Rye Young

Head, Rye Young Consulting

Rye Young is the Director of the Sprocket Foundation and the head of Rye Young Consulting, LLC. Rye Young Consulting works with individual donors and philanthropic institutions to align their values with their practices and to invest boldly and strategically in social justice movements.

Rye was immersed in social justice philanthropy during his ten years at Third Wave Fund (formerly Third Wave Foundation) where he started as an intern in 2008 and eventually served as its Executive Director from 2014-2018. Under his leadership, Third Wave Fund bounced back from the brink of closure to what it is today: a thriving and sustainable institution that resources and supports feminist, queer, and trans organizations led by young people of color, as well as the only youth-led fund in the U.S.

Rye serves on the boards of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, the Freeman Foundation, and Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE). He got his start in political organizing in New York City with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice where he was a Grace Paley Organizing Fellow and worked to organize employers of domestic workers to help pass and implement the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in New York.

Rye received his B.A. from Bard College with a degree in Arabic Language, Culture, and Literature and attended the Institute of Culinary Education.