mike pratt
President & CEO, Scherman Foundation
Mike Pratt has been the President and CEO of the Scherman Foundation since 2009. He served as Program Officer from 1996 until 2009, and as the Foundation’s Treasurer from 2000 until 2020. He continues to manage its investment portfolio, in addition to overseeing the Foundation’s grantmaking with a particular focus on its Environment and Arts programs. He has also provided leadership in several philanthropic roles outside the Foundation, including Chair and Treasurer of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Chair of the Board of Philanthropy New York, and Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Initiative for Neighborhood Organizing (INCO).
Prior to entering the world of philanthropy through a one-year fellowship at the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1995, he practiced law with the civil division of New York City’s Legal Aid Society for ten years, developing expertise in equitable development, federal housing subsidies, and landlord tenant law. Earlier, he worked for NYPIRG as a community organizer, later becoming Director of the Straphangers Campaign. He currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Neighborhoods First Fund, and the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Pratt Institute.