Richard Cleaver has been selected as the director of Corporate,
Foundation and Government Relations at the University of the Virgin
Islands. Filling this new position designed to increase
philanthropic giving to UVI, Cleaver will be responsible for
designing, implementing and managing plans for increasing UVI's
funding from local, regional, and national-based institutional
sources.
"We are delighted to have recruited Mr. Cleaver to join UVI's
Development Office. Building a corporate and foundation program is
one of our key strategies for securing additional philanthropic
support for UVI's academic programs, special initiatives, and
capital projects," said Dionne V. Jackson, vice-president for
Institutional Advancement at UVI. "Mr. Cleaver brings to UVI many
years of experience in this field and intimate knowledge of
potential partners," Jackson continued. "Mr. Cleaver has an
impressive track record of attracting six-figure gifts for higher
education institutions," she added.
"Corporate, Foundation and Government relations is a specialty in
the general fundraising area," Cleaver said. "Instead of working
with individual donors and gifts we work with both private
foundations - like the Ford, Andrew Mellon, or Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation - and with corporations' philanthropic giving arms
to find the opportunities for grants and get those grants."
Cleaver has previous relationships with the Andrew Mellon and
Teagle Foundations, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He
said that much of his job will entail "matchmaking" - matching
foundations' and corporations' missions with those of UVI and its
programs. Cleaver's goals include establishing the new office,
creating and cultivating a portfolio of private institutional
funders, developing a pipeline of gifts and annually meeting
ambitious bottom-line oriented targets.
"I am honored that UVI invited me to work here," Cleaver
said.
Cleaver joins UVI from Grinnell College, a top-ranked, highly
selective liberal arts college in Iowa where, for 12 years, he was
a writer in the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government
Relations. Prior to his position at Grinnell College, he worked as
a technical writer, translator and instructor in Japan. He has also
taught English composition in China.
Cleaver holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Music from
Grinnell College, and a Master of Arts in Advanced Japanese Studies
from the University of Sheffield in England. His appointment at UVI
began on Nov. 19. Cleaver may be contacted at (340) 693-1040 or
richard.cleaver@live.uvi.edu.
UVI Internet