Fifteen years ago, Michael Tipton was teaching high school history in the South Bronx, an experience that cemented his commitment to making the world better for the next generation. Since returning home to Louisiana in 2007, Michael has lived that commitment by leading growth and change for some of the state’s leading organizations in education and health. As the executive director for Teach for America in South Louisiana, he led a team that grew fundraising from $650,000 to more than $3.7 million and graduated over 400 alumni, many of whom are now serving as non-profit and policy leaders.
In 2015, Michael joined the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation as its president, where he manages a $50 million endowment and grantmaking programs to improve the wellness and wellbeing of children and communities across Louisiana. Michael is also the head of Community Relations for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, where he oversees corporate giving of more than $1 million annually and supports volunteer efforts for the company’s 2,500 Louisiana-based employees.
During Michael’s tenure, employee-led community impact has grown and diversified substantially. As two examples, in 2020 Blue Cross employees gave more than 45,000+ hours of community service and for this was named the United States’ Volunteer Leader. In 2020 & 2021 Blue Cross launched a new state-wide platform with the Taproot Foundation allowing volunteers to leverage skills in support of non-profit projects. This was a first-of-its-kind effort and one that is now being replicated elsewhere in the United States.
For these and other efforts Blue Cross has been named the Corporate Volunteer Champion (2017, Volunteer Louisiana), been given the Torch Award for Ethics in Business (2018, Better Business Bureau), has been named to the Points of Light Foundation’s Civic 50 Award, highlighting the most community-minded businesses in the United States, for the last 4 years.
Blue Cross and the Foundation have also launched numerous high-impact projects and programs during Michael’s tenure, including the launch of Blue Bikes New Orleans, grants to enable Ruston to become Louisiana first walkable city and collaborative efforts like the Louisiana Health Fellows and the Louisiana Funder Collaboration to share ideas and best practices. Most recently the Foundation launched a $15M Disaster Relief Grant Fund, supporting both COVID-19 and Hurricane related response throughout 2020 & 2021. These investments make the Blue Cross Foundation the top, Louisiana-based grant maker in
response and recovery over the last two years.
Tipton is a native of Louisiana and graduate of LSU with dual degrees in political science and history. He earned his master’s degree in teaching from Pace University in New York and is the recipient of numerous community honors, including being named as LSU’s Young Alumnus of the Year. He is an alum Leadership Baton Rouge and Leadership Louisiana and serves on the boards of the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) and Philanthropy Southeast among others. Michael and his wife Sarah have two children, Alexander and Eleanor.