The Herman Lissner Foundation Grants $100,000 to American Indian College Fund Scholarships

December 7, 2011

The Herman Lissner Foundation has granted the American Indian College Fund $100,000 for scholarships for American Indian students. This grant will support qualified American Indian students who show academic achievement and involvement in their communities by providing financial resources to encourage them to complete a college degree in business administration, accounting, finance, marketing, tribal administration, or entrepreneurship.

The grant from The Herman Lissner Foundation is being applied to a matching gift challenge to establish the Johnson Scholarship Foundation Endowed Entrepreneurship Scholarship Program. This $1.5 million endowment fund will support scholarships awarded to American Indians studying business or entrepreneurship programs at tribal colleges and other universities. The Johnson Scholarship Foundation has pledged to grant the American Indian College Fund $750,000 if the American Indian College Fund matches this pledged gift through other sources. The contribution from The Herman Lissner Foundation is helping the American Indian College Fund meet those fundraising goals.

The Herman Lissner Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization based in New York. Holocaust survivors Herman and Gerda Lissner emigrated from Germany to New York. Herman was a fashion industrialist whose first factory was in New Jersey. Herman Lissner, always a philanthropist, was memorialized by his wife in 1947 following his death with the incorporation of The Herman Lissner Foundation. The Lissner’s philanthropic spirit, supporting social, educational, medical and cultural causes, continued beyond Gerda’s death at 102 (by some records 104) years of age. By the wishes of Mrs. Lissner, the Foundation is being dissolved this year with its ultimate grants.

Richard B. Williams, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, said, “The continued generosity of The Herman Lissner Foundation since 2008 helps American Indian students afford a higher education. This final gift from The Herman Lissner Foundation ensures the Lissners’ legacy as philanthropists with American Indian people as well as throughout the nation with their lives’ good works. This donation, partnered with the Johnson Scholarship Foundation Endowed Entrepreneurship Scholarship Program, will make an even greater impact by increasing the number of business and entrepreneurial graduates in Indian Country exponentially.”