Michael Fleming
Executive Director
Photo: Patricia Williams, 2009
Michael Fleming has been the Executive Director of the Los Angeles-based David Bohnett Foundation www.bohnettfoundation.org since 2000, and also serves as Mr. Bohnett’s political director. He works hand-in-hand with Mr. Bohnett to promote the Foundation’s goal of improving society through social justice and civic activism. Fleming translates mission and methodology into qualitative and quantitative goals for funding forward-thinking programs, organizations and institutions in areas including public policy, education, the LGBT community, the arts, gun violence and animal language research.
Fleming brings more than fifteen years of experience in the non-profit and media realms to his efforts, which benefit from his strengths in communications, strategic planning and cause-oriented advocacy. His background includes media management in both the non-profit and government arenas and almost a decade in major market broadcasting in Washington, DC and Boston, MA.
Since 1999, the David Bohnett Foundation has granted more than 35 million dollars to organizations that share its mission and vision. Under Fleming’s leadership, the Foundation has been lauded by both fellow funders and grantees as a model of contemporary philanthropy for its skill in combining integrity and efficiency. It was among the first national foundations to require on-line grant applications, an innovation that reduces waste and duplication while increasing communications between the Foundation and grant seekers. It also enables the timely processing of grants, and the Foundation’s website has been singled out as a model of transparency for its richness in content and ease of use.
In December of 2010, Mr. Fleming was named by President Barack Obama to the newly created White House Council for Community Solutions. This new Presidential Council enlists a wide array of leaders from businesses, non-profit and philanthropic organizations, universities, and community groups to encourage the growth and maximize the impact of innovative, community-developed solutions to address some of our nation’s most serious challenges. The 30 member Council is chaired by Patty Stonesifer, the former head of the Gates Foundation and now head of the Smithsonian Board. Members and also includes Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and Jon Bon Jovi, musician and Board Chairman, Bon Jovi & Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.
The Council will serve three key functions: Enlist leaders in the non-profit, philanthropic and private sectors to make progress on key national policy goals; provide strategic input and recommendations to help the federal government promote greater innovation and cross-sector collaboration to realize solutions to our nation’s toughest challenges; honor and highlight those making a significant impact in their own communities, and the Council will focus on developing ways to enlist more Americans and leaders across sectors to help catalyze change in communities and have an impact in addressing our nation’s important goals in education, youth development and employment.
Mr. Fleming is particularly focused on the leadership development graduate programs the Foundation has helped to launch and fund at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, where he also sits on the Dean’s Council and contributes to the strategic planning process. The leadership development programs were devised to give up-and-coming public servants the chance to engage with senior level policy makers—opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. Participants in the NYU, UM and UCLA programs work directly with deputy mayors and develop real-world studies and white papers on pressing urban issues, providing a valuable brain trust to conduct much-needed research for cash-starved cities.
Fleming was also instrumental in the design and implementation of the David Bohnett CyberCenters, a program that began in Los Angeles in 1999 and now numbers sixty locations nationwide. The centers offer free Internet access and technology support to the LGBT community and provide educational opportunities for seniors and youth.
Immediately prior to joining the David Bohnett Foundation, Fleming was Media Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. During his tenure, Fleming’s strategic marshalling of the media in support of the organization, its cases and clients focused on issues including equal access to quality public education, racial profiling and accountability within the Los Angeles Police Department.
Fleming began his career as an Associate Producer for PBS’s flagship station, Boston’s WGBH-TV, managing the nightly Ten O’clock News. He served in the same position for the Monitor Channel’s One Norway Street, an hour of daily live television spotlighting local Boston news and public affairs. That tenure was followed by Fleming’s first foray to the west coast, where he was Associate Director for the L.A.-based Hollywood Supports, a non-profit organization that created groundbreaking seminars related to sexual orientation and AIDS in the workplace for entertainment and media companies nationwide. A return to broadcasting took Fleming to Washington, DC, where he was Producer for WTTG-TV’s two-hour daily live broadcast of the Fox Morning News. The three-year experience offered an immersion in politics that helps inform his work for the Foundation today.
Fleming remains active in broadcasting as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Santa Monica-based KCRW Foundation, one of the country’s—and the Web’s—most listened-to NPR stations. Fleming is passionate about promoting and expanding KCRW’s cutting-edge programming, its influence on local and global issues and its technological capacity.
Fleming’s community involvement includes an appointment by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Convention Center. He is committed to helping the LEED®-certified Center realize its potential to serve as a major economic driver for the city and a vehicle for the revitalization—and “greening”—of downtown L.A. Fleming previously served as the President of the City’s East Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, another mayoral appointment. He has lectured at UCLA since 2003 on non-profit management and organizational development in the LGBT community.
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Michael Fleming currently resides in Los Angeles and is married to Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin. Fleming holds a B.A. from The Colorado College, and was a Victory Fellow (now Bohnett Fellow) at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
