Donor Spotlight

Our monthly feature celebrating the people who make our community special.

For more than five decades, Rick Greene has helped people find new beginnings. From welcoming Vietnamese refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War to supporting newcomers through JFS Silicon Valley today, he has always believed that patience, compassion, and practical help can open the door to a better future.

Professionally, he is a Registered Investment Advisor, helping clients with estate planning and portfolio management. At JFS Silicon Valley, he shares both his time and expertise, volunteering with newcomer families while also helping strengthen the organization's long-term donor programs.

Q: What life experiences have shaped your desire to be there for others?

A: My first volunteer work with vulnerable folks was in the summer of 1975 at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. U.S. forces had just left Vietnam, and the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees, mostly Vietnamese, were housed at several military bases across the country.

I was a college kid volunteering with the refugee resettlement program run by HIAS. I mostly worked the phones, screening potential sponsor families. That group included heroic, generous Americans, as well as folks interested in personal gratification. I also helped with outbound logistics. I spoke decent French, so I sometimes worked with Vietnamese refugees who had been educated under French influence.

Our clients were overwhelmed and often scared, so sometimes getting to a "yes" required patience.

In the evenings, I volunteered teaching a 16-course program from the San Diego Department of Education called Practical Living in the USA. Respect for teachers is strong in Southeast Asia, and the participants were engaged and forgiving of my frequent gaffes.

That experience stayed with me. I've continued looking for opportunities to help vulnerable people ever since.

Q: What first inspired you to become connected to JFS Silicon Valley?

A: As I saw the pain and displacement affecting refugees from Central Asia, I learned more about JFS Silicon Valley work helping families and individuals settle in our community. I saw they needed volunteers outside the traditional workday.

Since then, I've spent evenings and weekends delivering food, meeting flights at San Jose Mineta International Airport, driving clients to their new homes, and helping load trucks with furniture that Marlene Somsak somehow always managed to find. Marlene's intelligence and work ethic were phenomenal.

Professionally, I help clients with estate planning and portfolio management, and I'm happy to use that experience to help JFS strengthen its long-term donor programs.

Q: What is it about JFS’s work that feels most meaningful to you?

A: JFS deals with the range of human needs that the client has. We deal with physical and the emotional needs of our community. We gather food and deliver it.  We find decent housing. We teach ESL.  We teach skills that help them be independent and confident from managing the bus system to logging on to essential websites.  

For folks who don’t have transportation, we get them safely to medical appointments.  We comfort feelings of isolation among older adults. I think JFS covers a lot of Maslow’s Hierarchy. 

We don’t avoid messy situations and always try to show love.

Q: When you think about the impact of your giving, what do you hope it makes possible for the people JFS serves?

A: Have enough to eat. Live with basic dignity and without fear. Watch their kids play outside, ride bicycles, and make friends. Gain stability to find meaningful work and build a future with dignity and confidence.

Q: Why is giving back to the community important to you?

A: It’s what separates humans from other species.  We have to notice and protect each other. Poverty is obscene.

Q: Just for fun: What are some facts people might be surprised to learn...what do you enjoy outside of volunteering and work?

A: Recently, I binged an entire West Wing rerun. I also force myself to read corporate earnings reports. When I want to relax, I cook. I like recipes with ingredients I basically understand. The immediate gratification of a good meal is comforting.