Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Ridgway H. White '02

President, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

As president of the Flint, Mich.-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Ridgway H. White ’02 oversees one of the nation’s leading philanthropic foundations with a goal of promoting a just, equitable and sustainable society. Founded in 1926, the Mott Foundation leverages its $2.7 billion endowment to propel national and international projects that support civil society, education and the environment as well as initiatives focused in the Flint area.

White is “responsible for establishing strategies for the organization and ensuring that our grant-making is relevant and effective while staying true to our mission and our founder's values.” Under his leadership, the Foundation has redoubled its local presence in the aftermath of the Flint water crisis.

“The Flint water crisis has been my most challenging experience to date,” White says. “When one’s basic human needs are not met, it's hard to function; and when an entire community is poisoned and you can't drink or use the water for over 1,000 days, its criminal; and when this occurs in your own hometown, it's devastating. As a result, the Foundation created the Recover and Rise initiative. With a goal of granting up to $125 million, we brought together 10 major foundations and led the pledge with a commitment to grant up to $100 million over the course of five years. The end goal is rebuilding the community with a major focus on children and families.”

Joined by other local, state and national foundations, the Mott Foundation has committed to help the city recover from the crisis, supporting work in six areas: safe drinking water, health care, early education, nonprofits, community engagement and economic development.

“Without a doubt, the most rewarding aspect of my job is seeing people connect with their community in a positive way,” White says, whether this is “a child connecting with his/her school through an afterschool program; a person engaging to protect indigenous culture, and in turn, the environment in the Amazon; or a person gaining access to the law through our support of community advice offices.”

White joined the foundation in 2004 as a program assistant on the Flint Area grant-making team. He was named an associate program officer in 2006 and was promoted to program officer in 2009. He also served concurrently as a loaned executive to the Uptown Reinvestment Corporation, a nonprofit focused on revitalizing downtown Flint. In that role, he oversaw the development of more than one million square feet of mixed-use space, paving the way for numerous new businesses and restaurants. In 2011, he was named vice president for special projects at the Mott Foundation and chair of its management working group, before he was named president in 2015.  

“For the first decade of my career, I focused on revitalizing my home community of Flint, Michigan,” he says. “Many of these activities included real estate development. I felt that my architectural studies major, combined with core interest areas of economics and urban planning, gave me the perfect background for meeting the challenges of place-based development and urban revitalization.” 

White’s interests in these areas and his strong bond with Hobart and William Smith, led to the Colleges’ establishment of the Sustainable Community Development minor in the 2013-14 academic year.

Outside the Mott Foundation, White spearheaded a $36 million project to build a state-of-the-art home for the Michigan School for the Deaf and Powers Catholic High School. He currently chairs the National Center for Family Philanthropy and is immediate past chair of the Sloan Museum governing council. He serves on the boards of the Mott Foundation, The C.S. Harding Foundation, Isabel Foundation, United States Sugar Corporation, and Ayablu, a licensee of Burt’s Bees doing business as Burt’s Bees Baby. He is a member of the University of Michigan–Flint’s advisory committee.