New Community Foundation chief a 'bright star' in philanthropy, proud son of Flint, Mich.

A rising star in the philanthropy world who helped lead Flint, Mich., through a contaminated water crisis will be The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida's next president.

Isaiah Oliver, 42, has been president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint for nine years. In Jacksonville he succeeds Nina Waters, 64, who is retiring after almost 20 years at the helm.

He begins the new job July 31; she departs Sept. 1.

Oliver is viewed as a "proven community leader and a bright star in the field of place-based philanthropy," according to his new employers.

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"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," board chairman Brian J. Davis, a federal court judge, said. "We are happy and excited to welcome him to Northeast Florida as The Community Foundation’s next president."

The Jacksonville foundation serves Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Baker, Clay and Putnam counties through a range of charitable and civic activities, while helping individual donors achieve their philanthropic goals, according to its website. Currently the foundation states it has about $537 million in total assets and distributed about $696 million in grants since its 1964 inception.

The Flint foundation, created in 1988, has about $250 million in assets and has awarded about $140 million in grants.

Waters has been with the staff since 2001 and president since 2005. Under her leadership, the foundation has "established itself as a premier philanthropic anchor institution" with about $1 billion in total gifts, about 660 fund holders and donors and a record $57.7 million in grants distributed in 2022, according to the foundation.

Also during her tenure, the foundation spawned other 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 and Art Ventures.

"I am incredibly grateful to our staff, trustees, and partners who have been essential to our success over the last 22 years," Waters said. “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."

Well-known in the philanthropic world himself, Oliver was familiar with the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and with Waters' work. As a result, he said he will not try to fill her shoes but will build on the foundation's accomplishments during her tenure.

"The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida has an outstanding reputation locally and nationally for donor service and strategic community philanthropy," he said. "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."

Flint native joined philanthropy in 2014, same year as water crisis

Oliver, a Flint native, has been working in and for his community for years but began his professional career in education.

After graduating from Central Michigan University in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in graphic design and art history, he spent 10 years as an associate administrator at Mott Community College in Flint. He was on the Flint School Board for six years, including one as chairman, and is currently chairman of the board at his alma mater.

He also was on the board of managers for Hurley Medical Center in Flint and was chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission.

He joined the Flint Community Foundation in 2014 as vice president of community impact, having been urged to apply by then-President Kathi Horton. She met him when he led a literacy project at Mott and became his mentor. When she retired in 2017, he became president and CEO.

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"I knew very little about philanthropy a decade ago," Oliver said. "I knew what it meant to engage people in giving of their time and talent, but I didn't understand the management of it."

Once Oliver arrived at the foundation, he learned how, through philanthropy, "opportunities converge to move forward innovation," he said.

That was one of many lessons learned during the water crisis, which began in 2014 but its ramifications were still being felt years later.

As a cost-cutting move, the city began temporarily drawing its drinking water from the Flint River and treating it at the city water treatment plant while waiting for a new water pipeline to Lake Huron to be completed. Previously the city used Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. But the state failed to require needed chemicals to be added to the corrosive Flint River water. Lead leached from pipes and fixtures into the drinking water.

The crisis also focused attention on other societal ills that "needed to be addressed at the systemic level," Oliver said.

"We had to pull together," he said. "What we learned was there was not just erosion in the pipes but erosion over time of trust. We didn't have the relationships necessary to address that."

During the crisis, Oliver forged partnerships between the foundation and government and regional funders. In 2020 he established a multi-sector COVID-19 task force focused on addressing racial inequities, which "nearly eradicated the sizeable gap that existed between Black residents and white residents’ health outcomes at the start of the pandemic," according to the Jacksonville foundation.

Resume includes multiple leadership roles; he's also a DJ

While at the Flint foundation, he took on multiple regional and national leadership roles, as vice board chairman of Community Philanthropy on the Council of Michigan Foundations and chairman of its Michigan Community Foundation Committee. Oliver also is a board member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, chairman-elect of the CF Leads national board of directors and member of the Council on Foundations’ Public Policy Advisory Committee.

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He is a fellow of the inaugural class of the Civil Society Fellowship, a partnership of the Anti-Defamation League and The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Oliver's name quickly rose to the top of the applicant pile after Kittleman, a national search firm working with the Jacksonville foundation, recruited him. A search committee of six current and former trustees "recommended him from scores of local, state and national applicants," according to the foundation, and he was unanimously chosen by the current trustees.

He said he found the board "absolutely amazing," particularly the "diversity of perspective that they offer."

The reputation of the Jacksonville foundation and its board, as well as the proximity of Oliver's relatives in Florida and Georgia, proved hard to resist, he said. The Southern climate was a "bonus," he said.

"I'm coming from Michigan," he said. "Shoveling snow is not exactly attractive."

He and his wife Shay, who has a home-based wedding and prom dress design business, have four children: Zaiah, 12, Carrington, 9, Chelyn, 5, and and Isaiah II, 3. The family is looking forward to "getting to know the folks in the community," he said, and Oliver will be hunting places to show his DJ skills.

"I love DJing," he said.

bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Flint's Isaiah Oliver is Jacksonville Community Foundation new leader