Fireside Chat with Andrew Bishop, Deputy Director, Cummings Foundation

Join us for a fireside chat with Andrew Bishop, Deputy Director of Cummings Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in New England and learn why Cummings Properties donates all net income each year to Cummings Foundation, which supports 1400+ local organizations with their local grant program.

Joyce Cummings and Bill Cummings (A58, H06, J97P, M97P) established Cummings Foundation, Inc. in 1986. Woburn-based Cummings Foundation has awarded $ 600 million in grants to greater Boston nonprofits alone. Its giving is concentrated in Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties plus several abutting communities in Norfolk county, and it benefits a broad range of causes.

The Cummings also have a special interest in Rwanda, where the Foundation collaborates with Partners In Health and a limited number of other organizations to aid in that East African country’s post-genocide recovery and rebuilding.

The Cummings quietly contributed to the local community for many years. Then, in May 2011, they joined The Giving Pledge, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet through which some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and couples have publicly pledged to donate at least half of their assets for philanthropic purposes. Bill and Joyce had already donated 90 percent of their wealth.

This is an Inside the Classroom speaker event hosted by Professor Usha Pasi who teaches ENT142 Nonprofits, Philanthropy and Impact at Tufts University.

About Andrew Bishop

Andrew Bishop joined Cummings Foundation as grants manager in 2022, building on his years of professional experience working within private foundations, and he was appointed deputy director in 2023. He most recently served as grants officer at The Klarman Family Foundation, a Boston-based family foundation, where he led day-to-day grantmaking operations. Previously, Andrew held various programmatic and grants management roles at DentaQuest Foundation (Boston, MA) and The Healing Trust (Nashville, TN).

A graduate of Belmont University, Andrew also holds a Master of Business Administration, specializing in nonprofit management, from University of Massachusetts Boston. Andrew resides in Salem with his husband, Luke, and their son.

About Usha Pasi

Usha Pasi has spent her career serving as an advocate for donors and institutions pursuing their philanthropic and programmatic aims, and she has advised boards and organizations about best practices in governance. Her experience includes increasingly responsible roles at Columbia University, Yale University, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Facing History and Ourselves, the Cambridge Community Foundation, and consulting roles with local and international organizations including Stanford University. Her consulting practice includes work as an executive coach, development and governance guidance, scaling of entrepreneurial organizations, and counseling on building inclusive organizations.

She serves on the boards of the Boston Book Festival, Be Well Be Here, the Arlington Libraries Foundation, and she is also a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni Council. Usha is committed to expanding professional development opportunities for her colleagues in the field, and as a board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals served as a mentor in AFP’s Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship program. She also served as President of Women in Development of Greater Boston.

Usha holds an Ed.M. degree from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree from SUNY-Binghamton. She was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in Improved Fundraising Capabilities. In addition, she holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Harvard Kennedy School and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.

This is an Inside the Classroom speaker event for ENT164 Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Impact.
This event is hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts.
Learn more about the Derby Entrepreneurship Center: derbyecenter.tufts.edu