Rachel Garbow Monroe is president and CEO of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, a $3.4 billion private charitable organization that fights poverty and builds strong, vibrant communities where everyone can thrive.
During her tenure, Monroe has led the Weinberg Foundation through a period of significant growth and evolution. Today, the Foundation provides about $150 million in grants each year to nonprofits in the United States and Israel. She also has emphasized philanthropy’s ability to do more than provide funding — bringing people, ideas, and resources together to tackle complex challenges and create lasting change.
That approach is reflected in issues Monroe has championed since joining the Foundation as its first chief operating officer in 2005 and becoming president and CEO in 2010. Her work often begins by identifying an underrecognized challenge, seeking the data needed to better understand it, and working with communities and partners to advance solutions and attract additional resources.
During her tenure, she has helped launch and shape ambitious, multiyear efforts that demonstrate the Foundation’s ability to serve as a catalyst for broader action. One example is the Baltimore Library Project, which brought together more than 30 public, private, and community partners and invested over $45 million to transform city school libraries in high-poverty neighborhoods. Her leadership has also helped catalyze efforts to strengthen Jewish nonprofits, address Jewish poverty, expand access to Jewish summer camps for children with disabilities, engage more women in philanthropy, and advance workplace gender equity.
She serves on the board of Baltimore Gas and Electric, an Exelon subsidiary; the Maryland State Library Board; Northwestern University’s Council of One Hundred; and the Kolker-Saxon-Hallock Family Foundation, and she is an advisory board member of Laurel Strategies. She also serves as an honorary cochair of Governor Wes Moore’s Maryland Council on Innovation and Impact and serves on the steering committee of Women Leadership in Philanthropy.
Monroe speaks and writes on strategic philanthropy, civic leadership, the Jewish community, and her own approach to compassionate leadership, and regularly moderates conversations with leaders across sectors. Her writing and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Baltimore Banner, and other outlets, and she has been recognized by The Daily Record, Baltimore Business Journal, City & State New York, SmartCEO, and the Forward for her leadership and service.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University and a Master of Management from its J.L. Kellogg School of Management.