On an early September evening at the Kid Museum in Bethesda, Bob Buchanan mingles at a reception with members of the county council and school board, along with fellow business leaders, including a potential museum donor he invited. It’s just the kind of mix of public and private interests that the real estate developer likes to see come together for a good cause.
Buchanan, 81, talks up the nonprofit, noting how it’s an asset to the region, providing hands-on learning opportunities that can spark children’s curiosity and enhance their education. For nearly a decade, he has been an enthusiastic supporter of the museum, offering advice and financial contributions that enabled it to grow, tripling in size with a move to a space near the Bethesda Metro station.
Buchanan, who lives in Potomac, is known as a connector, helping nonprofit leaders who work in education, the arts and the environment expand their networks and impact. He has applied the strategic thinking and planning skills he honed as a successful developer to a variety of organizations and initiatives to promote the Washington, D.C., area. He was the first chair of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) and started the 2030 Group, an association of business leaders that coalesces around regional economic issues.
Bob Buchanan
Age: 81
Lives in: Potomac
Education: B.A., Yale University
Family: Wife, Sharon; daughters Shannon Stephens, 57 (Lexington, Kentucky); Kirsten Quigley, 55 (Potomac); and son, Ryan Buchanan, 49 (Portland, Oregon); nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren
Occupation: Founder of Buchanan Partners, a real estate development and investment firm based in Bethesda
Philanthropy highlights: Founder, 2030 Group (2009); chair, Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (2015-2019); member, Montgomery Moving Forward Leadership Group (2012-present); board chair, VisArts (2008-2013); adviser, Kid Museum (2014-present)
“He really has such a strong vision for what this community needs in terms of economic development from a holistic perspective,” says Cara Lesser, Kid Museum’s founder and executive director. “He has been a mentor in not only making introductions but in how to develop relationships to move things forward—to build on how we can come together in this trusted, collaborative space … to make a difference.”
For giving his time, inspiring others to serve, and donating generously to many charitable causes, the Community Foundation of Montgomery County has named Buchanan the 2024 Philanthropist of the Year.
Buchanan grew up watching his parents—his dad a home builder and his mom a homemaker—doing what they could to make the community better.
In the 1950s, his father was active in supporting the integration of Montgomery County boys baseball. For Buchanan, who lived in Kensington’s Rock Creek Hills, playing with kids in the nearby historically Black neighborhood of Ken-Gar made an impression. “People really learned to respect and appreciate the community getting together,” Buchanan says. “That was the beginning of my awareness of the entire community.”
A 1960 graduate of the Landon School in Bethesda, he was president of the student council during his senior year. He studied history and political science at Yale University, graduating in 1964, and then enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He served for six years, including an assignment in Japan during the Vietnam War as the communications officer in charge of teams conducting special operation teams throughout Southeast Asia.
“The military was good at training you to do the unexpected,” Buchanan says. He and his wife, Sharon, who married in 1965, first settled in Rockville.
Buchanan initially didn’t want to join his father’s home-building business, but says his mother told him he was needed. He came back from Japan to Montgomery County and worked with the family businesses, eventually carving out a niche in commercial real estate and mixed-use development, spinning off his own company, Buchanan Partners.
In 1984, the Buchanans moved to Potomac and Bob regularly drove to Northern Virginia, where many of his public-private partnership construction projects were located. Working with people from various jurisdictions positioned him well to build relationships that bridged sectors and geography.
A high point of Buchanan’s work was helping market the D.C. region to Amazon when it was deciding where to locate its new headquarters in 2018. His 2030 Group prepared reports and made presentations detailing why the region was desirable, highlighting the educational institutions and transportation infrastructure.
“[Amazon leadership] recognized the region had all the ingredients,” Buchanan says of the company’s selection of Arlington, Virginia, for its second headquarters, HQ2. “We can’t miss opportunities because we think our part of the region is better than the rest. It’s all got to be one,” Buchanan says, noting that new business anywhere in the area is beneficial to all.
About 40 business leaders volunteered with Buchanan’s 2030 Group. One of them, Craig Ruppert, is the founder and executive chairman of the Ruppert Companies in Laytonsville.
He says the group fostered communication with elected officials and a new level of cooperation that had a significant impact on laws, zoning, taxes and better planning. “Bob had the vision and the talent to articulate the vision,” Ruppert says.
Friends say a hallmark of Buchanan’s leadership is his ability to listen. He can get diverse parties around a table, draw out different perspectives, and motivate people to act.
“Bob has a unique ability to bring people together with different perspectives and agree on a common agenda,” says Sharon Friedman, co-founder and consultant with Montgomery Moving Forward (MMF), a cross-sector collective impact initiative that Buchanan has been involved with for more than a decade, championing efforts to address workforce development, early care and education.
If Buchanan’s not familiar with an issue, he does his research—as was the case when MMF was considering action on child care policy and he solicited input from parents, educators and politicians. With his own children grown, Buchanan admits he was far removed and needed help understanding the problem.
“It took him a nanosecond, once introduced to the data … to realize how important [supporting child care] was to the business community to get engaged,” says Kevin Beverly of Bethesda, who worked alongside Buchanan at MMF and later became chair of the MCEDC. Not only did Buchanan take steps to elevate the issue in Montgomery County, he advocated for it in the region, Beverly adds.
Terry Forde, former president and chief executive officer of Adventist HealthCare, worked with Buchanan at MCEDC and the Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, where Buchanan’s a member of the board and has been a major donor—most recently to help fund the hospital’s new tower. “He knows a lot about what makes an area thrive to meet the needs of a growing community,” Forde says. “He’s got a curious personality. … He’s willing to ask direct, hard questions. He’s knowledgeable and he cares.”
Now retired, Buchanan says he makes an excuse to pop into his company’s downtown Bethesda office a couple of times a week to weigh in on projects. His community involvement continues, too. He says he financially supports several organizations (37 entities in 2023, including about a dozen donations between $5,000 and $50,000) and offers his business advice to nonprofit executives.
Buchanan and his wife share a love of the arts: Sharon had an art consulting business for years. In Rockville, Buchanan was board chair of VisArts from 2008 to 2013 and was instrumental in helping the nonprofit organization raise $3 million to build out its 3-story, 25,000-square-foot facility in Rockville Town Square about 20 years ago, says Alice Nappy, who leaned on him as a mentor when she became executive director in 2010.
“He was my person I could go to on strategic vision things. He was the person I could ask for money. He opened doors to us to other people who might support VisArts,” Nappy says. “As a person, as a leader in the region … as a businessperson, a philanthropist, and just as a human being, he is above and beyond.”
Nappy says she learned from Buchanan’s methodical style how to tackle short-, medium- and long-term goals. “He helped me in my approach to running an organization. I did not have a background in running an organization, and he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” she says.
At Identity, a nonprofit serving Latino and other historically underserved youths in Montgomery County, Buchanan connected the organization with employers and provided advice in a direct, but respectful, way that enabled staff to expand its workforce development program from serving about 225 clients two years ago to more than 500 today, says Hope Gleicher, Identity’s chief strategy officer. “He encouraged us to think less incrementally and more boldly about what is needed to grow and sink roots in the workforce development space,” Gleicher says.
For several years, the Buchanans have been engaged supporters of Nature Forward and its GreenKids program, which brings environmental lessons and programming into public schools. The couple has gone into second grade classrooms to serve produce grown by students at “salad science” parties—never identifying themselves as donors, just showing up to volunteer, says Alison Pearce, Nature Forward’s deputy director for programs.
At his alma mater, the Landon School, Buchanan is always willing to give his time and resources, says Peter Gallo, director of development. He set up the Buchanan Family Scholarship to cover tuition for students with financial needs, served on the board of trustees twice, has been involved in capital campaigns, and led a financial sustainability project at the school. In recognition of his service and impact, Landon honored him with two alumni awards.
“Bob, above all else, is very kind and caring,” Gallo says. “He takes the time to get to know people. He speaks from his heart, so when he’s seeking your help, the relationship is already so authentic.”
When Buchanan learned that in 2019 the Scotland African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church in Potomac suffered flooding connected to stormwater management issues from improvements along Seven Locks Road, he wanted to do what he could to help. The 100-year-old church was hand built by members of a community established by formerly enslaved African Americans, and hopes to reopen its doors by New Year’s Eve.
“I went to the business leaders in the region and said, ‘Hey, this isn’t something we normally do, but this is something that is part of our community. We need to be a part of fixing it,’ ” Buchanan says. “We shouldn’t look the other way.”
Buchanan donated personally and helped raise about $1 million of the $11 million needed to restore and expand the historic church, according to Gaithersburg’s Bernard Scott, 74, who has been a member of the church for 56 years.
Scott says Buchanan’s contribution is significant.
“To have someone like Bob take the initiative, and not only be a giver himself, but [bring in] his friends … certainly contributes to us saving the legacy of the community,” Scott says. “The history of the people will not be forgotten because of people like Bob and the efforts that they are making. … It means a lot.”
In 2000, the Buchanans set up a family foundation, leaving it to their children and grandchildren to decide how to distribute about $250,000 each year to organizations big and small.
“We felt that our life has been blessed,” Sharon Buchanan says. “And we would love to think that other people could have that happen in their lives.”
On Thanksgiving weekend, the family huddles for a meeting to discuss the handful of places they plan to give money. Beyond writing a check, family members often volunteer with the organizations and share their experiences. For instance, Buchanan’s grandkids have chosen to fund Bikes for the World and have organized bike collections, and they donated to the Coral Restoration Foundation and worked on coral reef projects in the Florida Keys.
“It has been empowering at a young age for [the grandkids] to have a voice and a choice,” says his daughter Kirsten Quigley, 55. “It was a great way to feel agency about a place that was important to them.”
Moving forward, Kirsten’s 25-year-old son, Jack Quigley, says he wants the foundation to continue its mission of funding worthy causes while maintaining personal connections with the work. “The main message [from my grandfather] that’s been instilled to my cousins and [me] is, ‘Yes, we’re giving money, but we can always give our time,’ ” Jack says. “And that, at the end of the day, will impact more change down the road.”
Caralee Adams is a freelance writer based in Bethesda. Highlighting the generosity of community members for this award is among her favorite assignments. This is her sixth Philanthropist of the Year profile.
This story appears in the November/December 2024 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
