Robert T. Grimm Jr.

Robert T. Grimm, Jr. became the inaugural Levenson Family Chair in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership and the first director of the Do Good Institute at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland College Park in 2016. He joined Maryland in 2010. 

A co-founder of the Do Good Institute, Grimm works with an incredible team and directs a campus-wide Institute that empowers thousands of students each year to turn their passion into impact. The Institute grew exponentially in outcome and size through transformational philanthropic partnerships. These partnerships included support for nine new faculty endowments, a new building (Thurgood Marshall Hall, opened 2022), a campus grant fund for faculty, staff and students (Do Good Campus Fund, launched 2023), interactive public art that is the first stop on UMD campus tours (Do Good Plaza and Rings, opened 2023-2024) and a student ventures accelerator space (The Do Good Accelerator, opened 2019). Today, the Institute offers an exceptional portfolio of academic and co-curricular experiential programs, partnerships and research that serve as the heart of Maryland’s Do Good Campus and advance social innovation, nonprofit leadership, student leadership and civic engagement.

Institute supported students have expanded mental health access for thousands, saved over 200 million pounds of food from going to waste, enabled thousands of families to avoid hunger, reduced millions of gallons of water pollution, installed 400 free menstrual product dispensers in UMD campus buildings and delivered recycled medications to hundreds of thousands. Given the extraordinary outcomes of its students, Institute alumni include four of UMD’s last five Outstanding Young Alumnus Award winners, Forbes Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs Under 30, a “Shark Tank” TV winner and the recipient of a $500,000 Y Combinator investment. These achievements contributed to Maryland's top ten rankings for student entrepreneurship, reaching #5 in 2023 by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. 

Grimm initiated what became the Institute by teaching UMD’s first courses on philanthropy (2010) and co-creating a campus-wide prize competition, the Do Good Challenge (2012). After a student group won the Challenge by recovering food from campus dining halls, Grimm joined the students and became the founding Chair of the Board of Directors for the Food Recovery Network (FRN). They grew FRN into a national nonprofit (200+ college chapters) and saved 22.9 million pounds of food from going to waste. FRN and Do Good students then launched two successful companies, Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Foods. Grimm also co-designed the School’s first academic programs on nonprofit leadership. US News ranked Maryland as one of the best public affairs schools for nonprofit management for the first time in its history in 2019 and continues to rank it similarly today.

His research publications include a co-authored and edited book on the history of American philanthropists and articles in the Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He also co-authored six research reports through the Institute, including work on declining charitable behaviors that served as an impetus for a national commission of philanthropists and nonprofits (Generosity Commission) and invited testimony at the first hearing of a National Commission on Military, National and Public Service (United States Congress established). 

Grimm served in the United States government as senior counselor to the CEO (2006-2010) and the director of research & policy development (2004-2010) at AmeriCorps. As a senior executive (reporting to the CEO) for a grant-making organization with a $1 billion annual budget, he expanded annual research funding fivefold, developed the first civic data collections conducted by the Census Bureau, and co-authored 16 governmental research reports. Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam characterized his research as a “landmark in civic renewal.” He also co-created the government’s Social Innovation Fund (initial $50 million annual budget).  

The University of Maryland Board of Regents awarded Grimm their Regents Award for Faculty Excellence in Public Service (2021). Similarly, the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Public Affairs and Public Administration (NASPAA) awarded him its inaugural Voinovich Public Innovation Prize (2017) and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy awarded him its Distinguished Alumni Award (2019). 

Grimm earned a PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington.