Mike Shafarenko

Mike Shafarenko is the President and co-founder at The Civic Commons, a Knight Foundation and Fund for Our Economic Future funded civic start-up that combines online and offline tools to serve the growing engagement needs of civic leaders/institutions and the growing desire of citizens to be engaged and empowered on key civic decisions. Prior to the Commons, Mike was the Manager of Finance and Operations for the Fund for Our Economic Future where he oversaw grantmaking and organizational operations and led the development and implementation of EfficientGovNow, a $1 million grant-awarding contest aimed at accelerating government collaboration and efficiency and raising the public's awareness of and engagement with the issue. In 2010, Mike was named Crains' Cleveland Business Forty under 40 and was a StartingBloc Fellow. He serves on the board of the Burning River Foundation and is a partner in Cleveland Social Venture Partners. He lives close to Lake Erie on the westside of Cleveland and plays violin and bass in the band binary yellow.