Tower Foundation Funding Changes


Author: Don Matteson

Earlier today, the Peter & Elizabeth Tower Foundation sent the following announcement out via our e-newsletter. It describes the Foundation’s response to the current political and funding climate, more specifically the uncertainty around federal funding and the assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Dear Grant Partners and Community Members: You’ve no doubt been following … Continued

The Tower Foundation’s Community Experts Team Holds its First Ever In-Person Retreat


Author: Nissa Bisguier

The 2024 Community Experts Team (CET) just came to a close, after holding its first in-person retreat in Buffalo, NY. The Community Experts Team is a group of young people from geographic areas that Tower funds: Erie and Niagara Counties in Western New York, and Barnstable, Dukes, Essex, and Nantucket Counties in Eastern Massachusetts who … Continued

Transferring Decision Making Power to People with Lived Expertise


Author: Megan MacDavey

The Tower Foundation has been on a five year-long journey to bring people with lived expertise in the Foundation’s areas of interest into our work. This includes young people in and around their twenties with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health challenges and substance use disorders.   Below is an image of the Public Engagement Spectrum, … Continued

To Increase Access to Mental Health Care, We Need More Flexible Funding


Author: By guest blogger Ian Lang, Chief Executive Officer, The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health. Tower Foundation Program Officer, Megan MacDavey, has added some reflections.

The ongoing mental health crisis is one of the most pressing challenges facing our society today. With over 50 percent of Americans seeking mental health care and 80 percent of students in the U.S. experiencing anxiety, the need for innovative, scalable solutions has never been more urgent. At The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health, … Continued

Results-Based Accountability Part Three: Context


Author: Don Matteson

The last couple of posts in this series (here and here) have provided a high-level overview of Results-Based Accountability (RBA), and population accountability in particular. As a refresher, RBA is an ends-to-means approach to creating and measuring change at the community (i.e., population) and program (i.e., organization or service) levels. It’s built around goals (result … Continued

Results-Based Accountability Revisited, Part Two: Population Accountability


Author: Don Matteson

After a couple-year hiatus, I’m back to continue the refresher series on Results-Based Accountability (RBA)! In the last installment, we began exploring RBA and its five key questions, starting with, “How are we doing?” Answering this question requires zooming out and looking at community-level information, or population indicators. These population indicators provide a satellite view … Continued

Reflections from our Participatory Grantmaking Project Manager


Author: Nissa Bisguier, Participatory Grantmaking Project Manager

The 2023 Community Experts Team just wrapped up its grant review, after coming together again with a mix of seasoned and brand-new members to determine the distribution of $215,000 to programs supporting youth. This year, the team was composed of 16 team members with lived experience, with origins from counties in Massachusetts and New York … Continued

Five young people jumping with a refresh symbol in front of them.
Results-Based Accountability: A Refresher


Author: Don Matteson

About eight years ago, we shared a blog post outlining our approach to Results-Based Accountability (RBA) as a tool for evaluating our grants’ effectiveness. With the benefit of a few more years of working with and thinking about RBA, a refreshed introduction seemed to be in order. Beyond that, we’re now seeing how we can … Continued

2022 Grantmaking Planning in Process


Author: Don Matteson

Our 2021 funding cycles are now closed* and we know many of you are wondering what our 2022 grantmaking will look like. We’re still working on our 2022 grant guidelines and a finalized grantmaking calendar. Here’s what we can share now: We’ll be increasing the number of opportunities to apply for Strengthening Partner Capacity grants … Continued

Challenge Accepted


Author: Don Matteson

In a previous blog post, we talked about how we’re beginning to operationalize the Tower Foundation’s emerging focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). One of the early steps we’ve taken is to get a better sense of the organizations we’re working with: how many are led (board and/or executive leadership), staffed, and serving people of … Continued