The Kenneth Rainin Foundation was elated to announce the appointment of Shelley Trott as its first Executive Director. Shelley assumed her new role in September, building on a 15-year tenure at the Foundation that began with its founding in 2009. As a close partner to Chief Executive Officer Jen Rainin, she has been instrumental to the organization’s evolution and philanthropic impact.
Shelley’s appointment brings continuity along with her bold thinking and collaborative approach. A prime example is her role in the groundbreaking creation and growth of the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST). While serving as Director of Arts Strategy and Ventures, she also championed adding equity as a core value and launched the Rainin Foundation’s journey toward diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. In this new position, she will implement the Foundation’s vision and oversee its effective and values-driven grantmaking and operations. We asked Shelley to reflect on her journey, her aspirations for the Foundation and the influences that have shaped her leadership.
How has your 15-year history at the Foundation informed your thinking for the role of Executive Director?
When I reflect on the past 15 years, I think about how far we have come. I’ve had the opportunity to participate in almost every shift in the Foundation’s evolution. Mine is a journey within a journey, growing in partnership with Jen Rainin and working shoulder-to-shoulder with our staff and grantees. With each new position and grant program, new ideas, queries and strategies emerged. As the field of philanthropy evolved and reckoned with itself, so did we. I carry the knowledge of how we got here as we look to the future. Every role I’ve assumed was new to the Foundation and I’ve helped define each one. As Executive Director, I will hold the traditional responsibilities of overseeing grantmaking and operations, and I will imagine what else is possible to expand and deepen our impact.
What stands out to you about the organizational challenges or opportunities that lie ahead?
We’re in a period of transition and we’re the strongest we’ve ever been. We spent the last four years in dialogue with our grantee communities and living our strategic plan. Our orientation is to continuously improve and interrogate entrenched systems, examining what we are doing and why, and learning from our peers and collaborators. It’s an approach that holds us to account, and that accountability drives our pursuit to be better.
We are mission and values-driven and committed to a more equitable and just world. The election has reshaped our country, revealing both new opportunities and complex challenges ahead. While the future is uncertain, one thing is clear: much of what’s unfolding could threaten our communities and our democracy. We must keep raising our game to meet the moment. Our greatest strength lies in the people who make up our community and the partnerships we’ve built together. By continuing to invest in our collective potential, we’ll ensure we’re equipped to do our very best work.
Collaboration and tenacity are central to your pursuit of bold ideas. Where did those take root?
I credit my parents and my work as a dance artist for my persistence and collaborative approach. My mother was relentless when she believed in a cause. My father was a model of character and integrity and turned every situation into a lesson on the right thing to do. I became an artist to make meaning and purpose out of life. I found that meaning and purpose first in the Bay Area dance community among some of the most brilliant and passionate people I’ve known. Dance studios are fertile spaces where people connect, create and collaborate. The intelligence of the mind, body and collective merge and magic happens. I see philanthropy as a similarly generative space, where our shared visions and values merge to express creative solutions.
Our greatest strength lies in the people who make up our community and the partnerships we’ve built together.
My father is a federal judge, so I also have a strong sense of fairness and justice. I struggle with systems where I sense misalignment and injustice. My orientation is to learn from as many people as possible and understand all angles to make the best decisions possible. And when the path forward is clear, we use every resource at our disposal to succeed. Philanthropy’s responsibility is to take risks others can’t afford. Foundations are exceptionally resourced and privileged institutions; we have remarkable latitude. Our purpose is to serve the public good by providing capital and opportunity for people to act on our most pressing challenges. We take that responsibility seriously and use the privileges of this institution to support progress.
How will your new position re-shape or influence your internal leadership? How will your outward-facing role change?
I don’t imagine doing anything dramatically different than I did in other roles. But now I’m representing the whole organization. I’ll continue to listen to grantees about barriers to progress and work together to transcend them. My dedication to learning, both at the Rainin Foundation and in the broader field of philanthropy, has refined my approach to advancing our mission as a leading philanthropic organization. I’m thrilled about connecting with new voices and innovators shaping our sector’s future. Collaborating with like-minded philanthropy leaders will strengthen our impact and drive greater change.
What are the key moments that shaped the arc of your history here?
An obvious key moment is the first set of conversations I had with Jen in 2008 which resulted in my work with the Foundation. It was rare for a new arts funder to enter the landscape. I recall feeling the excitement and possibility and also wondering what I had gotten myself into. My favorite early conversation was with Linda Howe at The Zellerbach Family Foundation. I expressed concern about being new to philanthropy and she said, “It’s not rocket science, you know what to do.” That conversation was settling and the artist in me kicked in. I understood how to build something new—to reach out for mentorship, to listen, learn, connect with artists and follow my instincts. I stayed grounded in the community and that set the tone for how we operate in our program areas.
I’ll continue to listen to grantees about barriers to progress and work together to transcend them.
Another moment was in 2012, when we helped establish the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. CAST opened a new world of how to be a grantmaker—we learned the different dimensions of strategically supporting communities and addressing root causes. We understood that if we want artists to thrive, we must address the fact that they can’t afford to live or work here. And later moving as an organization into focused diversity, equity and inclusion work was key. At that point, we had done enough work culturally to be able to sit with the reckoning in philanthropy and own it.
The pandemic was a challenging yet affirming time for our work. It reinforced that our strategies were relevant, and even more so under adverse conditions. We had already begun to undo and unlearn the processes funders created as gatekeepers of valuable resources, and we moved faster down that path. New tools like the Common App have allowed our grantees to focus more on their core work and less on an overburdened application process.
As Executive Director, I will partner with Jen, our board and staff, our peers and our communities in a new way. The process of applying for this role put things into perspective for me. It was an opportunity to recognize all that we’ve done together. I feel like we have grown up together. I want to honor the trust and belief placed in me to help steward this organization. I’m grateful to everyone for welcoming me into the role and for the incredible work that we’ve done to get to this point. What drives me is the endless potential to do more and be better. Much of what I only imagined 10 or 15 years ago we’re now doing. The reward of this moment is acknowledging our growth and imagining a new set of possibilities.
