Interview
Empowering The Next Generation: Holly O’Neill & Tory Burch Foundation President Tiffany Dufu
- Tiffany Dufu is the President of the Tory Burch Foundation, founder of The Crew, and author of the bestseller Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less.
- Dufu's career trajectory was catalyzed by mentorship from Janie Williams, a board member who guided her through six months of shadowing meetings and introduced her as a "superstar here to learn" to philanthropists in Seattle.
- Dufu defines purpose not as a mystical revelation but as a decision driven by life experiences, specifically crediting her mother, Brenda, for instilling the confidence she now passes to others.
- Her personal compass for navigating unexpected life events includes five specific questions:
- Does this advance women and girls?
- Does this advance Sub-Saharan Africa?
- Does this lead to financial freedom?
- Is this aligned with the values her parents instilled?
- Will her descendants be proud of this decision?
- The concept behind Drop the Ball emerged from Dufu's epiphany following the birth of her first child, realizing that her fear of failure was irrational as "armageddon" never occurred after she stopped trying to do everything.
- Three primary barriers identified by the Tory Burch Foundation for women entrepreneurs are:
- Difficulty accessing capital.
- Lack of access to timely, low-cost education.
- Isolation due to the absence of community support.
- A partnership between Bank of America and the Tory Burch Foundation is expanding to create the nation's largest library of on-demand educational tools and resources for women entrepreneurs, addressing their lack of time and bandwidth for traditional schooling.
- Dufu opened her first Bank of America account at age 18 after overhearing a fourth-grade conversation about a woman unable to leave an abusive marriage due to a lack of financial independence.
- Dufu rejects the stigma around female ambition by citing Anna Feld's book Necessary Dreams, defining ambition as the "desire to be really good at something" combined with the "desire to receive public recognition."
- Tory Burch is described by Dufu as a "real deal" partner who has invested heavily in the foundation for over a decade, directing a percentage of sales to empower women entrepreneurs without using the cause solely for marketing.
- The "send the elevator back down" philosophy, attributed to Marie C. Wilson, involves mentees actively referring other qualified women when declining requests to prevent leaders from becoming isolated at the top.
- Dufu currently manages a peer coaching group called The Crew, which meets quarterly to share ambitions, hold each other accountable, and transact business professionally across different industries.
- Dufu's forward-looking goal is to normalize the idea that women can be "ambitious for themselves," moving beyond the societal pressure to sacrifice personal recognition for the collective good.