When Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin launched House of Vanderbilt, a family office that aims to connect far-flung members of her family, one of the key goals was to give back.
“For everything that we invest in and every initiative that we have, there’s a philanthropic initiative behind it,” Costin says.
Costin, a seventh-generation descendent of industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, is already involved in philanthropy. She sits on the board of the Vanderbilt Museum and is a legislative ambassador for the American Cancer Society. She is also an active supporter of the American Heart Association and of advocacy groups focused on ovarian cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
The Vanderbilt family has a long history of making cultural and philanthropic contributions, from the Vanderbilt YMCA to Vanderbilt University, which Costin has worked to highlight. For example, she recently completed a documentary for the BBC that explored her family’s connections to landmarks such as the Vanderbilt Museum and Grand Central Terminal.
“In it, you’re seeing these wonderful, magical moments in history that I believe need to be interconnected,” Costin says.
House of Vanderbilt is not creating a 501c3 organization but will have a number of philanthropic initiatives alongside its investments. The specific causes the family office supports will be guided by the connections family members have to those issues.
“There are so many exceptional causes, and every cause, in some way, is deeply affected by how you’ve been affected by it,” Costin says.
Costin, for example, says her mother’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer at age 50 was a turning point.
“At the time, it was known as this blanket silent killer. It just gave you a death sentence: a certain number of years, and that was it,” Costin says.
This very personal family crisis plunged Costin into the world of medical advocacy and fundraising.
“I’m a person that when you say no to me, I say yes back to you, because I don’t understand the word ‘no,’” Costin says.
Costin “went on a mission,” she says: “I went completely into the weeds of: How do I help to save my mother?”
She met a 25-year survivor of ovarian cancer and learned from her about lobbying.
“I flew to Washington, I lobbied for money,” Costin says. “I would sit there with every leading doctor in the world and ask, what do I need to do?”
This led to her work with the American Cancer Society — and this type of direct involvement has served as a template for other philanthropic initiatives.
“I’m deeply involved. I am not a person that just sits and writes a check and walks away. I’m a person that is very hands-on. I will be there, I will help, I will support, I will do anything that I can,” Costin says. “This is why I don’t want it to be just a 501c3. I think my family can do a lot more good by opening its doors to really help on a much bigger scale.”
She wants the philanthropic contributions of House of Vanderbilt to reflect and continue the family’s history of charity.
“We’re a family that does give back, that has done an enormous amount of good,” Costin says. “Cornelius said, in one of my favorite quotes of all time, ‘If I went to school, I wouldn’t have enough time to do anything else’ — yet he built one of the greatest universities on the planet. I want to keep that narrative going.”