As we prepare for our annual dinner to commemorate the remarkable impact of the Greater Twin Cities United Way Tocqueville Society, we reflect on the honorees of the previous year. At the 2025 dinner, we celebrated the society’s 20th anniversary and honored both past and present leaders while acknowledging our community’s enduring legacy of philanthropy.
The Heritage of Philanthropy Award was given to the Crosby family in recognition of their generational efforts to promote the goodness of others. The award honors families who are growing the next generation of philanthropists to create a legacy of caring for our community.
The Crosby family has a long and storied history of philanthropy in the Twin Cities dating back to the early 1900s. This includes the endowment of the Citizen’s Aid Building, which still houses Greater Twin Cities United Way today.
This award recognizes the family of Ella and Tom Crosby, Sr., who were very active in community affairs and philanthropy and instilled in their children the expectation that they be involved and support the community in which they live.
Throughout their lives, Tom and Ella were very active with United Way, with Tom serving as campaign chair and chair of the board of directors and Ella serving on the board for many years. In 1988, they donated the initial bequest to establish the Greater Twin Cities United Way endowment fund, a significant milestone for the organization.
To ensure this legacy of philanthropy continued, Ella established The Longview Foundation to fund her family’s charitable interests for future generations.
A true testament to the values with which they were raised, Tom and Ella’s six children and their spouses continue to instill that same community-minded approach to philanthropy with their own children and grandchildren, creating a legacy of impact in our community.
“We watched both our parents and grandparents and how involved they were in community,” said David Crosby. “And you definitely model your life after your mentors.”
Continuing to model that example for their own children, Eleanor and Fred Winston, Ellie R. and Tom M. Crosby, Jr.*, David and Kitty* Crosby, Lucy Crosby and Robert Mitchell*, Robert and Teri Crosby, and Mary Crosby Dolan have all supported United Way for decades.
All are members of the Tocqueville Society, and many are actively engaged with United Way in other capacities. Tom Crosby, Jr. served on the board of directors for more than 20 years and he and his wife Ellie, along with his mother, Ella, attended the Tocqueville Society launch at the home of Jon and Susan Campbell in 2005.
When asked how they inspire the next generation of Crosby family philanthropists, Eleanor Winston shared, “We encourage our children’s generation to consider giving a gift out of their own funds to organizations they support in addition to what is available through the foundation, because that’s the way we all started.”
Now welcoming their sixth generation, the Crosby family plans to continue building on their legacy of philanthropic leadership to have an enduring impact in our community.
*Deceased
