Rickke Mananzala has been active in grassroots organizing, advocacy, and social justice philanthropy in service of racial, economic, and gender justice movements for more than two decades. He currently serves as the President of the New York Foundation, which supports community organizing and advocacy towards a more just and inclusive New York City. He previously served as Vice President of Programs at Borealis Philanthropy, a philanthropic intermediary that brings funders together to support leaders, organizations, and grassroots movements in their efforts to build power for transformative change.
Rickke’s roots are in grassroots organizing, including serving as an organizer and eventually the Executive Director of FIERCE, a grassroots organization for LGBTQ youth of color in New York City that spearheaded campaigns to challenge youth criminalization. He was a New Voices Fellow at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project where he worked to integrate legal services, litigation, and policy advocacy to support organizing by and for low-income transgender people in New York City. Rickke was a founding board member of the Right to the City Alliance and served on the board Funders for LGBTQ Issues and the Third Wave Foundation (now Third Wave Fund) where he helped develop grantmaking strategies to support feminist youth organizing work across the U.S. He is currently a board member of the Public Welfare Foundation and Philanthropy New York.
Rickke received his B.A. in political science from Columbia University and Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a focus on urban policy.
