Donor Spotlight: Tom and Elizabeth Wippman
Tom and Elizabeth Wippman have been supporters of Facing History & Ourselves for almost three decades. In 2017 Tom joined the Chicago Advisory Board and recently they chaired a community fundraising event in Chicago, “We Are Facing History: Building on The Dream, Standing Up for Democracy,” which raised over $500,000. In addition to increasing their own generous support, Tom and Elizabeth created a match opportunity to inspire people in their network and event attendees to give first-time and increased gifts to support Facing History’s work. The entire Facing History community is incredibly grateful for Tom and Elizabeth’s longtime support, and the creative ways that they are continuing to partner with us to widen our donor network. Below read about why they support Facing History and what our work means to them.
We are committed to supporting Facing History because we strongly believe that education is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy, and Facing History has proven to have a wonderful impact on both students’ academic achievement, as well as their civic engagement.
Given what is happening in the world, it is clear that our global society has failed to fully understand or deal with our collective history.
Both of us are deeply concerned about how generations to come will record contemporary events and what lessons they will teach based on the history we are now creating. It gives us hope to know that Facing History is working with teachers, every day, to help the next generation face hard histories, and to understand that the choices we make today, the actions we take today, are the history of tomorrow.
Facing History teaches young people to make these choices based in empathy and understanding, rather than ignorance and fear. And we know that Facing History can help all of us gain the tools we need to stand up to all forms of bigotry and hate.
Facing History is a learning community and as members of that community we both gain so much that encourages us to become better citizens and parents. We advocate for everyone to get engaged by attending an event and connecting with a Facing History staff member. Once you are involved you will be constantly learning, and know that you are a part of something extraordinary.
