BALTIMORE—Tricia Rubacky has joined the Open Society Institute-Baltimore as director of development. The former development director for Advocates for Children and Youth, Rubacky has a distinguished record in the field of development over her 32-year career and has succeeded in helping numerous nonprofit organizations dramatically increase revenues and donations.
"Tricia Rubacky has a proven track record of very thoughtful and strategic development success not only in Baltimore, but nationally," said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. "She has focused her career on social justice and is a wonderful asset to our office, committed to attracting new investors to support the OSI-Baltimore mission."
Rubacky joins OSI-Baltimore as it continues to pursue a major fundraising campaign. In 2005, philanthropist George Soros, whose foundation opened the Baltimore office in 1998, pledged his continued support to Baltimore and issued a fundraising challenge. Believing that it was important that the community partner with him, he agreed to give an additional $10 million if OSI-Baltimore raised $20 million. Since then, OSI-Baltimore has raised $12 million toward that goal. Rubacky will work closely with foundation, corporate and community leaders to raise the additional $8 million.
Rubacky has recruited two additional staff to round out the development team.
"Tricia and her very capable staff will be instrumental in helping us reach our goals," Morris said.
Jeffrey Burch, of Baltimore, has been named as senior development associate. Since 2005 Burch had been development director at Moveable Feast, Inc.—an organization that provides meals, weekly groceries and nutritional counseling to homebound people living with HIV/AIDS.
Jedediah Weeks, a native of Baltimore, has joined OSI-Baltimore as development associate. Since 2007, Weeks served as deputy finance director for the campaign of Jack Markell, newly elected governor of Delaware.
Rubacky has spent her career translating social justice causes into goals, plans, messages and, ultimately, donations. Prior to joining OSI-Baltimore, she served as development director of Advocates for Children and Youth, an organization dedicated to promoting policies and programs that improve results for Maryland children.
During that time, she oversaw fundraising for the Maryland Can Do Better for Children Campaign. The campaign, which offers solutions and promotes concrete strategies for improving conditions for Maryland's children, has been endorsed by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), state and local elected officials, and a range of business and community leaders.
She also spent six years at the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, where she helped to grow and diversify annual philanthropic revenue from $450,000 to $2 million, following six years as director of development for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A former VISTA volunteer, Rubacky is an active community volunteer. She holds a bachelor's degree from Douglass College of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
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Founded by philanthropist George Soros, OSI-Baltimore is a private operating foundation that supports a grantmaking, educational, and capacity-building program to expand justice and opportunity for Baltimore residents. OSI-Baltimore fosters debate and empowers marginalized groups to help shape and monitor public policy. It also strengthens communities and families through the development of fair, rational, and responsive public systems.
Its current work focuses on helping Baltimore's youth succeed, reducing the social and economic costs of incarceration, tackling drug addiction, and building a corps of Community Fellows to bring innovative ideas to Baltimore's underserved communities.