Lisa Loughry was named Chair of the Mutual of America Foundation in February 2022, after the retirement of Thomas Gilliam. She has been with Mutual of America since 2014 and also oversees the Company’s National Accounts. We recently spoke with Lisa about her new responsibilities, and her vision for the Foundation and the Community Partnership Award going forward.
What are you most excited about in your role as Chair of the Mutual of America Foundation?
Mutual of America was founded by an exceptional group of leaders who believed that every worker deserves a financially secure retirement. As Executive Vice President of National Accounts, I am proud to advance that purpose by delivering the innovative retirement plan solutions and investments our clients need and deserve. At the same time, I’ve been inspired by the life-changing work that many of our nonprofit social sector clients do every day.
Now, as Chair of the Mutual of America Foundation, I am especially honored and excited to have the opportunity to support these remarkable causes and to engage with Mutual of America employees, our clients, and nonprofit organizations from across the country to continue making a meaningful, positive impact on the communities where we live and work.
The Community Partnership Award honors nonprofit organizations that collaborate with others in their communities to effect change. Why are those partnerships so important?
Change is difficult, and it often takes collaboration across communities to move the needle on society’s most pressing issues. For nearly four decades, the Foundation has been helping to ignite community-based change through the support of initiatives focused on education and economic empowerment, arts and culture, and community transformation—most notably through the Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award. The Foundation also provides grants and corporate gifts to hundreds of organizations working for the greater good.
What kind of impact are you hoping to see as it relates to the Foundation’s goals, priorities and community collaborations?
Innovative nonprofits, like our Community Partnership Award winners, have never had a bigger role to play in helping to solve pressing social and economic challenges faced by local communities. At the same time, they’ve never needed more support. In 2021, we increased the financial award provided to our Community Partnership Award winners and hosted our 26th annual celebration event to honor these amazing organizations. In 2022, we introduced the Frances R. Hesselbein Award, which is given to a partnership that has created innovative solutions to social challenges and replicated—or demonstrated the potential to replicate—those solutions in other local communities. This increased the number of annual Community Partnership Award winners to six. In the years ahead, we hope to support even more nonprofits across the country in their efforts to create communities where every person has access to the opportunities they need to thrive.