Michael J. Barvick managed a newly strengthened Major Gift Planning program that allowed donors to support The Heritage Foundation through major annual gifts and multiple-year pledges as well as bequests, charitable trusts and gifts of estate.

Barvick was promoted to director of major gift planning in June 2012 after two years as director of Heritage’s Legacy Society, where he was responsible for more than 1,700 members who chose to support Heritage through bequests, charitable trusts and gifts of estate. He also contributed strategies to improve member relations and introduce the think tank to prospective donors.

Barvick raised Heritage’s planned giving program to new heights, helping to double the number of new “Legacy members” each year and leading an effort that identified prospective estate gifts.   

Before joining Heritage in 2010, Barvick had been executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Youth Leadership Foundation since 2003. During his tenure, YLF tripled the number of students served and more than quadrupled fundraising to support academic and character-building programs for inner-city youth.

Barvick was credited with attracting high-profile figures to the YLF board, among them commentator Armstrong Williams; the late newspaper columnist Robert Novak; U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer; and Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard A. Leo. During his last year there, the Catalogue for Philanthropy named YLF as one of the top small nonprofits in the nation’s capital.

Barvick received a bachelor’s degree in political philosophy at the University of Dallas. He enjoys competitive tennis, as well as playing the guitar. 

A native of Columbia, S.C., Barvick grew up in Jefferson City, Mo. He and his wife, Abigail, currently reside in Manassas, Va., with their son William and five daughters -- Edith, Franny, Irene, Louise, and Winifred.