Souza Announces Retirement from Heritage Fund

Columbus, Indiana — Tracy Souza, president and CEO of Heritage Fund, has announced she will retire in mid-July after 14 years of guiding the community
foundation.

Souza began work at Heritage Fund in 2011, succeeding Sherry Stark, as only the fourth person to lead the organization in its nearly 50-year history:

• Ed Sullivan 1979-1996
• Chuck Watson 1996-1999
• Sherry Stark 1999-2011
• Tracy Souza 2011-2025

Prior to joining Heritage Fund, Souza retired from Cummins after 32 years in a variety of roles, including human resources, executive and college recruiting, public relations, Corporate Responsibility and ending her career in 2011 as president of Cummins Foundation. In addition, she has served on numerous philanthropic boards at local, state and national levels.

Under her leadership, Heritage Fund has grown from $50 million to more than $111 million in charitable assets managed by the foundation and has awarded nearly $9 million in community grants and scholarships.

Souza praised her staff members and their collaborative spirit.

“We are a team. Each team member is a dedicated professional and will continue to perform their roles with professionalism, compassion and community-first focus. This staff is the biggest asset I can leave for the new CEO. I am proud to have worked with them and wish only good things ahead,” she said.

Tom Vujovich, a former Heritage Fund Board member, said Souza has been a diligent and enthusiastic leader.

“Tracy cares about all those around her. From family to staff, community to corporate leadership, she shows the same level of commitment and professionalism. Her imprint is on almost all of the major accomplishments of our community. If you want something done, call Tracy,” he said.

Among Souza’s proudest achievements at Heritage Fund are the establishment of a diverse Board of Directors; a strategic overhaul of the foundation’s mission, vision, brand and strategic plan; the creation and development of the African American Foundation; and the foundation’s support of the many cultural festivals, organizations and initiatives in Columbus.

“One of my dreams for the future is that Columbus will become known as a community that makes diversity work,” Souza said.

Heritage Fund Board Member Tom Harmon credited Souza’s leadership with guiding the community foundation’s response to the needs of a diverse community even during trying times.

“Heritage Fund is more than a community foundation; it is a catalyst for change. Diversity has always been an important initiative of Bartholomew County, and Heritage Fund has always been at the forefront of that initiative. As a response to the George Floyd murder, Heritage Fund led a communitywide effort that included a community report on diversity efforts, organized workshops and led a community dialogue on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. This work remains part of Heritage’s Fund vision today,” he said. “Tracy’s work with Heritage Fund as president and CEO speaks for itself. Heritage Fund has endured a pandemic, helped navigate social unrest and continued to serve as a catalyst for change for Bartholomew County — all this while doubling the fund’s assets, continuing to provide scholarships and grants to the community and being a voice for change.”

Souza is also passionate about improving child care. As part of its Youth Development Area of Impact, Heritage Fund collaborated with Ivy Tech, Community Education Coalition and United Way of Bartholomew County to establish an early learning manager for Bartholomew County and is working with other community organizations on sustainability for the position. Earlier this year the community foundation partnered with Cummins to host a Child Care Roundtable to discuss the impact the child-care crisis is having on staff recruitment and retention for local employers.

“Spending years trying to piece together child care for my own children and later working as a project manager for Cummins Child Development Center helped me see how critical it is that high-quality, educational and affordable care for all children is fundamental to parents’ ability to participate in the workforce, and for communities to recognize economic success,” Souza said.

Early Learning Manager Christine Waters said Heritage Fund has played a pivotal role in advancing the case for investing in child care, in large part because of Souza’s guidance in aligning resources and coordinating efforts to strengthen early learning across the region. 

“At the heart of this work has been Tracy Souza, a long-standing champion of early learning whose vision, dedication and action-oriented spirit have driven meaningful progress,” Waters said. “Under Tracy’s leadership, the region has seen new opportunities emerge and partnerships flourish. Her strategic thinking and personal commitment have guided the community and helped lay the foundation for a more accessible, equitable and sustainable early learning system. Tracy’s departure marks the end of a remarkable chapter — but her legacy will continue to inspire and shape the path forward. As we build on her work, we remain committed to the mission — ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive from the very start.”

Souza has made time to support her love of the arts, particularly dancing. A former ballet major, she used her dancing skills to support the Dancers Studio, performing as Clara’s mother in the local “The Nutcracker” production for more than a decade.

A final Heritage Fund initiative under Souza’s tenure was to launch Project Encore to reimagine the future of the historic Crump Theatre as a performing arts center downtown.

“Bringing entertainment to the community for the enjoyment of individuals and families, creating foot traffic in the downtown and giving an opportunity for the next generation of community leaders to put their mark on the community through restoring and activating The Crump is rolled into one big, possible and fun project,” she said.

Project Manager Steve Sanders is thankful for Souza’s guidance and support of the next generation of community leaders.

“Tracy has been a champion for positive change for our community’s arts and culture scene by encouraging people to try new things. She has worked behind the scenes to introduce and enable future leaders not only by equipping them with tribal knowledge of community predecessors’ efforts but also helping them obtain new information and data to support their projects through Heritage Fund resources and fundraising,” Sanders said. “Through her spearheading of the recent performing arts study, she quickly took the recommendations and turned them into action assembling a new team to pull together READI 2.0 project applications to create a tri-county live performance programming entity. While that is all still in process, she enabled a few key ‘just do it’ initiatives to help build upon what we learned in the study, including creating Project Encore, which is the largest community joint effort to revitalize The Crump Theatre, Indiana’s oldest remaining theater. Her guidance in helping shape the new not- for-profit organization ensured that we were focusing on next-generation talent to move the project forward.”

The Heritage Fund Board of Directors has approved an unrestricted grant through the Lilly Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) VIII program to create a field of interest fund in honor of Souza’s contributions. At her direction, Tracy’s Fund to Celebrate Diversity and the Performing Arts will be used to “promote and encourage the performing arts in Columbus as a means of unifying community and to lift up all members of the community.”

To make a contribution, visit heritagefundbc.org/donate.

The board has launched a formal search for a new president and CEO, and an announcement will be made once the process is finalized.