Tow Foundation featured in Dynamic Families: How Small Family Foundations Decide to Make Big Changes Through Public Policy, a report by the Sillerman Center, Brandeis University

Feb 1, 2010

The Tow Foundation

Begun in 1988, The Tow Foundation began with a mission to help those in need and an array of personal interests that became its early grantmaking areas. But second generation family member and Executive Director Emily Tow Jackson saw the foundation's role somewhat differently. As Senior Program Officer Diane Sierpina described it, "Emily professionalized the foundation. She went to workshops and put the software and processes into place that created a structure for effectiveness." Ms. Tow Jackson concurred. "Right from the beginning, I thought we needed to move away from the informal processes that were in place, so I looked carefully at how my father had operated as a successful businessman and encouraged our board to apply the same principles to the running of the foundation."

Professionalizing brought the foundation to a structure that emphasized leverage and an entrepreneurial approach. "It's how small foundations make big change," Ms. Tow Jackson said. She thinks constantly about which issues to take on as well as networking, building coalitions, and demanding that grantees articulate larger gains from each grant in order to attract other funders.

The new structure and approach, in turn, led Tow to policy grantmaking. "Everything we do is informed by the philosophy of 'where can we work where there's a social liability but no public attention or just a lack of will?'" Ms. Tow Jackson explained.

Early on, said the executive director, the trustees discussed focusing on disadvantaged family and youth, but wanted to find an area where impacts would go beyond individual programs. One grant that seemed to have the potential to leverage Tow's investment with state dollars concerned juveniles returning to the community from parole. "We agreed to spend a year doing research on juvenile justice in Connecticut," recalled Ms. Sierpina, "visiting prisons, nonprofits; we held four roundtables with the board and nonprofits and advocates and policy people. At the end of that year, it was clear juvenile justice in Connecticut was a good choice for Tow because there was so much work to be done and no one else was doing it. We could really have impact."

Ms. Tow Jackson was quick to add that small family foundations needn't worry that funding policy work means giving up other grants that satisfy family history or interests. "Some families think of it as an either/or and I think of it as a both/and. Much of the money we give away is still family interest grants. But the most powerful and influential grants are through this small initiative in Juvenile Justice. I do think that if you can look at it as an enhancement rather than as an alternative, it sells itself."

By being committed to both direct service and systems change, with the added approach of leveraging dollars, the small Tow Foundation has made a big name for itself. Diane Sierpina said, "The Youth Transitions Funders Group is a forum where we have significant influence. The group has grown and evolved into a way for program officers to network around these issues." Tow also works with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Eckerd Foundation, and others, and "we were influential in getting MacArthur to choose Connecticut as one of its 'transformation' states," she said. "It's exciting to help seed things."

"Once your money is in a foundation," Ms. Tow Jackson explained, "it is there to serve the public; it's not your money anymore. If you don't want to do that, then keep the money and just write checks to charities that have personal meaning to you. I feel this work brings with it a charge and an obligation to serve the public good - my board has embraced this and maybe that's why it's been easier for us to expand into policy work."

One thing that helped sell the Tow family on policy work was the common experience of learning about a new issue. "If you can get the board to identify a societal problem and decide to address that issue, or connect the dots for others to do the work," said Ms. Tow Jackson, "you get educated together and the learning becomes a family enterprise. That's empowering. Picking what you think is impossible to fix, that no one else is working on, offers tremendous opportunity to make a difference."

Ms. Tow Jackson added that getting excited about what she calls "deep impact" can bring a board together. She tells this to other family foundation members who are frustrated that their boards are limiting themselves to funding 'pet projects.' "A lot of philanthropic advisors don't give this type of advice," she said. "The standard is to tell you to pick your passion and fund that, but, in my experience, that is more likely to divide a family board than bring them together. When we talk about leveraging impact for social change, it's exciting. The idea of investing like we do brings our board together."

Ms. Sierpina believes professional staff support has been important to Tow's policy philanthropy. "I have a background in government. We facilitate conversations between our grantees and government. We require - explicitly - our grantees to lobby and advocate within legal limits," she explained, adding, "I feel fortunate that I work for a foundation that's unlike others in this regard. Here, staff participate in every board meeting and are seen as part of a team that guides board decision-making."

"Legislative advocacy is something you have to commit to for the long haul," said Ms. Tow Jackson. "It's delicate ground: you have to build rapport with policy makers. We would have been seen as adversarial if we'd just jumped in, putting people on the defensive and feeling as if we were sticking our nose into their business." So Tow got informed, did research, asked for meetings with stakeholders throughout the justice system, found out who was working on the issues, and consulted on which legislators might be approachable as "champions." It worked well.

"A big key to our success is that we convened groups of advocates and began by building a coalition. The coalition then defined the issues at the state level and launched the campaign. The campaign, in turn, groomed the champions," said Ms. Tow Jackson. Board members also raised the profile of the coalition. Ms. Tow Jackson described the role this way: "As a foundation, we have our own relationship with policy makers. You can go in as a pure voice for a cause, and you're not beholden to anyone. We supported the juvenile justice coalition by drawing the attention of the policy makers to it and its issues, but then the coalition provided the information, the data, and everything substantive that a policy maker really needs to be an effective advocate."

The Tow Foundation model of policy investing shows, as Ms. Tow Jackson put it, that "It's not about the money. " We gave away $7.5 million last year; we have three staff people. But I never walk into the room feeling less powerful than someone else from a national or larger foundation. If you're well informed and have something to offer, then you should have the confidence to be a player. We've always known what we're doing is important and that we're making a difference for youth and families who touch the justice system. And we've been successful at bringing statewide and national funders into Connecticut on the strength of our funded programs and their prospects for high impact. That shows that what you're doing has national influence and potential."

"Once your money is in a foundation, it is there to serve the public; it's not your money anymore. If you don't want to do that, then keep the money and just write checks to charities that have personal meaning to you. I feel this work brings with it a charge and an obligation to serve the public good - my board has embraced this and maybe that's why it's been easier for us to expand into policy work." Emily Tow Jackson