Francie S. Richards

Francie Schnipke Richards is the Vice President of Social Innovation and The Allstate Foundation.  She came to Allstate with 15 years of social impact experience in public policy, health, education both in government and nonprofit leadership.  Most recently, Francie was the Head of External Affairs for Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third largest school district. She also held the role of Executive Director for the Children First Fund: The CPS Foundation which she transformed from an internal-facing fiscal agent to a public-facing, fundraising partner to CPS.  In these roles, Francie reimagined how the full assets of a city could be leveraged in support of its students. Through extensive public engagement, she established a new model for public education philanthropy and rebuilt the foundation’s governance, staff, brand and operating model in alignment with this new vision. 

Francie also supported the CEO with the composition of the CPS 5-Year Vision: Success Starts Here and brokered partnerships across Chicago’s business, philanthropic, cultural and academic institutions to organize resources in support of the district’s ambitious goals. Previously, Francie was the founding Central U.S. Director of WE Charity, an international organization that empowers youth through service-learning. She established the Chicago Regional Office, led the expansion of operations in five other states and managed several corporate sponsorships. Francie wrote the investment approach for principal talent at the Chicago Public Education Fund after having served on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s education team for his first term. In the administration, Francie supported the implementation of the full school day, progressive advances in collective bargaining, expansion of early childhood education, the introduction Early College STEM schools, computer science as a graduation requirement, building the largest network of IB schools in the country, and Chicago City College's “College to Careers” initiative. She also collaborated across city agencies and state and federal departments on policy and funding appropriations to elevate Chicago’s national and global standing. Francie’s dedication to social equity began in her practice both as a clinical social worker with teen moms and through her time with a member of Congress, the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Her micro and macro experiences led her to being dedicated to Chicago’s students. Through Teach For America her 2nd graders achieved advanced academic growth and her 9th graders achieved the most academic growth in CPS that year.

Francie has a Bachelor's in Social Work from Eastern Michigan University and a Master's in Social and Economic Development from Washington University in St. Louis. She also has an Illinois Teaching Certificate from Dominican University, an Executive Scholar Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Leadership, a certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University and she has been a Leadership Greater Chicago fellow since 2020.  She is a first-generation college graduate and a forever-proud representation of her abuelita’s (grandmother’s) pursuit of the American Dream. Francie is married to Brandon Richards, a Principal Human Factors Engineer at GE Aviation and Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor.