Terry Rumsey has been a rabble rouser, ruckus raiser, and risk taker in the Philadelphia region for over 35 years. During those three and a half decades, Terry has worked as a community organizer at the grassroots level, initiated and operated several alternative business ventures, served as the executive director of several dynamic social justice organizations, and more recently made his mark as a successful fundraiser for local and national activist and community service organizations.
Terry was eighteen years old in 1972 when he founded Save The Park (STP), a community-based environmental action group, in his hometown of Chester, PA. The group of long-haired youth gained media recognition for organizing community gardens, park clean ups, and for confronting the notorious Chester political boss, Jack Nacrelli. Later in the 1970's, Terry earned hard-won knowledge as a businessperson while owning and operating a vegetarian restaurant in Media, PA, and a fruit and vegetable business based from an organic farm in central Pennsylvania. He was active in the Keystone Alliance, an anti-nuclear power group, and was arrested for a nonviolent protest action at the nuclear power plant in Limerick, PA.
During the 1980's and 1990's, Terry developed his skills and reputation as a professional community organizer in Chester. He co-founded and served as Executive Director of Project V.O.T.E., a voter empowerment organization serving residents in Chester's low-income neighborhoods, and then as the Executive Director of the Delaware County Jobs With Peace Campaign. It was during this period that Terry led a movement of homeless people and allies in Delaware County that forced a reluctant county government to provide funds for housing, shelter, and homeless service programs. In 1991, Terry played an instrumental role in the electoral campaign that overthrew the century-old Republican political machine in Chester. Later in the decade, after another entrepreneurial adventure as the owner of a coffee house in Swarthmore, Terry came back to activism as the founder of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty.
As the 21st century arrived, Terry shifted his focus to helping social justice and community service organizations raise financial resources. From 1998 to 2001, Terry was the Director of Development for the YWCA of Chester, PA. He helped to raise a million dollars for one of Chester's cornerstone institutions. From 2001 to 2006, Terry held the position of Director of Grants Management for the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, an advocacy organization working for the rights of people with mental illness. In November of 2007, Terry returned to the business world as the owner and President of Green Seeds (www.greenseedsgrants.com), a fund development company working for grassroots and social justice organizations. Through Green Seeds, Terry is fueling the work of several Chester community organizations, a legal defense project for death row inmates in Pennsylvania, and a national organization of exonerated ex-death row prisoners who are speaking out against the death penalty.
Even as Terry builds his own fund development business, he still finds time for social activism.
He is currently serving as the Chairperson of Delaware County Wage Peace & Justice and the Co-Coordinator of the Peace Center of Delaware County. He was arrested in 2006 with Cindy Sheehan and 375 other people who were protesting the Iraq war in front of the White House.
