Clyde B. Jones III To Lead Met Museum Advancement
With a staff of 90 fundraising professionals who oversee a range of development and membership activities, as well as special events, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's development department succeeds in the art of the “ask.” And now that work will be overseen by Clyde B. Jones III, whose knack for raising funds for health science and medical centers has included linking this work with arts and culture initiatives.
On April 28, 2015, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Clyde B. Jones III has been appointed as senior vice president for institutional advancement, a newly created position. He will begin working at the Met in mid-July.
Clyde Jones is currently president of the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, which was created in 2003 to raise philanthropic funds for the university’s Schools of the Health Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He serves concurrently as chief development officer for UPMC and Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Development at the University of Pittsburgh.
His versatility in this work was demonstrated by the wide range of his accomplishments. In addition to establishing the Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, he:
- Bolstered UPMC’s charitable-contributions work, especially its support for arts and cultural organizations.
- Reimagined the Hillman Cancer Center Gala, one of the most anticipated social events of the year that raises millions annually for cancer research and treatment.
- Served as co-anchor of the “UPMC Minute” television commercials as well as narrator of UPMC’s “Medical Mondays” series.
- Established partnerships with all of UPMC’s affiliated hospital foundations.
- Created the Health Discovery Lecture Series as well as the Winter Academy, held in Florida for alumni of Pitt’s health sciences schools.
A Washington, DC native who holds an MBA, Jones said: "It is an honor to have been chosen to lead the development efforts at the Met. There is much to be done in the coming years, and I look forward to working with the extraordinary staff, curators, board members, and donors who are integral to the Museum's success. It will be a particular pleasure to work with the talented people in Development and Membership; they have played such a large part in the Met’s growth over the past 20 years under the leadership of former President Emily Rafferty.”
In his new position at the Met, Jones will lead the Museum’s efforts to deepen and broaden the Museum’s engagement with current and prospective donors locally, nationally, and internationally.
The Museum has an annual operating budget of approximately $300 million, more than half of which is received through fundraising activities.
About Clyde Jones
Considered one of the country’s leading fundraisers for academic medicine, Clyde Jones led the Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, along with the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Institutional Advancement, to the successful completion of the university’s $2 billion “Building Our Future Together” capital campaign. He played a major role in creating partnerships with all of UPMC’s affiliated hospital foundations, in order to coordinate philanthropy across the entire organization. He has also been involved in UPMC’s charitable contributions work and has been a leader in its support for arts and cultural organizations.
Prior to working in Pittsburgh, he was director of development for New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City’s largest hospital, and its academic partner, Cornell University’s Weill Medical College. While there, he was involved in developing capital campaigns that raised more than $2 billion, including completion of a $600 million campaign to construct a major new hospital building and research laboratories for the medical college. Under his leadership the New York-Weill Cornell Development Office raised more than $200 million annually.
Before that, he served as director of annual campaigns and special events for Lenox Hill Hospital, and he served as the New York Civil Liberties Union’s first professional director of development and membership. Jones also held positions at Gilbert Jonas Company and Strub/Dawson, Inc., private consulting firms in New York City, where he implemented fundraising programs for such diverse clients as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s Municipal Art Society, and Governor Ann Richards of Texas.
Jones has been deeply involved in the Pittsburgh community, serving on numerous boards and committees. He is board president of the Pittsburgh Opera and former board president of City Theatre. He is also a member of the August Wilson Center Recovery Committee, and a board member of Magee Women’s Research Institute and Foundation, public television station WQED, Washington and Jefferson College, ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Fiandaca Foundation.
Speaking of the Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched The Artist Project, a new 100-episode online video series, each featuring one contemporary artist discussing a work of art from the museum's collection. The series will be presented in five seasons of 20 episodes each.
The artists include Nick Cave, Mickalene Thomas and Kehinde Wiley.