Rauch Foundation will leave big shoes to fill as it shifts its focus, local leaders say
The Rauch Foundation, which has provided millions of dollars in funding to Long Island organizations, will leave big shoes to fill as it shifts its focus to New England, people who worked with the foundation said Tuesday.
President Nancy Rauch Douzinas, who has spent more than three decades trying to bring together people and organizations from Long Island's tangled patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions with a regional approach, is stepping down in April. Her two daughters will take the reins of the foundation.
"The biggest accomplishment we had was getting Long Islanders, from different sectors, from business to labor to nonprofits to educators … to come together, convene them, work together, think together," Douzinas told Newsday, addingthe foundation tried to learn lessons from around the country. "Other places were taking a regional approach and that's what we had to try to do on Long Island, to really make change," Rauch Douzinas said Tuesday.
A key component of that approach was the creation of the Long Island Index, which gathered data about housing, transportation, employment, industry, the environment, health and education to help decision-makers think about the region and plan for the future.