Trabian Shorters, a social entrepreneur who has led in the start-up of half a dozen capacity-building networks, will become Vice President/Communities Program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, pending approval by the foundation’s trustees.
As vice president of the foundation’s communities program, Shorters will oversee a staff of 18 and direct grant investments in the 26 communities where Knight Foundation operates locally.
Shorters currently serves as US co-director of Ashoka, the world leader in identifying social entrepreneurs whose innovations potentially change societies. Shorters joined Ashoka in 2003 as Senior Venture Entrepreneur. He is a member of Ashoka’s Global Executive Team, and an advisor to the president’s office.
Shorters is the founder of Technology Works for Good (TWFG) and led TWFG to become the largest nonprofit provider of technology consulting and software training to charitable organizations in greater Washington DC. TWFG was featured in Allison Fine’s book, “Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age.” Prior to launching TWFG, Shorters worked with the Rockefeller Technology Project, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Points of Light Foundation, among others. He holds a journalism degree from Michigan State University.
“Trabian personifies the five key elements of transformational grant-making: discovery, vision, courage, know-how, tenacity,” says Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation’s president and CEO. “He has an orderly mind that enjoys the discovery of context, connecting the dots and developing strategy. He has shown the courage to champion tenaciously ideas and people that will make real a vision of what could be. At Ashoka, he showed his capacity not just to manage but to lead.”
“Foundations can change the world, just as Rockefeller and Carnegie did 100 years ago. But it takes their kind of vision and courage to unleash the power of entrepreneurship and social investing upon a system best known for needs-meeting and charity,” says Shorters.
“Trabian is a social entrepreneur who will bring very rare and wonderful talents to the Knight Foundation,” said Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka. “He knows where the entrepreneurial cutting edge is across an array of social issues. He knows how to cause significant change and how to build. He is a magical colleague.”
From 1994 to 1997, Shorters served as director of the National Urban Coalition’s M. Carl Holman Leadership Development Institute. In 1999 Washingtonian Magazine included Shorters in its “100 People to Watch” list. The Smithsonian Institution named him a Computer World Honors Laureate in 2002. In the same year he was named McDonald’s Black History Maker of Today. Shorters is a Social Entrepreneurial Coach to the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship at the NYU Graduate School of Public Service. In 2006, he was a Nominating Board Member of the Fast Company Magazine 2007 Social Capitalist Awards and a judge for Stanford University’s Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition. Shorters is co-founder of the National African American Males Collaboration (NAAMC)
Shorters will replace Mike Maidenberg who will retire at the end of 2007. During 2008, Maidenberg will consult with Knight Foundation on its initiative to meet the information needs of communities in our democracy.
Shorters was born in Pontiac, Michigan to Charlene Ellison. He has a younger brother, Darwin, a younger sister Shonda, and credits his grandparents Rev. Kennis and Irma Hutchons with role-modeling tenacious love and dignity throughout his life.
Shorters will join Knight Foundation in early December. In 2007 Knight’s investments in its communities will total approximately 60% of its total grants budget of $118 million.
About Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.