David N. Cicilline
Rhode Island Foundation CEO and president
DAVID N. CICILLINE’S 2023 resignation from Congress to take the top job at the Rhode Island Foundation was a full-circle career shift for the longtime public official.
He’d been serving Rhode Islanders in elective office since the mid-1990s in the General Assembly and then for eight years as Providence’s mayor – and the first openly gay elected mayor of a major U.S. capital city – before being elected to the U.S. House beginning in 2012.
Taking the helm of the state’s largest nonprofit funder brought him back home in a different but still familiar service role.
A few months later he told PBN, “In many ways, the greatest challenge embedded in improving education, economic opportunity and health care are the incredible racial disparities that are holding so many in our state back. Making that a central part of our work is an important responsibility.”
A year later diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility were the common threads in an ambitious five-year plan to guide community funding.
The foundation’s goals also include support for civics education, media literacy and local journalism, and reducing the effects of climate change. Cicilline’s strong community connections and willingness to fight for priorities in the face of opposition make him a leading voice on the state’s nonprofit landscape.
And the foundation remains a financial lifeline for nonprofits across the state.
In 2025, the year the foundation launched its five-year plan, it awarded a record $93 million in grants to more than 2,600 nonprofits.
