Media contact: Grace Nicolette – Vice President, Programming and External Relations: 617-674-0763
Cambridge, MA — The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has elected Nord Family Foundation Executive Director Tony Richardson to its Board of Directors. Richardson began his three-year term on January 1, 2020.
“Tony Richardson is a foundation leader who exemplifies principles of effective philanthropy that CEP promotes,” said CEP President Phil Buchanan. “He seeks to listen and learn from both grantees and those they serve, and to chart a path for the Nord Family Foundation that is informed by these insights. He has been a champion of our YouthTruth initiative and a committed member of CEP’s Advisory Board. I am thrilled he is now joining our Board of Directors.”
The Nord Family Foundation, located in Amherst, Ohio, is a successor to the charitable trust originally established in 1952 by entrepreneur and industrialist W.G. Nord. In the tradition of its founders, Walter and Virginia Nord, the Nord Family Foundation endeavors to build community through support of projects that bring opportunity to the disadvantaged, strengthen the bond of families, and improve the quality of people’s lives. In more than 30 years of activity, the Foundation has contributed more than $132 million for charitable and philanthropic purposes in Ohio’s Lorain County and in several other communities of interest to the Nord family.
Richardson is an Ohio native who brings a decade of public service experience to CEP’s Board. In 2011, Richardson was elected as a councilman at-large in the City of Lorain, becoming the youngest person of color elected to an at-large seat. During his second term, he served as chairman of the Police, Fire, and Legislative Standing Committee, and sponsored legislation to increase hiring goal percentages for racial minorities and women on city projects. In 2012, Richardson served as the civic and political chair for the Lorain City Schools Levy Committee, which helped the school district pass its first levy for new operating dollars since 1992. Later that year, he was invited by the Obama Administration to attend a “Working Meeting on Fiscal Cliff” at the White House.
In 2017, Richardson received Philanthropy Ohio’s Emerging Philanthropist Award. He was also featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “The Influencers: People Quietly Changing the Nonprofit World.” In addition to his role on CEP’s Board, Richardson also serves as a board member for the Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, Funders Together to End Homelessness and Philanthropy Ohio. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a juris doctorate from The Ohio State University’s Michael E. Moritz College of Law.
Richardson joins a Board that includes: Chair Grant Oliphant (President, the Heinz Endowments), Paul Beaudet (Executive Director, Wilburforce Foundation), Phil Buchanan (ex officio, President, CEP), Kathleen Cravero (Former President, Oak Foundation), Tiffany Cooper Gueye (Managing Director of Portfolio Strategy, Blue Meridian Partners, Inc.), Richard Ober (President and CEO, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation), Hilary Pennington (Executive Vice President for Program, Ford Foundation), Christy Pichel (former President, Stuart Foundation), Vince Stehle (Executive Director, Media Impact Funders), Kelvin Taketa (Senior Fellow, Hawai’i Community Foundation), Fay Twersky (Vice President, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), and Lynn Perry Wooten (J. Nolan Dean and Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management).
About the Center for Effective Philanthropy
The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness and impact. CEP received initial funding in 2001 and has offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. For more information on CEP’s work, including its research, assessments, advisory services, and programming, visit www.cep.org.