Our Founder
Laurie M. Tisch is the President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, which aims to increase access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and foster healthy, vibrant communities. Ms. Tisch’s philanthropy stems from her family’s legacy of giving in New York City, from years of experience serving on boards, building institutions, and developing partnerships, and from an engaged civic life.
She is a former Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Whitney Museum of American Art and former Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, serves on the Board of Directors at The Juilliard School, and is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute. She is also a co-owner and member of the Board of Directors of the New York Football Giants. She and her daughters Emily Tisch Sussman and Carolyn Tisch Blodgett are among the owners of Gotham FC, the NY/NJ National Women’s Soccer League team.
Ms. Tisch is Chair Emeritus of the Center for Arts Education and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM). Ms. Tisch led CMOM’s transformation and expansion from a neighborhood-based storefront into a citywide institution that is now recognized as a national leader in health, education, and the arts. Currently, she is co-chairing a capital campaign to build a new home for CMOM on Central Park West and 96th Street, which will also become a base for their citywide programs serving families in the shelter system and incarcerated mothers and fathers and their children.
Ms. Tisch is a recipient of many awards for philanthropy and public service and received an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University. She was presented the Key to the City of New York at Gracie Mansion and was twice named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women by Crain’s New York Business. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from New York Foundation for the Arts and was honored with the United Way of New York City’s 10th Anniversary Power of Women to Make a Difference Award and by the New York Women’s Foundation. She has also received the Lincoln Center Distinguished Service Award.
