Richard Ober

President and CEO

Richard Ober

Dick Ober leads the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the largest private provider of nonprofit grants and student aid in northern New England. The Foundation manages over $732 million in charitable funds donated by hundreds of families and individuals, and awards some 6,000 grants and scholarships exceeding $40 million annually.

Dick has 30 years of experience in nonprofit management and civic affairs. Before coming to the Foundation, he held senior staff positions at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Monadnock Conservancy. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards and public commissions, including several Gubernatorial appointments.

Dick currently serves as a board member of the Center for Effective Philanthropy and Community Foundations Leading Change (CF Leads) organization. He is also the founder of the Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON).

Dick has written and lectured widely on community philanthropy, civic life, and the connections between people and the places they live. His work has been published in books, book chapters, magazines, and journals. He has been recognized with awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of New Hampshire, and Plymouth State University, and has repeatedly been named as one of the state’s most influential people by Business New Hampshire magazine.

Dick lives with his wife and daughter in Dublin, New Hampshire.



Latest Posts


A Foundation scholarship is helping Kaylee Downs of Rochester achieve her dream of becoming a firefighter and paramedic. (Courtesy photo.)

Person-to-person philanthropy

More than 400 New Hampshire people and families have set up scholarship funds at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to help other New Hampshire people get the education they need.

Foundation President Richard Ober. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

The People’s House

Foundation president Richard Ober on a school funding hearing at the Statehouse that proved a reminder of the value of New Hampshire’s distinctive, sometimes rambunctious, strikingly open contribution to the American experiment called 'democracy'

The Grapevine Family and Community Resource Center's executive director, Melissa Gallagher (center), and family support director & parenting facilitator, Carol Lunan (left), speaking with Dick Ober, Foundation president and CEO. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Civic matters

New Hampshire Charitable Foundation president Dick Ober on work in New Hampshire communities that engages, informs, welcomes and brings people together

Dick Ober, Foundation president and CEO

New Hampshire’s nonprofits are on a mission

From serving veterans and their families to boosting our economy to providing care and shelter, NH nonprofits deliver. Every day. Every night. In every town and every city.

Foundation President Richard Ober. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

To love a place, challenges and all

A look at some long-term trends for our state prompts the question: "What are we going to do about it?" And that question unites us

Dick Ober with Anne Phillips, Director of Grantmaking at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

More operating support to flow to New Hampshire nonprofits in 2018

New Hampshire's nonprofits are doing heroic work under challenging circumstances. They need more flexible capital

Foundation President Richard Ober. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

NH depends on nonprofits, nonprofits depend on you

In 2018 Charitable Giving Guide, Foundation President Dick Ober writes: "In New Hampshire, we understand that when we give, we ALL do better."

Imaginable

Bending Theodore Parker’s long arc of the moral universe toward justice means not only confronting and rejecting overt hatred; it means understanding and addressing the root causes of inequity

Penny Severance, owner of Perley Farm in Royalton, VT, overwhelmed by Hurricane Irene's devastation and her community's generosity. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Helping communities rebuild

It’s what community foundations do in the wake of natural disasters. Learn how you can pitch in

Dublin, NH

Keeping the republic

At Town Meeting, we were not just affirming shared principles, buying a new dump truck and repairing the "horse hearse house." We were practicing keeping the republic

A group of boys get ready for an afternoon of activities at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua (Photo by Paiwei Wei).

Finding common ground for our kids

Americans fundamentally agree on many things. Perhaps first and foremost: all of our kids deserve a shot at achieving the American Dream.

Photo by Cheryl Senter.

Standing with New Americans

Welcoming immigrants and refugees to our shores is fundamental to our national principles, to New Hampshire values and to this Foundation’s mission of building stronger communities