Placed Leaders

Butch Trusty

Board Member

National AIDS Memorial

We partnered with National AIDS Memorial to conduct a nationwide search that resulted in the appointment of Butch Trusty as a Board Member.

Trusty is a Partner in The Bridgespan Group’s New York office. Since joining the organization in 2008, and rejoining in 2018, Trusty has led client engagements with a range of nonprofit and foundation clients, particularly those focused on educational equity, economic mobility, advocacy, and place-based change. Past clients have included, among others, local and national multi-donor funds investing in academic acceleration, mental health supports, talent pipelines, and new school creation in urban school districts, a national school-based youth development organization updating its strategy and operating model to support accelerated scaling, a national career-connected education model deepening its impact in local communities, the local chapter of a national civil rights organization seeking to develop a citywide strategy to improve economic mobility of Black, residents, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization developing a five-year plan to scale its capabilities to fight discrimination, and an emerging organization convening leaders to advance policies and practices to increase Black wealth.

Trusty is also a coach in Bridgespan’s Leading for Impact® program, supporting the capacity-building efforts of nonprofit executive teams.

Prior, Trusty was Managing Partner at Education Cities, a national network of local education venture philanthropy organizations. There, he oversaw all of the activities to accelerate the impact of the network’s members, including providing strategic advising services to local leaders to develop citywide high-quality schools plans and developing a national human capital investment community of practice.

Trusty also previously served as the Education Program Director at The Joyce Foundation, investing $10 million per year to improve the quality of teachers and charter schools in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and nationally.

Prior to Bridgespan, he held positions at the Alliance for Excellent Education, as an Education Pioneers Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and at Edison Schools (now EdisonLearning). 

Trusty serves on the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and is Chair of its Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Issues and is a member of the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Board. He is also Board Chair of the Equality Illinois Institute.

Trusty holds a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University. He earned his MBA and MPP degrees from Duke University.