Rick Greenberg

Focus areas: Social justice movements and social media

Richard Greenberg is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Torch, based in New York City, the first nonpartisan social media intelligence platform customized for the U.S. civic sector, including advocacy groups, grant-making foundations, corporate social responsibility teams, and elected officials. Torch works with the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, The Foundation Center, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,  Obama Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Prudential Foundation, Advocacy Institute,  JustLeadershipUSA, and more than forty Members of Congress across the country to strengthen their intelligence, communications, and coalition-building. 

Previously, Rick founded and served as President of Amplify, a benefit corporation based in Newark, New Jersey that designed and managed advocacy and government affairs campaigns for grant-making foundations and their grantees. 

Prior to founding Torch and Amplify, Rick’s pioneering work at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice won national recognition. As the Institute’s Director of Equal Justice Policy, Communications Director, and Chief  Operating Officer, Rick successfully led the Second Chance Campaign to change New Jersey’s prisoner re-entry laws. Through that work, he came to be known as one of the nation’s foremost advocates for systemic criminal justice reform. The New York Times called the Second Chance Campaign’s legislation, “a model for  the nation.” At the Institute, Rick produced an award-winning documentary on gangs and prisoner reentry,  “Moral Panic,” featuring then Newark Mayor Cory Booker. 

Rick was also President of The Fund for New Jersey, the state’s leading foundation investor in advocacy and policy reform, where he oversaw a $60 million grant-making endowment.  

Rick has served on the boards of Columbia University Community Impact, Center for Collaborative Change,  and YouthNet. He was one of twelve inaugural members to serve on President Obama’s National Criminal Justice Policy Committee during his 2008 campaign. Rick was elected as a District Leader in Essex County, New  Jersey in November 2018. 

Rick received a B.A. in American Studies from Cornell University in 1995 and a M.P.A. in U.S. Social Policy and  Nonprofit Management from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2004,  where he is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor teaching about social justice movements in the age of social media. Rick has guest lectured at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; HKS based one of their  2020 case studies on Rick’s Second Chance Campaign advocacy work.

Education

• MPA, Columbia University
• BA, Cornell University