Jonathan Lever
Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President
Meet Jonathan
I work with our CEO to support the Institute’s board; am chief program strategist; and am responsible for leading a high-performing staff.
At a time in my life when our world feels increasingly polarized, fragile, and dark, I am energized by an organization whose founder, John Fetzer, believed, ‘Love is the core energy that rules everything . . . love is the one ingredient that holds us all together.’”
I've spent much of my career in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. For more than 15 years, I was a senior leader of YMCA of the USA, where I led national innovation efforts. Our efforts to scale evidence-based youth development programs and integrating YMCA health programs into the healthcare system were featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Health Affairs, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and CNN.
Prior to Y-USA, I was CEO of the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida; an attorney advising nonprofits and foundations on tax and governance matters; a research associate at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University; and a program associate at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. I have a law degree from Northeastern University, a master’s degree in education from Harvard, and a bachelor’s degree in religion from the College of William and Mary. I was also a Jane Addams Fellow in Philanthropy at Indiana University. My wife Laura and I have three children, two in college and one in high school.