Neil and Louise Tillotson (Photo courtesy of Steve Barba).

Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund

Championing the North Country

One of the largest permanent rural philanthropies in the U.S. is strengthening communities and spreading economic opportunity.

Neil Tillotson’s philosophy was simple: “Be humble, be creative and be kind.”

When he passed away in 2001 at 102, he left the bulk of his assets for charitable purposes. His wife Louise established the donor-advised Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in 2006. The fund is one of the largest permanent rural philanthropies in the country. It is guided by a local advisory committee and distributes more than $3.5 million annually. Since 2006, more than $41 million has been awarded to organizations in Coös County and surrounding regions.

It was a bold strike. And it was an act of creativity and kindness for a region that needed both.

The vision of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund is “to serve as a resource for the people of Coös County and neighboring communities in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and southern Québec to forge their own pathways to well-being and cultivate a region that thrives.” The Tillotson Fund serves as a stable and consistent source of support for the people of the region to:

Create and enhance opportunity;
Preserve and uplift the historical and cultural assets that make the region unique;
Hold the confidence and capabilities to foster strong communities and healthy rural landscapes.

The Tillotsons had wide interests and global connections. In addition to the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, the Foundation manages the Louise Tillotson Teaching Fellowship, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Scholarship Fund, the Coaticook (Québec) Region Fund, Hereford Forest Fund, Dixville Cemetery Fund and the Tillotson Guatemala Fund.

What We Support

Our Community Investment Framework defines the investment areas of the Tillotson Fund. These four areas are mutually reinforcing, guided by a commitment to equity and informed by community.

We commit to supporting community-identified and community-driven strategies and solutions and we will use all the tools in our toolbox to advance this work including grantmaking, social impact investing, advocacy, convening and partnerships.

Individual and family well-being
Goal: Support individuals and families to meet their essential needs and achieve well-being.
- Meet essential needs for individuals and families.
- Strengthen systems of care.
Healthy workforce ecosystem
Goal: Strengthen the capacity of local employers to maintain and/or grow their operations, build and retain a dynamic workforce, stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, ensure business continuity and plan for the future.
- Attract and retain the workforce.
- Establish workforce housing solutions.
- Help companies and employees build skills and systems for sustained success.
- Link employers and employees to financial supports.
- Increase access to affordable quality childcare.
Environmental stewardship
Goal: Address the impacts of climate change by investing in mitigation and adaptation strategies, stewardship of natural resources, and efforts that foster human connection to the natural environment.
- Be good stewards of the land, air, forests, waterways and wildlife.
- Encourage/support responsible tourism and recreation.
- Build and enhance sustainable food systems.
- Promote, sustain and scale energy efficiency, clean energy and green building.
- Implement climate smart forestry solutions.
Resilient communities
Goal: Support initiatives that build trust, belonging and connection and lead to stronger, more resilient communities.
- Empower youth.
- Convene, collaborate, celebrate.
- Build skills, knowledge and approaches to advance equity.
- Support community builders and change agents.
- Revitalize population hubs and preserve cultural and historical assets.
- Improve civic health.
- Strengthen municipal capacity and leadership.

Apply for a grant

Each year, The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund awards more than $3.5 million in grants to support economic development, education and community safety net programs that focus on the people in Coös County, NH and communities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and the MRC De Coaticook in Québec, Canada that share a border with Coös County.

Learn more

The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund Advisory Committee

Steve Barba, Cumberland, RI

Hannah Campbell, Colebrook, NH

Tom Deans, South Conway, NH

Emilie Drouin, Coaticook, Quebec

Kassie Eafrati, Berlin, NH

Sara Favreau-Perreault, Coaticook, Quebec

Ben Gayman, Chair, Manchester, NH

Ken Gordon, Berlin, NH

Jeremy Knowlton, Littleton, NH – Chair

Beth Newhouse, Gorham, NH

Jim Tibbetts, Manchester, NH

Marjorie Tyroler, Coaticook, Quebec

Courtney Vashaw, Whitefield, NH

Bob Wells, Hopkinton, NH

Linda White, Colebrook, NH

Stories and Updates

2023 Tillotson Fellow recipients, (left) Gail McVetty, third-grade teacher at Lancaster Elementary School and (right) Marc Salmin, art teacher at White Mountains Regional High School. (Courtesy photos.)

Two North Country teachers honored for dedication, excellence

Gail McVetty of Lancaster Elementary School and Marc Salmin of White Mountains Regional High School have been awarded Louise Tillotson Teaching Fellowships for 2023.

The Ugandan dance troupe “Dance of Hope” performed for Gorham, NH students thanks to a Neil and Louise Tillotson DASH grant (Courtesy photo.)

Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund awards $916,000 through its application grantmaking programs to support efforts in the North Country

Large, Local, Dash and Empower Coös Youth application grant programs support essential needs for individuals and families, a healthy workforce ecosystem, environmental stewardship, and more.

Bethlehem Trails Association is able to continue building a mountain bike skills park in Bethlehem, NH thanks to a grant from the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund. (Courtesy photo.)

Tillotson Fund awards more than $1.9 million for North Country communities

Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund grants support essential needs for individuals and families, a healthy workforce ecosystem, environmental stewardship, and more.

William Evatte receiving care at Coös County Family Dental. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Meeting a community’s dental needs

Coös Family Dental, on Berlin's Main Street, is open to anyone in the community who needs care. The clinic is filling a need that is particularly acute in the North Country, where more than two in ten adults have not seen a dentist in the past five years, and very few dental practices are accepting new Medicaid patients. The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has supported the clinic with a grant to upgrade equipment

Lancaster Play & Learn in Lancaster, NH. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Collaborative efforts for Coös kids gain national recognition

A decade-long collaboration funded by the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has resulted in a coordinated system of care and services aimed at improving outcomes for every child in Coös County. A research brief about that work, “By Us and For Us, A Story of Early Childhood Development Systems Change and Results in a Rural Context,” has been published in the The Foundation Review, a national, peer-reviewed journal. Now, lessons learned in Coös County can be applied to other rural communities around the country to improve outcomes for children

2018 Northern Forest Symposium participants. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Committed to the North Country

The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation made more than 70 grants and totaling $3.3 million in 2018. Read the stories of just a few of those grants in the Tillotson Fund's annual Report to the Community