Rachel Smith Alternative

Rachel Alternative is the founder and executive director of the Alternative Foundation, where she leads a hands-on, experience-driven approach to her philanthropy. Her focus spans community redevelopment, food entrepreneurship and youth enrichment opportunities, with a focus on Detroit and the people and pathways shaping its future—particularly young people at critical points in their lives.

Rachel’s approach has been formed by on-the-ground experience in local communities. Her work in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood offered a close view of how investment plays out in the life of a community—what it takes to align resident resources and needs with the neighborhood's vacant land and abandoned buildings. Working with local stakeholders, government officials, and key constituents to create a resident-driven redevelopment plan. It is where her perspective on investment, timing, and long-term commitment took shape.

Through the Alternative Foundation, she has supported a range of place-based efforts, including urban agriculture and food systems initiatives that connect land, access and economic opportunity. Her long-standing support of organizations such as Revision Urban Farm in Boston reflects a broader commitment to food justice, workforce development, and community-led solutions.

Today, Rachel focuses on targeted investments that support organizational programs, long-term sustainability, and create the conditions for meaningful progress. Her work increasingly centers on youth—particularly those navigating the years between early adolescence and early adulthood—reflecting a belief that earlier access to opportunity can shape long-term trajectories in lasting ways.

Earlier in her career, Rachel worked in advertising in New York, where she developed a strong foundation in strategy, project management and outcomes-driven thinking, an experience that continues to inform her approach, even as her work has moved into more complex, long-term systems.

Rachel treats every investment as part of an ongoing process: test, learn, adjust and move forward with greater clarity.  She focuses not only on where to invest but also on how the organizations she supports can work together for greater impact—aligning efforts, strengthening connections and contributing to more meaningful results. Rachel is focused on understanding how communities’ function—and how capital, when applied with intention and proximity, can support the conditions that allow progress to take hold.

Contact Information

Rachel Smith Alternative
Rachel@alternativefoundation.org