Michael J. Barvick manages a growing “planned giving” program that allows donors to support The Heritage Foundation through means such as bequests, charitable trusts and gifts of estate. As director of Heritage’s Legacy Society, Barvick also contributes strategies to improve our member relations and introduce the think tank to prospective donors.

As of summer 2010, Barvick was responsible for more than 1,000 Legacy Society members. With the recent growth in general Heritage membership, he looks forward to helping the Legacy Society increase its role in overall fundraising efforts.

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 Barvick’s 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. After graduation, he and a brother briefly ran a tennis clinic for a preparatory school in the Washington area. He continues to enjoy 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 four daughters -- Edith, Franny, Irene and Louise.