Butch Trusty

Butch Trusty is a partner in The Bridgespan Group’s New York office and co-leads the firm’s education area of expertise. Since joining the organization in 2008 and rejoining in 2018, Butch 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. His clients have included local and national multi-donor funds investing in academic acceleration, mental health supports, talent pipelines, and new school creation in urban school districts. His national nonprofit clients have included a school-based youth development organization updating its strategy and operating model to support accelerated scaling, a career-connected education model deepening its impact in local communities, and an LGBTQ advocacy organization developing a five-year plan to scale its capabilities to fight discrimination. In addition, he has worked with the local chapter of a national civil rights organization seeking to develop a citywide strategy to improve economic mobility of Black residents and an emerging organization convening leaders to advance policies and practices to increase Black wealth.

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

Between 2014-2018, Butch was managing partner at Education Cities, a national network of local education venture philanthropy organizations. While there, Butch oversaw all the activities to accelerate the impact of the network’s members, including providing strategic advising services to local leaders to develop citywide high-quality school plans and developing a national human capital investment community of practice. Butch 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, Butch 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).

Butch serves on the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and is chair of its advisory council on LGBTQ+ Issues. He also is a member of the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Board, is board chair of the Equality Illinois Institute and sits on the boards of the National AIDS Memorial and The Equity Lab. Butch holds MBA and MPP degrees from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.