Meet Zac Rich: GreenLight Fund Boston’s New Executive Director

We recently sat down with Zac Rich, GreenLight Fund Boston’s new Executive Director, to learn about his journey, his passion for community-centered work, and what he’s most excited about as he steps into this role. During our conversation, Zac shares his path from Sacramento to Boston, his deep commitment to criminal justice reform, and his thoughts on the infamous local chain, Dunkin Donuts.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up in Boston?

Originally, I’m from Sacramento, California. I went to college in San Francisco and moved to Boston in 2011 – been here ever since. It’s an amazing city to call home.

I’ve been deeply embedded in the youth violence and criminal justice reform space. In Boston, I got started as a direct street outreach worker at Roca in Chelsea. From there, I shifted to work for Commonwealth Corporation, which is a quasi-state organization under the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. There I worked on state-wide adult re-entry programming and state-wide youth violence intervention programming.

Most recently, I was working at New Commonwealth Fund, a grant-maker focused on providing resources to Black and Brown-led nonprofits across Massachusetts to tackle historical inequities in access to philanthropic dollars. And now I’m at GreenLight!

What inspired you to want to join GreenLight Fund?

I’ve been in Boston for almost 15 years now, and I’ve had the opportunity to see a couple areas that I’m really passionate about benefit from a GreenLight investment – including Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man program and The Fountain Fund. I’ve also had the opportunity, in my previous roles as a grant-maker, to fund organizations that had been brought to Boston through a GreenLight investment. I got to talk to people that work in those spaces about what they liked about GreenLight’s support, to see the communities that were impacted by that support, but most importantly to see the care that was taken by GreenLight during that investment period.

It is no small feat to bring an outside entity into a city like Boston that is very protective of its own – and protective of itself in a good way. The care and intentionality that GreenLight puts behind every new investment is something that really stood out from any other type of organization that I’ve seen that does something similar. That was powerful and something that really made me want to be a part of it.

What is a need or issue that you are passionate about?

Criminal justice reform is definitely a big space that drives a lot of my work, personally and professionally. I love to see GreenLight Fund’s commitment to that beyond Massachusetts. There’s a great organization called CEO that GreenLight has helped expand – they do amazing work in several GreenLight cities across the country. To be able to see on a repeated basis that that thread is not lost as GreenLight continues to expand into their 15th city, there’s always an organization focused around that level of work and population.

But what’s also really important to me is that the organizations GreenLight is helping to expand are prioritizing hiring returning citizens themselves to run these organizations or have decision-making power around how these sites develop and grow. That’s something that is not as common as it needs to be. As a criminal justice advocate, it’s really important to me to be able to see folks that are close to the work being in those roles to help drive the next evolution of the work.

What do you hope to see for GreenLight Fund Boston in the future? 

We’re about to head into Selection 17, so really the immediate future is working with my team – Amber and Inika – to facilitate Boston’s next selection and continue growing our work and impact locally. I’m incredibly excited to jump into our Discover phase and engage our community partners and this network that I’ve been building for the last 15 years to be able to identify what really is that organization that we want to bring here. Being able to have that community-level discussion around what my neighbors, what my friends, what my family wants to see Boston looking like four, five, six years in the future and how GreenLight can help to support and lift up that vision that we’re hearing from folks – that’s what excites me.

Which GreenLight value speaks most to you?

It’s interesting because when I was in the interview process with GreenLight, what immediately stood out to me was GreenLight’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. I was really paying attention during that process to how the organization was talking about it and being able to see who was on the interview panels. Once I got the role, seeing who was in these different roles across the organization – seeing that it’s truly a value and not just something that GreenLight says, that it’s truly something that they live by? That’s been phenomenal to see from the makeup of our organization, and you can see that extends to our investment portfolio too.

But something I didn’t quite understand until I started the work was the value of being rooted in the community. That’s a big piece of what GreenLight does. I had heard about it secondhand or thirdhand from folks that have been part of that process, but to be here and watch how things take root and the intentionality that goes into every decision that is being made on behalf of the organizations in our portfolio and on behalf of the cities that we’re existing in – to see that actualized and not just words on a value statement has been amazing. That’s one of the values that really resonates with me after starting the job.

Describe your ideal day in Boston

If we’re talking about the perfect day, it is wintertime and we’re on the heels of a gigantic blizzard. I’d start my day off with my favorite Brighton brunch spot called @Union followed by visiting the deCordova sculpture museum to see the snow-covered sculptures. I’d then get the best steak and cheese at Joe’s Subs in Roxbury, spend some time with friends, and end the day at Park 54 in Hyde Park – the best soul food in Boston. 

What’s a book, podcast, or article that’s inspired your thinking lately? 

I just finished Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. I heard him speak at an event for the youth literacy non-profit 826 Boston, and when he read excerpts from the book, I was completely hooked. Came home that night, bought it immediately, and couldn’t put it down. It’s a dystopian novel set in a near-future America that explores the dark side of American society – including systemic racism, mass incarceration, and unchecked capitalism. 

What’s your go-to order at Dunks?

Funny story – when I first moved to Boston from California, I was so excited to finally try Dunkin’ Donuts that I ran out of my apartment before even unpacking to get a donut, only to discover it was terrible. Thankfully, someone explained it’s about the coffee, not the donuts, and now my go-to is iced coffee with two shots of espresso and soy or almond milk. 

If you could have dinner with any celebrity or public figure, who would it be?

This one’s tough. I’d love to have dinner with either Lisa Leslie, to discuss what it was like being a pioneer in the early days of the WNBA and carrying the weight of creating something new, or spoken word poet Saul Williams to hear about his creative process. I’d also choose Alicia Keys, but she won’t return my phone calls for some reason.

We’re grateful to have Zac’s leadership, deep community connections, and collaborative nature guiding GreenLight Fund Boston’s next chapter. 

At GreenLight Fund Boston, we identify and invest in the country’s most promising social innovations, bringing them here to create lasting change for children, youth, and families facing our city’s greatest challenges. With Zac at the helm, we’re more committed than ever to ensuring that our community’s voice leads the way – from discovering which organizations to bring to Boston, to supporting their deep integration into the fabric of our neighborhoods.

As we prepare for Selection 17, we invite you to be part of this journey. Because transformative change happens when we listen deeply, invest thoughtfully, and work in true partnership with the communities we serve.