Kyle Caldwell

Kyle Caldwell is an unabashed champion of Michigan’s philanthropic sector with more than 25 years of government, nonprofit and philanthropic sector experience. Kyle’s leadership experiences have run the full gambit of the Great Lakes State’s philanthropic and nonprofit infrastructure organizations. Prior to his appointment with CMF in 2018, Kyle, a Michigan native, was executive director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University, one of the country’s leading academic centers for philanthropy. Prior to that, 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. Early in his philanthropy journey, Kyle served as an intern, and then later as executive director of the Michigan Community Service Commission in Governor John Engler and Governor Jennifer Granholm administrations. A champion of public-private partnerships, Kyle helped launch and then lead the ConnectMichigan Alliance (CMA) that created a $20 million endowment to support volunteerism that engaged both state government and philanthropy in a one-of-a-kind statewide campaign. CMA merged with the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) and Kyle became its president and CEO. There, he championed the work of nonprofits and foundations to help build a stronger ecosystem for philanthropy.

Throughout his work in government and in foundations, Kyle has helped develop innovative and collaborative strategies and programming that strengthen the work of public and private grantmakers, government and nonprofits in Michigan. Philanthropy is Kyle’s second career after a short tenure as a professional photographer working for a small studio as well as large industrial institutions. While still his passion, Kyle notes that photography skills of observer and showing what others don’t see remain a part of the way he leads. He earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in communication from Western Michigan University (go Broncos) and an associate’s in applied science degree in journalism from Lansing Community College. Kyle and his wife of more than three decades live in the greater Grand Rapids area and have two children and a mob of “grand pets.”