Mike Pratt to Retire from The Scherman Foundation after 30 Years
Mike Pratt, President and CEO of the Scherman Foundation, announced today that he plans to retire from the Foundation at the end of June 2026, after 30 years of leadership. The Board of Directors has begun preparations for a search for his successor. More information on the search will be announced later this fall.
Mike joined the Foundation in 1996 as a Program Officer, adding the role of Treasurer in 2002. He was appointed President in 2009. Throughout his tenure, Mike moved the Foundation’s grantmaking from the support of direct service organizations to focus on community organizing, movement-building, and systemic change, tapping into his early career as an organizer and civil rights lawyer. Mike was an early champion of general operating support and deep partnership with grantees. While always taking the lead from grassroots groups, the Foundation was particularly involved in strengthening the Environmental Justice movement, both nationally and in New York City, where it provided long-term funding to the struggle to transform the Bronx River and Sheridan corridor, improve mass transit (including Congestion Pricing), pass and implement New York’s ground-breaking Climate Law, and connect community development and climate justice groups.
“Over the past two decades, Mike has guided Scherman’s transition from a primarily family-led foundation to one governed by an independent, majority person-of-color board of directors, led by our first non-family chair,” said Peter Sollins, Board Secretary and great-grandchild of Harry Scherman, who established the Foundation in 1941. He added, “Mike did so with heart, determination, and skill, bringing us into closer partnership with our grantees.” Over the past five years, the Foundation has acknowledged and reflected on its own history and the broader patterns of racial inequity within philanthropy, committing to and articulating a detailed Racial Justice Framework.
The Foundation has also been a tireless funder of the affordable housing movement, notably in the fight for rent regulation reform, community control and ownership, and the Right to Counsel. Embracing the need to push philanthropy to support systemic change and organizing, Mike served the field in several positions, including as chair of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Philanthropy New York, the Initiative for Neighborhood and Citywide Organizing (INCO) and its parent body Change Capital, and the Neighborhoods First Fund. “Leading the Foundation has engaged my whole being—heart and head,” said Mike. “I am so grateful to be working in partnership with such dedicated and courageous people, particularly at this challenging time.”
Under Mike’s leadership as Treasurer, the Foundation dramatically diversified its investment portfolio, enabling it to achieve steady growth. The Foundation has recently codified its commitment to investing its entire endowment for impact, including catalytic investments.
Most recently, the Foundation increased its current payout to 10% from 6% to meet the current political, economic, and cultural moment. “We are deeply grateful for Mike’s leadership and steadfast partnership over his tenure and feel confident in the path that he and the exceptional Foundation team have laid out,” said Marianna Schaffer, Chair of the Board. “We look forward to the next evolution of the Foundation under new leadership grounded in the Foundation’s mission and vision for racial justice.
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The Scherman Foundation invests in the economic, political, and cultural transformation necessary for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to reclaim and build power. Learn more about our vision and current grantmaking priorities.
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