Manager of Corporate Contributions for Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas
With a background of more than 20 years experience in organized philanthropy, Richard Turner is currently the Manager of Corporate Contributions for Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas. Previously he has been with The Chicago Community Trust as Director of Development and Communications and The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust as Director and Senior Program Officer. He has also served as Executive Director for Funders Concerned About AIDS, a New York based national organization working to mobilize philanthropic leadership and resources for HIV/AIDS services, research and advocacy. He was a founding member of the Funders Concerned About AIDS and served as national president before becoming Executive Director. He has also been with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Company Manager and Associate Director of Public Relations and with WTTW/Channel 11 as Director of Information Services and Advertising. He is a past vice chair of the Donors Forum of Chicago, past national president of Communications Network in Philanthropy, and a former vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois. He is a board member and the immediate past chairman of the board of the Chicago Academy for the Arts. He also currently serves on the board of Season of Concern. Turner is also a former president of the board of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and a former member of the national board of the Human Rights Campaign and a former member of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt national board of directors. In 1990 he received the Chicago House Founders Award and that same year was named Gay Chicago Magazine’s “Man of the Year.” In 1991 he was selected for the inaugural class of inductees into the City of Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. In 1998 he received the Chicago Chapter NAMES Project “Individual of the Year Award.” In 2004 he received the Association of Fundraising Professionals Professional Grantor Award and the Chicago House Coming Home Award.
He is a graduate of NorthwesternUniversityand has a master’s degree from Arizona State University.