2017 Compassion In Action Awards - Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation

Community Missions will hold its 25th Annual Awards Brunch on Wednesday, May 24 at the LaSalle Yacht Club. Each day leading up to the event, we will profile one of the upcoming honorees. Today, the Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, recipient of the Public Relations Award, will be featured.

The Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation carries on a family tradition of giving in Western New York and Eastern Massachusetts around the focus areas of Mental Health, Substance Use Disorders, Intellectual Disabilities and Learning Disabilities. Further the foundation provides funds annually to organizations within these areas for capacity-building, including funding technology upgrades.

In 2012, Community Missions received an initial planning grant to determine the current state of technology within the organization. The next year, Community Missions received an initial award from the Foundation in the way of a three-year $78,000 matching grant. This award was then matched by the John R. Oishei Foundation and WNY Foundation, providing the funds for more than $150,000 in technology upgrades throughout the agency.

To this point, the initiative has resulted in several new servers, dozens of new workstations, many security upgrades and a new agency website. As just one example of the ways that this has benefited Community Missions, in the 18 months previous to the new website, the agency raised $4,975 in online donations. In the first 18 months following the site's launch, online donations totaled $16,163.

Each year, the Tower Foundation impacts the lives of thousands of individuals through the many organizations that they partner with. Thanks to them for their constant support and passion for the Western New York and Eastern Massachusetts areas!