Rich Barnett leads outreach and special event activities for World Resources Institute. Rich joined WRI in 1996 and since that time has worked on a variety of projects, always at the junction of communications, marketing, and fundraising. He strives to bring a “practical creativity” to everything he works on.

Recent projects include WRI’s annual reports, top ten outcomes maps, 25th Anniversary Celebration in New York (a dinner for 650 guests which raised $2 million), first fundraising event in Los Angeles (a dinner for 70 featuring The Honorable Al Gore which raised $250,000), and development of WRI’s new Global Impact Fund designed to raise revenue for key institutional priorities.

Prior to WRI, Rich worked with the Sheridan Group, a private fundraising consulting firm, and for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a national institute that conducts research on public policy issues of special concern to African Americans. He also covered corporate and foundation giving trends and issues for the Taft Group, a publisher of reference works for the nonprofit arena.

Rich received his J.D. from the University of Georgia and his B.A. from the University of Virginia.