Laurie Tisch

Laurie Tisch (born 1951) is an American investor, philanthropist, and billionaire. Biography Tisch is the daughter of Joan (née Hyman) (1927–2017) and Preston Robert Tisch (1926–2005). Her father co-founded the Loews Corporation with his brother Laurence Tisch and was a 50% owner of the New York Giants football team. She and her two brothers (Jonathan Tisch and Steve Tisch) inherited her mother's 6% share in Loews after her death making them billionaires. She founded the not-for-profit foundation, the Illumination Fund, which serves the children of New York City with an emphasis on arts education. She sits on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Children's Museum of Manhattan and is chairwoman of The Center for Arts Education, a nonprofit group that works to improve Arts education in public schools. In 2007, she founded her charitable foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, with the core mission of increasing access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and fostering healthy and vibrant communities, using an equity lens to develop initiatives and to issue grants. Since she started the foundation, the Illumination Fund has undertaken high-impact initiatives, including Healthy Food & Community Change, launched in 2013, and Arts in Health, launched in 2018. Since its founding, the Illumination Fund has played a catalytic role in a range of initiatives and organizations, as well as in public-private partnerships with multiple City agencies. In 2021, in response to increasing need for mental health resources brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Illumination Fund issued an RFP inviting proposals from NYC-based arts and cultural organizations addressing mental health for people in historically marginalized and vulnerable communities. Projects must explore the role of arts as an approach to raise awareness of mental health challenges, promote healing, and foster creativity for people in these communities. Grants will be issued in early 2022.