The Tow Foundation Inc.

The Tow Foundation is a family foundation founded in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow, now in its third generation of family governance, operating from New Canaan, Connecticut with $321.8 million in assets (2023). Its grantmaking philosophy centers on deep, long-term relationships with a curated set of institutional partners — over 70% of grants take the form of multi-year, unrestricted support, a deliberate signal that the foundation trusts grantee leadership over programmatic prescription. The foundation describes its operating posture as that of “a start-up, ready and willing to take chances on people and new ideas.”

The core portfolio is almost entirely invitation-based. Longstanding institutional partners — Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ($12.84M across 14 grants), Columbia University ($6.3M across 50 grant entries), Barnard College ($5.84M), and Bard College ($2.51M) — reflect the Tow family’s personal and institutional loyalties built over decades. Cold outreach to join this portfolio is not a viable strategy for most organizations. These relationships were built through family connections to New York institutions, not competitive applications.

The primary open entry point is the annual Innovation Fund, an RFP-driven vehicle with a rotating thematic focus. The 2025 cycle targeted youth mental health and well-being, awarding $10 million across 10 organizations over three years via a structured Google Form LOI process (deadline May 23, 2025), an informational webinar (May 7, 2025), and an awards announcement on November 24, 2025. The dedicated contact is innovationfund@towfoundation.org.

The foundation explicitly favors organizations working at intersections rather than in single-issue silos. Grantees like The Marshall Project (journalism + justice), the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY (journalism + democracy), Bard College’s prison education programs, and Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison exemplify the cross-sector identity that founder Leonard Tow summarized as funding groups that “don’t neatly fit into one area, and are unfortunately left behind by many foundations.”

For first-time applicants, Emily Tow serves as President and Executive Director and is the chief strategic decision-maker. Frank Tow chairs the Innovation Fund committee and is the public spokesperson for new initiatives. Andrew Tow serves as Vice President. Warm introductions from existing grantees — Vera Institute of Justice, Solutions Journalism Network, The Marshall Project — carry meaningful weight and can be cultivated at philanthropy convenings in New York and Connecticut.

Annual grants paid have grown steadily over five years: $19.3M (2019), $19.1M (2020), $16.0M (2021), $20.9M (2022), $23.9M (2023). Total giving — including non-grant expenditures — reached $31.1M in 2023 and $33.8M in 2022. Assets surged from $176.8M in 2019 to $363.9M in 2021 after a $205.9M family contribution, then moderated to $321.8M by 2023 as investment income normalized. Net investment income tracks $6–11M annually, making the foundation largely self-sustaining from its endowment without dependency on new contributions.

Grant sizes span a remarkable range: from $100 (small discretionary or event support) to $5 million (major institutional partnerships), with a median of $10,000 and an average of $76,399 across 251 tracked grants. The low median reflects the large volume of director-discretionary grants for galas, honoraria, and event tables — these are not competitively accessible. Meaningful unrestricted annual funding for established partners typically runs $50,000–$400,000 per year, with large institutional anchors exceeding $1M annually. Board members also receive $25,000 each year in personal discretionary funds for causes of their choice.

Concentration at the top is pronounced: just the top three recipients — Memorial Sloan-Kettering ($12.84M), Columbia University ($6.32M), and Barnard College ($5.84M) — account for roughly 29% of all tracked top-50 giving ($84.9M total). Justice-focused grantees receive substantial multi-year commitments: Vera Institute of Justice ($1.3M across 7 grants), Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth ($1.275M), and the Tow Youth Justice Institute at University of New Haven ($1.1M). Journalism receives consistent support: Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY ($1.52M), WGBH/Frontline ($800K), New York Public Radio ($700K), The Marshall Project ($461K), Solutions Journalism Network ($400K), and The Trace ($337.5K).

For the Innovation Fund pathway, the 2025 cycle established a clear benchmark: $300,000–$1,000,000 per organization over three years (approximately $100,000–$333,000 annually) as general operating support. Geographically, 50% of all grants flow to New York (514 grants), 20% to Connecticut (209 grants), with DC (66), Massachusetts (63), California (51), Pennsylvania (48), North Carolina (15), and Oregon (6) receiving the balance.

The Tow Foundation’s closest asset-size peers — identified by similar foundation corpus in the $309–$313M range — are largely private family foundations with minimal public programmatic disclosure. The table below presents asset-size comparables alongside key differentiators:

The Tow Foundation stands apart from every asset-size peer by its programmatic transparency and its structured Innovation Fund RFP — a rare feature among family foundations at this scale. Virtually all $300M private family foundations operate exclusively by invitation with no public application pathway. Tow’s willingness to publish detailed RFPs, host informational webinars, and accept applications from previously unknown organizations signals a meaningfully more accessible posture than its cohort. Among foundations with overlapping thematic focus — criminal justice reform, journalism innovation, prison education, and now youth mental health — Tow occupies a distinctive niche as both a major institutional anchor funder (multi-million dollar commitments to MSK and Columbia) and an innovation catalyst willing to back proof-of-concept work.

On November 24, 2025, The Tow Foundation announced $10 million in grants across 10 organizations through its 2025 Innovation Fund, focused on youth mental health and well-being for young people ages 0–25. Frank Tow, Innovation Fund Committee Chair, stated: “These ten organizations stood out for their creativity, credibility, and commitment to young people.” President Emily Tow added: “We are proud to partner with ten organizations that are imagining, creating, and expanding access to services.”

The 2025 awardees span six states: Church World Service Greensboro (NC — legal and wraparound services for immigrant youth), Communities for Just Schools Fund (DC — youth leadership and trauma recovery), Homeboy Industries (CA — mental health care for formerly incarcerated youth), Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project (CA — rural Indigenous youth organizing), Mount Sinai CARES (NY — co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders), New York State Mental Health Alliance (NY — rural mental health workforce pipelines), Now Matters Now (WA — online peer-to-peer suicide prevention), Nunchi Health (CA — peer-led culturally centered programs), Our Children’s Trust (OR — youth climate advocacy addressing climate anxiety), and Tapestry Family Services (CA — mobile, culturally responsive community support). California organizations received four of ten awards, marking a notable geographic expansion beyond the foundation’s historical NY/CT concentration.

As of early 2026, no leadership changes have been publicly announced. Emily Tow remains President and Executive Director; Leonard Tow continues as Chairman; Frank Tow and Andrew Tow serve as Vice Presidents. The core portfolio continues its multi-year relationships with longstanding grantees in cancer research, higher education, journalism, and justice reform.

Target the Innovation Fund — it is the only open door. The core portfolio is invitation-only, built over 30+ years of relationship. The Innovation Fund (innovationfund@towfoundation.org) runs an annual RFP process. Monitor towfoundation.org beginning each March for the RFP announcement; also subscribe to Philanthropy News Digest and PhilanthropyNewYork.org for early alerts, as external aggregators often post RFPs before foundation email outreach reaches new organizations.

Attend the informational webinar without exception. The 2025 cycle held one on May 7, 2025 — approximately two weeks before the May 23 first-round deadline. Program staff use these sessions to clarify unstated priorities, answer questions, and observe who is engaged. Submit questions in advance to innovationfund@towfoundation.org before the webinar to signal seriousness.

Lead with innovation, not track record. The 2025 RFP explicitly welcomed “innovative solutions that may not yet have proof of concept but show potential for transformative impact.” Do not default to your most established program. Articulate what is genuinely new, untested, or transformative in your model, then use organizational history to establish credibility and capacity — not to justify a business-as-usual ask.

Apply for general operating support, structured for multi-year use. Over 70% of Tow grants are unrestricted and multi-year, and Innovation Fund awards are general operating support by design. Budget narratives should reflect organizational health, leadership capacity, and sustainability — not a single program’s line items. Show you can absorb and deploy a multi-year commitment effectively.

Emphasize cross-sector identity explicitly. The foundation’s stated preference is for organizations that “don’t neatly fit into one area and are unfortunately left behind by many foundations.” If your work bridges justice and mental health, arts and civic engagement, or journalism and public health — make that intersection the center of your narrative, not a footnote. Use Tow’s vocabulary: “innovative,” “visionary leadership,” “transformative,” “underserved,” “chronically underfunded,” “community-led,” “early-stage.”

Build relationship capital before or during the application process. Seek introductions from current Tow grantees in your sector: Vera Institute of Justice, The Marshall Project, Solutions Journalism Network, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, and the Tow Youth Justice Institute at University of New Haven. A warm introduction from any of these organizations meaningfully strengthens a first-round Google Form application that might otherwise be indistinguishable from hundreds of others.