Larry Ottinger

Mr. Ottinger is former president of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI). Founded in 1998, CLPI promotes, supports, and protects nonprofit advocacy and lobbying in order to advance democracy and the missions of charitable organizations. CLPI is the only national nonprofit group that focuses exclusively on strengthening 501(c)(3) nonprofits by helping them to understand and engage in public policy.

Prior to CLPI, Mr. Ottinger served for four years as a Director of Policy and Leadership Development at the Fannie Mae Foundation, the nation’ s largest foundation devoted to affordable housing. Mr. Ottinger oversaw policy and leadership programs to promote innovative, affordable housing and asset-building initiatives for working families at the state and local levels of government.

Prior to joining the Fannie Mae Foundation, Mr. Ottinger spent ten years as a
constitutional and civil rights lawyers with the national non-profit organization People For the American Way, conducting impact litigation and public education on voting rights, election reform, and First Amendment issues. Prior to that, he worked at a small civil rights law firm, Bernabei & Katz, representing plaintiffs in employment discrimination and whistleblower cases affecting the public interest.

Mr. Ottinger has served for several years as chair of the Ottinger Foundation, which seeks to promote economic security for working families and civic participation by minority and low-income communities. He also has served on the board of national and state non-profit policy organizations, and is a member of the 2007 class of Leadership Maryland.

Mr. Ottinger graduated in 1988 from Stanford Law School, where he was an associate editor of the Stanford Law Review and served on the steering committee of the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. In 1983, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley with a high distinction in general scholarship and highest honors in the social sciences.