Rich Havard
Decolonizing Wealth Project
Rich Havard is the Director of the Youth Mental Health Fund at Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP), a $20 million initiative launched in 2025 to advance culturally responsive care and healing with young people.
Before joining DWP, Rich was Director of Programs at Wayfarer Foundation, where he played a key role in moving over $83 million to spiritually rooted, justice-oriented nonprofits. Previously, Rich led the Inclusive Collective, a diverse spiritual community for college-aged young adults in Chicago centered on healing, meaning-making, and justice. He also currently serves on the Faith and Philanthropy Pooled Fund Strategy Team, where he has helped grant more than $8 million to organizations creating spiritual solutions to our world’s most pressing problems.
Rich has been featured by organizations like the Children’s Defense Fund, Funders for LGBTQ Issues, DePaul and Northwestern Universities, and Hopa Mountain’s Strengthening the Circle Conference. He has been a University of Chicago Commons Project Fellow, a Forum for Theological Exploration Ministry Fellow, and part of the Aspen Institute’s Diversity & Representation in Media Cohort. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees for the Parliament of the World's Religions and contributed to "True Colors: Stories of Baptist Inclusion."
A graduate of Samford and Mercer Universities, Rich lives in Chicago with his partner. He’s an amateur mystic, a CrossFitter, and he deeply believes in our collective power to co-create a more just and loving world.