The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund has awarded three grants totaling $11.25 million to nonprofits working to increase access and opportunity for underserved New Yorkers in the fields of health, education, and the arts, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The grants include $10 million to the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts to create a 7,200-square-foot Illumination lawn that will make the center more accessible to the public and $1 million to the Children's Museum of Manhattan for a fund to create a national curriculum and museum exhibit for early childhood obesity prevention. In addition, the fund awarded $250,000 to the Aperture Foundation for its Works in Progress exhibit, a collection of photographs documenting New York City's Green Cart initiative. The initiative, which was launched in 2008 with a $1.5 million seed grant from the fund, provides fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved New York City neighborhoods.

Laurie Tisch, the heir to the Loews Corporation business empire, favors an "in the box" approach to philanthropy and tends to fund what "just works." As she told the Journal: "metrics aren't necessary to prove that kids who eat healthier foods and are exposed to the arts live better lives."