutrition, Jewish life, arts and culture and volunteerism. Funding is mainly limited to New York City.

IP TAKE: The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund’s grantmaking has an underlying theme of social change. It works through long-term partnerships with well-known organizations and cultural institutions. Application for funding is by invitation only.

PROFILE: The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund is all about expanding access and opportunity for New Yorkers. Tisch founded the fund in 2007 specifically to address issues in New York City. As the daughter of prominent New York City philanthropists Joan H. Tisch and the late Preston Robert Tisch, she comes from a legacy of family philanthropy giving in the city. Laurie Tisch is deeply involved in the local arts scene. She served as co-chair of the board of trustees at the Whitney Museum of American Art and currently serves as Vicechair of the Board of Trustees at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Tisch has also been involved in the local education scene and is Chair Emeritus of the Center for Arts Education and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She is also the co-owner and a board member for the New York Giants football team. The mission of her philanthropic fund is to “improve access and opportunity for all New Yorkers,” and its stated grantmaking areas are healthy food, Jewish life, New York City and service, which seeks to increase volunteering for social change in New York City.

The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination fund supports organizations in New York across all of its funding programs. The healthy food program supports “novel strategies to increase access availability, affordability and knowledge of healthy foods” throughout New York City’s lower-income neighborhoods. The fund recently made a five-year $15 million commitment to this goal and has supported organizations including NYC Green Carts, City Harvest and Wholesome Wave. Tisch’s healthy food funding has also supported Wellness in the Schools, which operates cafeterias and nutrition curricula in public schools in the city.

Tisch’s Jewish funding is limited in scope and supports only a handful of organizations in the areas of Jewish community development and cultural expression, exploration and communication. Grantees include the American Jewish World Service, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and Artis, a Jewish arts organization based in both New York and Tel Aviv.

The New York City Community funding program focuses on New York’s landmark cultural institutions and increasing access to enrichments for all New Yorkers. The foundation tends to maintain longstanding relationships with these institutions and their outreach programs. Grantees include the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, the Roundabout Theatre and the DreamYard Project, which involves youth and communities in arts programs that support social change.

The fund’s service program aims to tap into New York’s “spirit of service and expand the capacity of nonprofits to recruit, manage and retain skilled volunteers.” Most funding has gone to organizations involved in facilitating social change. Grantees include Echoing Green, a social entrepreneurship program, and the Franklin Project, a program run by the Aspen Institute that engages young adults in year-long full-time service projects.

In 2020, the fund responded to the COVID-19 crisis in New York with a $500,000 gift to the city’s public hospital system.

Illumination Fund grants range from a few thousand to over $1 million. Its average grant size is about $25,000. and it makes about $19 million in grants each year. Almost all grantmaking stays in New York City, and most grantees are well-established organizations and cultural institutions.

This funder does not accept unsolicited requests for funding and seeks out its own long-term partnerships. Tisch is the fund’s president, and she leads a staff of three from their office on West 56th Street. Follow the news and events section on the fund’s website to keep up with it’s activities and interests. General questions may be directed to the funds staff at 212-792-9900 or via the website contact form.

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