In late June, ESPN’s Sports Humanitarian Awards named Laurie Tisch its 2026 Sports Philanthropist of the Year, citing her civic leadership and charitable work through the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. That designation was fitting, considering not only Tisch’s own background, but also the fund’s longtime efforts to explore connections between health and another key philanthropic priority: the arts.
Founded in 2007 by Tisch, who’s also the co-owner of the New York Giants and professional women’s soccer team Gotham Football Club, the Illumination Fund is dedicated to expanding access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and fostering healthy, vibrant communities. The Illumination Fund’s charitable priorities include supporting causes related to Jewish life, food and nutrition, and access to the arts.
In 2018, it launched its Arts in Health initiative to support organizations using the arts to address mental health stigma, trauma and aging-related disease in New York communities. Six years later, it published a report, titled “The Role of the Arts in Healthcare,” that articulated its strategy and shared lessons learned with a growing ecosystem of funders navigating the intersection of arts and health. (To coincide with the report’s release, the Illumination Fund announced it was more than doubling its commitment to Arts in Health to $25 million.)
Takeaways gleaned from its Arts in Health grantmaking informed the creation of the fund’s latest big move, the multi-year, $10 million Play to Thrive initiative. Launched last October, it uses sports to improve youth mental health, expand access for underserved communities and promote equity.
I recently connected with Illumination Fund Executive Director Rick Luftglass and Senior Program Officer Kira Pritchard to get their take on developments at the fund and the arts and health space writ large. The consensus was that the field has grown — and continues to grow — by leaps and bounds since the publication of “The Role of the Arts in Healthcare” in 2024.
Organizations are building out research gauging the benefits of the arts in healthcare, cross-sector partnerships are booming and health funders are increasingly acknowledging how the arts can advance their mission to support community wellness. Leaders at arts organizations still need to make the case to funders, but they’re finding that it’s often a less strenuous lift given the dramatic evolution of this arena in philanthropy over the past decade.
“I think the future is bright,” Luftglass said. “There’s such flourishing and excitement. I don’t think we could have anticipated this growth when we started the Arts in Health initiative back in 2018.”
Post-2024 developments in the arts and health field
The Illumination Fund’s Arts in Health initiative addresses several key areas, including enhancing mental health and wellbeing, supporting the wellbeing of formal and informal caregivers, and engaging marginalized communities and populations using culturally appropriate strategies.
Its approach to impact is especially compelling, given that the “arts experience” can’t always be measured with quantitative precision. To this end, the Illumination Fund considers three layers of impact: what the grantee determines is important to them (“We’re taking it as a given that they’re the experts,” Luftglass said), “cross-cutting impact” observed across the Illumination Fund’s portfolio of about 30 organizations, and how the fund’s own activities contribute to and amplify the work of its grantees.
Looking back on the last year and a half, Luftglass said grantmaking leaders told him the Illumination Fund’s 2024 report informed their own arts and health grantmaking efforts. Others provided support to Illumination Fund grantees cited in the report.
Widening the lens further, Luftglass reeled off a litany of developments attesting to the post-2024 growth of the arts and health field. Funders haven’t forgotten pandemic-era lessons, he said, especially around how arts-related programming can support front-line workers. “There has been so much discussion around burnout. Now, people have a much broader sense of why it’s important.”
Luftglass noted that practitioners are conducting research documenting the benefits of connecting arts and health. The Illumination Fund has been a major funder of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program since its launch in 2019. Arts in Medicine partnered with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab — a global initiative that coordinates scientific research and seeks to integrate arts-related policy into mainstream clinical care and public health — on the largest-ever evaluation of the impact of murals in hospitals on patients, visitors and staff. The Illumination Fund’s operating support for the Arts in Medicine program made it possible for the system to participate in the research project.
In April 2025, the lab announced it would partner with the Illumination Fund to establish the Healing Arts New York Network across all five boroughs of the city over the following two years. There are currently around 210 organizations and practitioners in the network.
Luftglass has also been struck by a litany of anecdotal observations around how the arts-health nexus is becoming more visible in the field, specifically among the medical community – for instance, leaders of some of the Illumination Fund’s grantees have presented at conferences of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the Association for Medical Facility Professionals.
An overview of the Illumination Fund’s Play to Thrive initiative
One of the Illumination Fund’s biggest moves in 2025 was the launch of its Play to Thrive initiative. “It’s building off a lot of the work coming out of the Arts in Health portfolio, specific to mental health,” Kira Pritchard told me. “The incredible needs that are there have been exacerbated by the pandemic and all the years that followed.”
Pritchard went on to say that “we know the physical and emotional benefits that sports can bring to youth when done correctly. But we also know that access to sports is deeply inequitable and is often determined by zip code, family household, gender — you name it.”
In an effort to address this challenge, the Illumination Fund provided expanded support to the nonprofit Girls Leadership, in partnership with Gotham FC and personal care brand Dove, for year two of Keep Her in the Game, a program that addresses the disproportionate rates at which adolescent girls — and especially those in urban areas — opt out of sports. The program reached close to 1,800 adolescent girls in its first year.
Another grant was awarded to Street Soccer USA for the development of a soccer park in Ozone Park, Queens. On June 9, the Illumination Fund and Street Soccer USA, partnering with Gotham FC and other groups, announced the opening of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund Street Soccer Park at Middle School 137 in Ozone Park, which serves nearly 2,000 students from a variety of backgrounds.
“What’s important about Street Soccer USA is that [their leaders] understand it’s more than a physical space,” Pritchard said. “It’s also about partnering with schools and community-based organizations to develop long-term programming. When that soccer pitch is being utilized, that’s where the magic happens.”
How nonprofits focused on arts and health can engage funders
My conversation with Luftglass and Pritchard inevitably turned to how arts organizations whose work intersects with health-related areas can most effectively engage grantmakers.
At a fundamental level, grantee leaders need to gain a clear understanding of the “populations that funders are prioritizing — not just the geography or issue areas,” Luftglass said. Leaders should also accumulate a compelling evidence base. “It doesn’t necessarily mean you do a double-blind controlled study, but it does need to show that there’s an impact beyond just the experience itself,” he said.
While funders focused on the arts may require some degree of quantitative rigor attesting to a program’s impact, organizations can typically proceed with the understanding that these grantmakers intuitively understand the benefits of the arts. In contrast, arts nonprofits may be required to build a more rigorous case for a healthcare funder. “Their primary mission is healthcare, and they can’t divert funds that they need to support patients,” Luftglass said. “You’re competing for resources, so the arts can’t be seen as a luxury, or something that decorates the walls.”
He encourages nonprofits to devise and articulate a clear understanding of the return on investment for an arts-related program in a healthcare context, with an emphasis on community benefit. “Every hospital has to be deeply connected to its community, and if they see the value of arts and health programming that fuses the hospital’s expertise with community resources, then it becomes a compelling business proposition.”
Luftglass’ takeaway underscores another development that’s been gaining momentum over the last few years. Cognizant of how a community’s social fabric is a critical determinant of an individual’s health, hospital leaders are increasingly concerned about supporting community wellness — a mindset that dovetails with many health funders’ increased interest in social determinants. As a result, healthcare funders may be more amenable to arts projects focused on advancing community wellness. “It’s critically important to understand how a funder thinks and talks about social engagement,” Luftglass said.
Tisch, meanwhile, is preparing for what will be a busy mid-July. On July 14, she’ll be honored with the ESPN sports philanthropist award at Gotham Hall in Midtown Manhattan. The following day, Gotham FC will play its first-ever game at Citi Field in Queens. “It’s expected to be the largest women’s sporting game in the history of New York City,” Luftglass said.
Related Inside Philanthropy Resources:
For Subscribers Only
