NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / April 20, 2026 / Originally published by Baltimore Business Journal
By Raymone Jackson, CLU, MBA – President, T. Rowe Price Foundation and Head of Community Affairs
Mar 27, 2026
There’s a query I typically come again to. Not in conferences or shows, however in the quieter moments. On a drive by way of West Baltimore or my very own neighborhood. After a dialog with a tenured nonprofit chief. In the house between what we plan and what really occurs.
What does it seem like to remain?
Not to point out up as soon as. Not to put in writing a test and transfer on. But to remain in a group, in a relationship, in the work lengthy sufficient for one thing actual to take root.
This yr marks 45 years since the T. Rowe Price Foundation was established in Baltimore. And as I replicate on what which means, I preserve coming again to that query.
The Foundation was based in 1981 with a easy perception: A monetary companies agency ought to put money into the locations and areas the place its individuals dwell and work. Not as charity. Not as obligation. As apply. As accountability. One that’s deeply intertwined with its mission and dedication to creating a significant distinction in individuals’s lives.
Over these 45 years, the Foundation has contributed greater than $204 million to communities, primarily right here in Baltimore. But numbers solely inform half of the story.
As president of the Foundation and as somebody who has spent a profession eager about and advancing how establishments serve individuals, I’ve come to understand that the actual measure is not the dimension of the funding. It’s the high quality of the relationship.
One of the tenets of the T. Rowe Price Foundation is listening. We let what we hear shift what we do. This community-informed method acknowledges that the individuals closest to the work are greatest positioned to form how sources are used and options are carried out.
In 2015, our rules have been put to the take a look at following the homicide of Freddie Gray. We selected to hear. The Foundation workforce attended almost 150 group discussions. They requested questions. They took notes. And from these conversations got here the Foundation’s first place-based funding: a multiyear dedication to West Baltimore that centered on management, capability, and monetary empowerment.
That wasn’t a response. It was half of a motion.
In the finance business, we discuss compounding, the manner constant contributions develop over years. The similar precept holds in group work.
Our Capacity Building Program is an effective instance. Since 2016, it has engaged greater than 13,000 people from nonprofit organizations throughout Baltimore. The program walks alongside leaders, serving to them strengthen their organizations from the inside out. It’s not flashy or quick, however over time, it builds one thing sturdy.
