Shannon L. Lawder

Shannon Lawder directs the Mott Foundation’s Civil Society program. Based in their London office, she provides overall guidance for Civil Society grantmaking and supervises staff in London, Johannesburg and Flint.

Lawder joined the Foundation in 1995 as a program officer whose work focused on grantmaking in Russia and Ukraine. She subsequently served as regional director for Central and Eastern Europe until she was promoted to program director in 2008. She also managed a grant portfolio focusing on improving the effectiveness of global philanthropy and nonprofit support organizations. She is a board member of the Global Greengrants Fund and a governing council member of the European Foundation Centre.

Prior to joining Mott, Lawder was international program director at the Olga Havel Foundation in Prague. Born in Canada and educated in the United States, she has lived and worked in Europe for over 25 years. She is a citizen of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition to her native English, she speaks Russian, Czech and German. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Russian studies from the University of California in Santa Cruz.