On September 11, 2001, 658 Cantor Fitzgerald and sixty-one Eurobrokers employees lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund was founded on September 14 with a $1 million personal donation from Cantor Fitzgerald chairman and CEO Howard W. Lutnick, whose brother, Gary, was among those killed. The fund raised and distributed over $180 million for more than eight hundred families — including 932 children — of the victims of that tragedy.

Allison Lutnick, Howard Lutnick's wife, was a criminal defense attorney at the Legal Aid Society – Brooklyn and a litigation partner at Wilson, Elsner, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP, the largest insurance defense firm in the country. In the aftermath of 9/11, Lutnick set up the Cantor Fitzgerald Crisis Center and created and ran support groups for the thirty-six Cantor women who were pregnant on 9/11 and the fiancées of employees who were killed. Now serving as the director of relief operations for the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, Lutnick has donated significant amounts of time and money to benefit the fund and veterans organizations such as Building Homes for Heroes.

The fund has since expanded its focus and has raised and distributed a total of $357 million to date in support of families impacted by acts of terrorism, emergencies, and natural disasters, as well as direct service charities and wounded service members.

PND asked Lutnick about the lessons of 9/11, the fund's evolution over the last two decades, its annual Charity Day event, and corporate partnerships.

Read the full article about the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund by Lauren Brathwaite at PhilanTopic.