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 the 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 693-1040 or [email protected].