Featured photo: Isaiah M. Oliver/Photo provided by Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF)
Written by Tanya Terry
Isaiah M. Oliver, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF), has announced he will be moving to Jacksonville, Florida after serving in his leadership role with CFGF since 2017.
Oliver has accepted a position as president of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and recently talked to the Courier.
Oliver, who was born in Flint and is a graduate of Flint Northwestern High School, said when he went away to college to Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant is when he really started to appreciate his hometown.
“As I stepped away, I started to engage with folks outside of this community who had a perspective on it and had a perspective on me because I was from this area,” said Oliver. “ I was able to see some of the good things, and quite frankly, I had blinders on. I was able to see some of the things that weren’t so pleasant, that weren’t so beautiful, as opportunities and challenges that existed in the community that I loved.”
Oliver said what he will miss most about serving in his role at CFGF is the people.
“The work that we do is important work, but for me it’s work that is personal,” he added. “I’m doing the work in my hometown, the place I was born and raised, the place where all my kids were born and raised, the place where my wife was born and raised. So, I think the things I’ll miss the most, at least in the immediate future, is the proximity that I have personally and professionally to the work that we do.”
According to a CFGF press release, over the past six years, Oliver has led the development of a five-year strategic plan, asset growth, staff expansion and a vision that centers equity in all of the foundation’s work. Assets under management grew under Oliver’s leadership, from $254 million in 2017 to $283 million at the end of 2022, the press release also says.
“We’re working inside the Community Foundation in an underserved community. So, I think, when we think about the work we need to do, I think we’ve agreed as an organization that charity isn’t enough to fix all the problems.”
Oliver stated it is necessary to sometimes engage with folks that we typically would not in order to really achieve positive impact for the folks who really need it the most.
The thing Oliver said he loves the most and appreciates the most about the way he has been able to engage in his work at CFGF is that work is not done alone.
“It’s the faith sector, or the health sector or the business making and developing sector or the philanthropic sector or the political sector really stepping into the work together to solve the problems together.”
According to the CFGF website, locally Oliver serves on the Huntington Bank Regional Advisory Committee, Uptown Redevelopment Corporation board of directors, Flint Promise Authority board of directors, Flint and Genesee Literacy Network Steering Committee, The Flint and Genesee Group Regional Leadership Council and is chair of the Covid-19 Taskforce on Racial Inequities. He also serves as advisor, chair, trustee and fellow for a variety of other groups, councils, committees and institutions.
He previously served as president of the Flint Community Schools Board of Education, on the Hurley Medical Center Board of Managers as well as the Flint Cultural Center Corporation and McLaren Home-care board of directors.
Under Oliver’s leadership, the development and operationalization of Educare Flint, a premiere early childhood education center that serves 220 children, was completed.
Oliver said since he agrees with the strategic framework already laid out by The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, Oliver’s goal is to learn the Jacksonville community well, as he knows Flint. Oliver pointed out he will enter his new role with the ability to navigate philanthropy.
Oliver and his family will continue to maintain the Isaiah and Shay Oliver Community Leadership Fund at CFGF and will continue to fund operational supports for the Community Foundation to continue to do the work it does in the Flint community. Oliver will continue to visit family and friends in Flint after his departure.
“If I love two things, I love Flint and I love philanthropy”
Mark Piper, chair of the CFGF Board of Trustees, and the CFGF Executive Committee will lead a search committee to identify the foundation’s new president and CEO.
