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]