Ting Barnard | Founder & CEO

For a moment, picture yourself as one of many in a room full of a variety of backgrounds. One person in this crowd is a stoic Providence-bred heart surgeon who’s the reason hundreds are even still breathing today. Another is an ambitious fashion designer from Los Angeles who’s on a mission to birth opportunities for others because they’ve seen what the impact of one person's belief can create. The third is a passionate amateur writer with countless ideas and stories to gift the world based on their life experiences so far. 

You were the one to bring these people here in the first place with the hope that you could get their worlds to intersect for 20 minutes and create magic. Five years later they’re all connected to the same team that pioneers a fashion-based non-profit program that provides scholarships for many aspiring creatives that want to take their dreams to the next level. You saw a spark and set this vision into blazing motion. You do this all the time to the point these flames are second nature to you. They are the steam to your soul’s engine. Your name is Ting Barnard and you create these opportunities daily. 

What you do for a living isn’t who you are as a person. A philanthropist is defined as someone who donates time, money, experience, skills, or talent to help create a better world. Ting  Barnard is more than a philanthropist. She is an entrepreneur with a successful family-owned business. She is a multi-award winner who is happier shedding light onto others and their achievements. She is a daughter to a woman she feels is even more inspiring and tenacious than herself. She is a mother and a wife to two people who cherish her contributions to the world as much, if not more, than herself. Overall, Ting is the kind of person who will take the time to genuinely ask a stranger how they’re feeling because she knows a smile or small act of kindness can change the course of anyone’s day. 

Ting shapes her work by the belief that if you put in the effort, walk with good intentions, cultivate your strengths, create opportunities for others, and surround yourself with great people then the world will align for you. Perseverance and adaptability also helped shape her lifestyle today. Her family immigrated to America when she was only 1 year old and at one point, they worked from a van creating jewelry to sell as they drove to activities like piano lessons and soccer practice. This hard-working upbringing has led her to give back in an abundance of ways. 

As a philanthropist, Ting either serves on the board for, contributes to, is a mentor for, and/or somehow supports many organizations. To list a few, she’s currently involved with/has previously worked with Leadership Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra &  Music School, Year Up Rhode Island, SEED and the Lincoln School Parent Association,  STYLEWEEK, the University Club, the Sophia Academy, Children’s Friend, PVD Lady Project,  Amos House, the Ronald McDonald House, and many more. To her, philanthropy is more than just throwing some money at a cause. It’s a lifestyle and her cup of coffee in the morning. The relationships she’s cultivated and the impact created with each endeavor energize her in such an enriching way. Her efforts in giving back to the community continue to strengthen her as a  person and teach her even more about life. All of which are lessons she’s always more than happy to learn. 

Ting has manifested her now “glamorous” life by living true to a quote she cherishes daily: “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the  opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky” – Oprah Winfrey 

Every day she envisioned the life she’s living now and has been preparing for it to be this way.  It’s really what keeps her connec-ting, communica-ting, and collabora-ting. 

A magician never reveals their secrets, but two things Ting can say are part of the secret to her success so far is how powerful the human connection is and how she feels her work is never finished.