As TSFF’s vice president of philanthropic services, Ruben will oversee our donor relations, business development, planned giving, and professional advisor relations, and championing philanthropic giving to make a great impact on the most pressing needs in the Bay Area. Ruben will work closely with our donors and Foundation Program staff to maximize our donors’ philanthropic impact, and with the professional advisor community to facilitate and enhance their clients’ charitable giving. With our philanthropic services team, Ruben will work hand-in-hand with individual and family donors to create charitable legacies that provide effective solutions to complex issues, fulfilling visions of a stronger region, and world.

Prior to joining The San Francisco Foundation, Ruben was vice president for development at the Boston Foundation where he managed and directed their new business development efforts, which include professional advisor relations, new donor cultivation, and planned gifts. During his tenure as VP, the Foundation increased its annual giving 180%, reaching a record annual amount of more than $100 million.

Ruben was the first Executive Director of the Crossroads Community Foundation, and also worked at the Council on Foundations as the Director of Community Foundation Services where he managed all services and programs for community foundation members. Ruben is a graduate from Occidental College in Los Angeles and received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.

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Nick Hodges serves as the Foundation’s Vice President for Philanthropic Services, overseeing business development and donor relations. He works closely with donors and Foundation Program staff to maximize donors’ philanthropic impact. Nick was with the Schwab Charitable Fund for more than 20 years, most recently serving as the chief operating officer where he managed the fundraising team. He serves on the board of the Horizons Foundation and chairs its planned giving committee, and serves on the advisory board of Ashoka’s Youth Venture in the Bay Area. Nick has a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy certification from the American College and is completing his Bachelor’s in Business Economics from the University of San Francisco.

Terezita (Tere) Romo is the Foundation’s Program Officer for Arts and Culture. An independent curator and scholar, she recently served as the arts project coordinator at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC). Previously, she was the arts director at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago and resident curator at The Mexican Museum in San Francisco, where she organized exhibitions and public programs. She was the program manager for the Organizational Support Program at the California Arts Council, where she developed a Traditional Arts Program and participated in the development of the Multi-Cultural Arts Programs. She has served as reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, Alpert Awards, Denver Airport, and Sacramento Public Art Programs. An art historian, she has published essays on Chicana/o art and is the author of Malaquias Montoya (2011), an artist monograph within the UCLA CSRC book series “A Ver: Revisioning Art History.” She was also the lead curator for “Art Along the Hyphen: the Mexican-American Generation,” one of four exhibitions organized within the CSRC’s “LA Xicano,” a collaborative project within the Getty Foundation’s regional initiative called “Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980.” She holds a Master’s degree in art history.