Brooke Richie-Babbage
Brooke Richie-Babbage is a nonprofit growth strategist, social impact advisor, and founder of Bending Arc, a strategy firm supporting high-impact nonprofits. She hosts the Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast and has spent 23 years as a lawyer, nonprofit leader, and social entrepreneur.
She founded and led the Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP) for 11 years and directed network initiatives at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. She currently leads the Social Justice Accelerator at the Urban Justice Center. Previously, she worked as a Skadden Fellow, policy advocate, and poverty law professor at Tufts and Brooklyn Law School.
Brooke has supported leadership collectives for women of color and collaborated with major foundations. She has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and Fordham, and served on nonprofit boards, including as Board Chair of the Community Resource Exchange. She has held leadership roles in the NYC Bar Association and citywide policy groups.
A graduate of Yale (BA) and Harvard (JD, MPP), Brooke lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.
Nonprofits are at the forefront of social change, yet many organizations—particularly those led by BIPOC leaders—struggle with chronic underfunding, inequitable power dynamics, and donor-driven priorities that do not align with their communities' needs. In this thought-provoking session, Brooke Richie-Babbage will explore the intersection of fundraising, organizational resilience, and equity, offering strategies for leaders to strengthen financial sustainability while challenging harmful philanthropic norms.
This discussion will share insights on how nonprofit leaders can cultivate funding ecosystems that align with their missions, shift power in donor relationships, and integrate trust-based philanthropy principles into their work. Attendees will leave with practical frameworks for navigating power dynamics, securing unrestricted funding, and advocating for equitable partnerships that sustain their organizations for the long term.
Please choose one session per 4:00pm time slot.
Presenter: Brooke Richie-Babbage, Founder & CEO, Bending Arc
Speakers: Brooke Richie-Babbage
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