Kyle Caldwell

Kyle Caldwell is the executive director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Caldwell joined the Johnson Center in August 2015. In this leadership role, Caldwell is responsible for the administrative and development functions of the organization while providing vision, passion, and guidance to one of the nation’s largest centers for philanthropy.

Caldwell comes to this role having lead and worked in a wide variety of organizations in government, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

As a champion of the nonprofit sector, Caldwell has been a staunch advocate for nonprofits and foundations to exercise the full expression of their rights and responsibilities. He has also taken on leadership roles in helping develop strategies and programming initiatives that strengthen the philanthropic sector. Most recently, he served as the Director for the Pathways to Opportunity Program at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation where he helped evolve the Foundation’s approach to addressing poverty to focus on education.

Caldwell serves on a number of national boards including Points of Light, Independent Sector, Nonprofit Votes, and the National Council of Nonprofits, which he currently chairs. At the state level, Caldwell serves as a member of the Michigan Community Service Commission. He earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in communication from Western Michigan University. Both WMU and Lansing Community College (where he earned an associate’s degree in photojournalism) have bestowed Caldwell with exemplary alumni awards.

 Personal Statement

I am a proud life-long resident of Michigan and have spent nearly all my life on the “West Side.” My wife, a retired teacher, and I relocated to the Grand Rapids area to join both our children who are currently Lakers studying communication and fine art. In a previous life, I was a professional photographer. This experience helped me to observe human behavior and better understand the power of story.