Renee Harvey is in her 20th year with the Browns and currently serves as Vice President and Executive Director of the Cleveland Browns Foundation. Named to the position in 2013, Harvey manages all long-term strategies and day-to-day operations for the Foundation and its commitment to education in Ohio through Browns Give Back and the "Stay in the Game!" Network.
Harvey is a core member of the team's leadership group as the Browns have established a culture where supporting the community is prioritized as a main measurement of success, along with winning consistently and creating an exceptional fan experience. In 2017, Harvey helped develop and launch the team's philanthropic mission of Browns Give Back, the team's community platform that is dedicated to education, youth football and volunteerism, with a focus of sparking meaningful, long-term impact in those three key areas.
Launched in 2019, the Cleveland Browns Foundation, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Education and Proving Ground at Harvard University, created the "Stay in the Game! Keep Learning, Every Day!" Network, a statewide initiative designed to promote the importance of school attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism. The Browns are dedicated to improving the quality of education for students in Ohio by making investments that keep kids in school every day so they can succeed, highlighted by the "Stay in the Game!" Network. The team and its network partners and collaborators deploy attendance-focused campaigns, sharpening school improvement plans, launch attendance strategies and evaluate the impact to better support Ohio's schools and districts through collective impact.
The "Stay in the Game!" Network engages local school districts and promotes quality education by using attendance data and feedback from families to build a school-going culture, uncover and reduce common barriers to attendance and support opportunities for students to thrive. To further advance that effort, Harvey and the Foundation also work with an esteemed advisory board of industry experts, which includes various Ohio government and educational non-profit leaders.
In the 2020-21 school year, the "Stay in the Game!" Network has partnered with 16 school districts, benefitting more than 110,000 students in Ohio. An adaptation of the "Get 2 School, Stay In The Game!" Network, the name officially changed in 2020 to reflect the current environment where schools may not necessarily be able to host in-school learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter the circumstances, the "Stay in the Game!" Network will continue to encourage and support students to maintain a strong educational-going mindset to keep learning, every day, aligned with its overall goal to help end chronic absenteeism and provide all students equal opportunities to be successful. To learn more visit, visit Get2School.org.Â
Last season, the Browns and Browns Foundation also made significant contributions to help address the digital divide with the focus of helping create equal educational opportunities for all students in Cleveland, which is currently cited as the community with the lowest availability of internet connectivity among the country's major cities. Along with other donations, the Browns distributed $350,000 to East Cleveland City Schools to address educational needs related to the digital divide, as well as $60,000 to Maple Heights City Schools, made possible through the team's "Hats Off to Our Heroes" Fund. East Cleveland and Maple Heights are both partners of the "Stay in the Game!" Network.
Harvey also played a pivotal role in 2013 during the execution of an eight-month evaluation and transformation of the Cleveland Browns Foundation, established in 1999, that resulted strategic plans committed to education. Emphasizing attendance, the Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of education for students in Ohio by making investments that keep kids in school every day so they can succeed.
In 2017, Harvey helped foster a new collaboration between the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Shoes and Clothes for Kids and the Cleveland Browns Foundation to create the "Special Teams Package" program, which provides uniforms and essential clothing to students in need. The partnership focuses on addressing a basic need for thousands of CMSD students facing poverty in an effort to remove clothing as a barrier to school, supporting the mission to address chronic absenteeism.\
A member of the Browns since 2002, Harvey previously strengthened the club's local and national philanthropic efforts as vice president of community outreach. She was responsible for strategic planning and implementation of all community relations and youth football initiatives. Harvey also directed the allocation of resources related to player appearances, financial support and in-kind contributions.
Prior to joining the Browns, Harvey spent four years with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, leading the team's community outreach efforts and the Ducks Care Foundation. She guided the Foundation as it issued more than $1 million of grants each year and oversaw many successful fundraising events, including the creation of Dux in Tux, which raised more than $1 million for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the first three years.
Harvey is on the board of the Rainbow Babies and Children's Foundation. She also is a co-chair of the Greater Cleveland Education Taskforce and is a member of the Philanthropy Ohio Education Advisory Committee and the United Way of Greater Cleveland Public Policy subcommittee.
Harvey received a B.A. in education from Idaho State University and an M.A. in sports administration at the University of Northern Colorado. A native of Denver, Colo., Harvey resides in Brunswick with her husband, Neal, and three sons.
