Originally published by Baltimore Business Journal
By Raymone Jackson, CLU, MBA – President, T. Rowe Price Foundation and Head of Community Affairs
Mar 27, 2026
There’s a question I often come back to. Not in meetings or presentations, but in the quieter moments. On a drive through West Baltimore or my own neighborhood. After a conversation with a tenured nonprofit leader. In the space between what we plan and what actually happens.
What does it look like to stay?
Not to show up once. Not to write a check and move on. But to stay in a community, in a relationship, in the work long enough for something real to take root.
This year marks 45 years since the T. Rowe Price Foundation was established in Baltimore. And as I reflect on what that means, I keep coming back to that question.
The Foundation was founded in 1981 with a simple belief: A financial services firm should invest in the places and spaces where its people live and work. Not as charity. Not as obligation. As practice. As responsibility. One that is deeply intertwined with its mission and commitment to making a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
Over those 45 years, the Foundation has contributed more than $204 million to communities, primarily here in Baltimore. But numbers only tell part of the story.
As president of the Foundation and as someone who has spent a career thinking about and advancing how institutions serve people, I’ve come to appreciate that the real measure isn’t the size of the investment. It’s the quality of the relationship.
One of the tenets of the T. Rowe Price Foundation is listening. We let what we hear shift what we do. This community-informed approach recognizes that the people closest to the work are best positioned to shape how resources are used and solutions are implemented.
In 2015, our principles were put to the test following the murder of Freddie Gray. We chose to listen. The Foundation team attended nearly 150 community discussions. They asked questions. They took notes. And from those conversations came the Foundation’s first place-based investment: a multiyear commitment to West Baltimore that focused on leadership, capacity, and financial empowerment.
That wasn’t a response. It was part of a movement.
In the finance industry, we talk about compounding, the way consistent contributions grow over years. The same principle holds in community work.
Our Capacity Building Program is a good example. Since 2016, it has engaged more than 13,000 individuals from nonprofit organizations across Baltimore. The program walks alongside leaders, helping them strengthen their organizations from the inside out. It’s not flashy or fast, but over time, it builds something durable.
DesignFest, our partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Neighborhood Design Center, is another. It connects pro bono designers and marketers with nonprofits that need help telling their story. More than 100 organizations have received in-kind creative support. For a small nonprofit trying to reach the people they serve, that kind of help can shift everything.
And Money Confident Kids, our global financial literacy program, now reaches families in the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Japan. Financial literacy is one of the most powerful tools we can put in a young person’s hands. When they understand how money works, they start to see different possibilities for their lives.
These programs and partnerships grew out of conversations with communities, T. Rowe Price associates, and clients about what was needed. And they endure because we stayed long enough to see them through.
Beyond our programs, last year, well over 400 of our associates served on nonprofit boards across the country. Forty percent of our global workforce donated or volunteered. Our associates logged more than 37,000 hours of volunteer service supporting nonprofit organizations.
That’s not a program. It’s ingrained in our culture. Our associates show up because they understand that their presence matters. And that understanding, passed along from one associate to the next, is part of our firm’s culture and legacy.
Throughout our history, we’ve seen neighborhoods change and young people grow into leaders. This work hasn’t gotten easier, only deeper and more focused.
The most meaningful investments don’t always look like investments at the start. Sometimes it’s a conversation. A convening. A workshop. A mentor sitting with a young person. A designer helping a nonprofit find its voice.
They look like people choosing to stay.
Baltimore has always been our home. This Foundation exists because T. Rowe Price believes in supporting the communities where our associates live and work. Not in theory. In practice. Every day. In small and large ways.
Forty-five years in, we’re still learning. Still listening.
Still here.
Raymone Jackson is the president of the T. Rowe Price Foundation and head of Community Affairs at T. Rowe Price. He champions and guides the firm’s community investments, inclusion, corporate communications, and sustainability strategies.
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