Cecily M. Carson is a fashion industry figure and philanthropic donor. She is the president of the Carson Family Charitable Trust ^[1] and founded CMC Jewelry Designs, Inc. ^[2] She is a member of several nonprofit boards and has been a political contributor mostly to Democratic political candidates. ^{[3] [4]}

Background

Cecily M. Carson is the president of the Carson Family Charitable Trust, a private grantmaking foundation. ^[5] She is the daughter of Russell L. Carson — a private equity advisor, and founding partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe — who founded the family trust. ^{[6] [7]}

The trust focuses on education, poverty, healthcare, and culture. ^[8] The Trust largely funds left-leaning organizations, most notably the Robin Hood Foundation, to which it donated $4.75 million. ^[9]

Carson, a native New Yorker, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1995, where she majored in government and minored in film. She also has a certificate in women’s studies. ^[10]

She previously worked at Andrew Edson & Associates, Inc., a corporate and financial public and investor relations firm in New York, for two years. ^[11]

Carson also studied for two years in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Jewelry Design program. From there, she founded a jewelry design business, CMC Jewelry Designs, Inc., in 2002. ^{[12] [13]}

Carson has been employed by her family’s foundation in various capacities since 2000. ^[14]

Boards

Since 2015, Cecily Carson has been a board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, a nonprofit associated with the financial industry with a stated goal of alleviating poverty in New York City. ^[15]

Carson is a board member for the Fischer House Foundation, which provides housing for military families receiving care at military and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. ^[16]

Cecily Carson has been a board member of the Columbia Business School’s Tamer Center for Social Enterprise. ^[17]

Further, Carson has been a trustee of The Museum of Arts and Design, the Excellence Girls and Excellence Boys Charter Schools of Bedford-Stuyvesant; a director of The New York City Charter School Center; a board member of the Robin Hood Foundation; a member of the President’s Leadership Council at Dartmouth College, and the New York Public Library’s Library Council. ^[18]

Political Donations

Most of Carson’s political donations have gone to Democrats, but she has donated some to Republican candidates. ^[19]

She contributed $10,000 to the campaigns of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. ^[20]

She donated $4,000 to the campaigns of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), since 2021 the Senate majority leader. ^[21] She further contributed $2,000 to the Murphy Victory Committee for Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) in 2018 ^[22] and $1,000 to the campaign of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), in 2013. ^[23]

Carson gave $2,500 to the campaign of then-Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) for the 2012 election ^[24] and $2,000 to former Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-NJ) in 2000. ^[25]

Carson contributed $1,000 to the 2020 Republican presidential primary campaign of Bill Weld, a former Massachusetts governor and Libertarian nominee for Vice President. ^[26]