Most people know Todd B. Richter as a Managing Director at Bank of America and a longtime force in healthcare investment banking. Fewer know that his name is also attached to a foster care initiative that has helped bring rescue animals into permanent homes across the New York region.
The Bideawee Todd B. Richter Foster Program is a formal partnership with Bideawee, one of the oldest and most respected animal welfare organizations in the United States. At its core, the program works to expand fostering and adoption rates for rescue animals by connecting them with volunteer caregivers and prospective permanent owners. Richter’s support — both financial and through his role on Bideawee’s board — helped give the program the infrastructure and visibility it needed to grow.
Rescue animals often spend extended periods in shelter environments, which can strain both the animals and the organizations caring for them. Foster programs offer a meaningful alternative: temporary home placements that provide individual attention, socialization, and comfort while adoption matches are pursued. By funding and elevating this model, Richter helped Bideawee develop a more scalable pathway to positive outcomes for animals who might otherwise languish in institutional care.
His board membership at Bideawee was announced in late 2016, alongside fellow new board member Kevin Davis. The appointment reflected not just a financial commitment but a willingness to be actively involved in the governance and direction of an organization whose mission he genuinely believes in. That hands-on engagement mirrors how Richter approaches his educational philanthropy — writing checks matters, but showing up matters more.
The breadth of Richter’s philanthropic footprint is striking when you step back to consider it. On one end of the spectrum, there are $5 million endowments to Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and the College of William & Mary that support graduate fellowships, faculty, and athletics. On the other end, there is a foster program for rescue animals that reflects a more intimate, community-level form of care.
What connects all of it is a philosophy about impact. For Todd B. Richter, meaningful giving isn’t confined to prestige institutions or headline-generating donations. It extends to wherever an investment of time, resources, and attention can genuinely improve lives — human or animal.
His career in healthcare finance gave him the resources to pursue that philosophy at scale. The Bideawee Todd B. Richter Foster Program is one of the clearest expressions of what that scale looks like when directed toward a cause that doesn’t generate financial returns — only better outcomes for animals in need.