Ciara Shuttleworth, Executive Director of the Polly Klaas Foundation
Our guest speaker for August 6, 2026 was Ciara Shuttleworth, Executive Director of the Polly Klaas Foundation. Ciara joined the Foundation in May 2025. She has spent over 25 years in the nonprofit sector, most recently as the Associate Manager of Donor Engagement for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. She specializes in developing plans that strengthen nonprofit organizations through fund development, community outreach, engagement, and programming.
The Polly Klaas Foundation was established in 1993, shortly after the abduction and murder of Polly Klass. Richard Allen Davis was convicted of Polly’s murder and is on death row, although he still has pending appeals. On the day after Polly’s murder, a telephone hotline was created for tips about the case. That hotline, 800-587-4357, is still in service and being answered by the Foundation. The hotline is active 24/7 and receives calls from parents and law enforcement officials. The heart of the Foundation is finding missing children. Foundation employees and volunteers counsel families on ways to search for their children, offer missing child posters, and send blasts to businesses. Leads are forwarded to law enforcement officials. The Foundation also has a rapid response team of volunteers who print posters and place them throughout the United States, often in high-visibility locations such as bus stations. The Foundation continues to work with parents and law enforcement throughout the search for the missing children. The Foundation has helped over 12,000 families of missing children.
The Foundation also works to keep kids safe and prevent kids from going missing. It provides child safety and internet safety information nationwide. Its programs encourage parents to talk to their children about personal safety. Its free safety booklet has tips for keeping kids safe, capturing their DNA, and getting fingerprinted. 25,000 of these booklets are distributed annually.
The Foundation purchased a theater in Petaluma in 2019. The theater was renovated and now serves as the location for a variety of youth projects, including summer camps, theater shows, after school musical theater, a movie series, and high school internships. Polly was a theater lover and this theater is a way to celebrate her life and love of theater and create a space for engaging youth and the community in her honor. The Foundation considers the theater a way to develop a consistent revenue stream for the Foundation’s operations. Part of Ciara’s job is to integrate the theater operations into the Foundation.
Thank you, Ciara, for the meaningful presentation. Although the Foundation is well known, many of us had little idea of the breadth of its operations and your presentation was extremely helpful.
