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The Livermore Valley Education Foundation has hired its first full-time paid employee as it seeks to raise more money to fund programs and services for local students.
Michelle Dawson has been named the director of development and community engagement for the nonprofit foundation. Dawson previously worked as the director of communications and engagement for the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, where her responsibilities included acting as a liaison to the foundation. Her position was eliminated as part of about $14.8 million in budget reductions and adjustments for the 2026-27 school year and was not included in a subsequent restoration and introduction of more than $2.7 million in programming and staffing.
Foundation officials said in a statement that Dawson worked closely with the foundation during her time at the district, learning about its goals.
“Dawson brings a distinctive blend of community relationships, institutional knowledge and understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing Livermore schools,” officials said.
By raising community awareness, expanding partnerships and finding opportunities to collaborate, “we will make an even greater, long-lasting impact,” Dawson said in the statement.
Both Dawson and foundation board President Dana Rowley declined to disclose Dawson’s annual salary. However, Rowley said the hire marks a “major organizational and philosophical change” for the foundation, which has primarily relied on volunteers to organize and lead its fundraising efforts.
“Our objective is to grow the foundation substantially and in a responsible fashion,” Rowley said. “That’s why we did this, and that’s what my expectation is.”
The foundation was created in 1991 and has since donated more than $5 million to district schools. Most of the grants from the foundation are “fairly small,” Rowley said, with almost all under $20,000. A lot of those grants go toward supporting music programs, including for new instruments, band uniforms, sheet music, stands and risers, according to the foundation website.
In 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation contributed $77,000 to a larger $300,000 fundraising effort to ensure all district students had access to Chromebooks. Since 2020, the foundation has also granted $68,000 toward district math and STEM programs, $55,000 to middle-school athletic programs and $26,000 to library programs, according to its website.
The foundation’s most recent available tax filing, which covers the period from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, shows it granted $137,732 to the district that year. The records show revenue of about $80,000, and the foundation dipped into its reserves to cover the gap. The returns for the 2025-26 tax year were not available, and Rowley declined to disclose how much the foundation raised, though he said it was “substantially more” than $80,000.
Rowley said that if the nonprofit’s fundraising goal was raised, the foundation could give more to programs it currently supports and “consider things that we just can’t even think about now” because it’s too expensive.
Rowley said the all-volunteer foundation board decided to hire a full-time employee because of the financial success other local foundations, including the Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation and Dublin Partnerships in Education, have had with paid staff.
The Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation’s 2024-25 tax year filings, the most recent available, showed about $963,000 in revenue that year and about $776,000 in grants paid. The forms show that the foundation paid its full-time executive director, Andrea Wilson, an annual salary of $85,000 that year.
Dublin Partnerships in Education’s 2024-25 tax year filings show about $1.4 million in revenue, with grant expenditures totaling about the same. The filings did not list any paid employees.
The Livermore school district serves about 12,990 students with an approved 2026-27 budget of about $218 million. The Pleasanton Unified School District serves about 13,000 students with a $223 million budget, and the Dublin Unified School District serves about 12,870 students. Its approved 2026-27 budget shows $210 million in general fund expenditures.
The Livermore district has a lot of needs that the foundation cannot afford to meet, Rowley said. If the foundation had a budget more like Pleasanton’s, that would change, he said.
In the past, the foundation has only hired short-term employees for tasks like tax filings, Rowley said. He acknowledged a short-term financial risk in hiring a full-time employee, but he said there was also a risk in not hiring, as the foundation would stagnate while the district’s needs continue to grow.
Rowley said he expects “substantial” growth within the next two years.
“We view this as an asset, not a liability,” he said.
He also noted the foundation has a healthy reserve, though he declined to share the amount. The foundation’s 2024-25 tax-year filings show an end balance of $200,669.
For more information about the Livermore Valley Education Foundation, visit lvef.org.
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