The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida announced May 10 it named Isaiah M. Oliver as president, succeeding Nina Waters, who is retiring Sept. 1.
Oliver, now the president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint in Michigan, will take over the position July 31 and work with Waters for about a month before she retires.
“The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida has an outstanding reputation locally and nationally for donor service and strategic community philanthropy,” Oliver said in a news release.
“I’m looking forward to building relationships with donors, grantees, and the community, to better understand how I can build on the strength of the foundation in our next chapter."
Waters announced her plans to retire in September 2022. She joined the foundation in 2001 and has served as president since 2005.
The Community Foundation of Greater Flint, a top 100 community foundation based on total assets, recruited Oliver in 2014 while he was president of the Flint Community Schools Board of Education.
He was promoted to president and CEO of the Flint foundation in 2017 after serving as vice president of community impact for three years.
Oliver led the foundation’s response to the Flint water crisis, elevating the group to the national spotlight and forging successful partnerships with government and regional funders, the release said.
In 2020, he directed the foundation to establish and lead a multisector COVID task force focused on addressing racial inequities. The effort nearly eradicated the gap in health outcomes that existed between Black and white residents at the start of the pandemic, according to the release.
Oliver said in a telephone interview that those two efforts “stand out for me,” because they demonstrated the ability of the agency to look beyond grantmaking to pull together all sectors of the community for solutions.
The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, which began in 1964, serves residents of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
It is the state’s oldest and largest community foundation.
It has a staff of 25 and is one of the top 50 largest community foundations in the U.S. based on total assets, the release said.
The release said that under Waters’ leadership, the foundation has established itself as a premier philanthropic anchor institution, with more than $1 billion in total gifts in its close to 60 years, more than 660 fundholders and donors and a record $57.7 million in grants distributed in 2022.
It has also grown multiple philanthropic initiatives, including the Women’s Giving Alliance, the Beaches Community Fund, the LGBTQ Community Fund for Northeast Florida, the A.L. Lewis Black Opportunity and Impact Fund, Donors Forum, Art Ventures and many others.
“I am incredibly grateful to our staff, trustees, and partners who have been essential to our success over the last 22 years,” Waters said in the release. “We are starting our next chapter in a position of great strength, and I have no doubt Isaiah is the right leader for us at this time.”
A search committee of six current and former community foundation trustees recommended Oliver from nearly 100 local, state and national applicants, the release said.
Kittleman, a national search firm serving nonprofits and philanthropy, assisted the search committee.
Oliver was unanimously chosen by community foundation trustees.
“Throughout this process, Isaiah has impressed us as a dynamic, collaborative leader who has the vision and the skills to advance our mission of stimulating philanthropy to build a better community,” said U.S. District Judge Brian Davis, chair of the foundation’s board of trustees, in the release.
Oliver is a native of Flint. He earned a bachelor of applied arts degree from Central Michigan University, where he serves as chairman of the board of trustees.
He and his wife, Shay, have four children, ages 3 to 12. They have family in Northeast Florida. Oliver’s brother and sister-in-law and their four children live in Jacksonville.