Need: Finding a Vice President of Philanthropy
Service: Executive Search
Since 1951, Episcopal Retirement Homes (ERH) has worked to improve the lives of older adults through innovative, quality senior living communities, and community services to older adults. When it needed a Vice President of Philanthropy, as a search partner they selected The Yunker Group.
Doug Spitler, ERH President and CEO explained: “We decided to hire TYG on the basis of their excellent reputation in the community, as well as the recommendation of others who have had good experiences with the firm. Those personal references, especially, gave us the confidence that The Yunker Group could do the job effectively for us.”
“Jim Yunker is just so well steeped in the right fund development and philanthropic circles, which is really the market we were seeking a successful candidate from, and his contacts really assisted us in identifying what I felt was a very strong field of candidates. His ability to conduct insightful and thoughtful due diligence when it came to those contacts was also very impressive.”
“We were also incredibly pleased with the level of Jim’s assessment of the candidates, which went way beyond a typical interview process to include the use of open-ended questions, narrative responses, two types of personality profiles and in-depth reference checks. It all gave us a really high level of confidence about the process and about the field of candidates we ended up considering. Compared to my experience with other firms, working with The Yunker Group was definitely superior. I think Jim Yunker provided just the right level of leadership to guide us through the process.”
Director of Organizational Development and Human Resources Joan Wetzel valued the deep partnership that developed between ERH and SBY staff, noting the exceptional capacities of the entire TYG team, including Jenny Weiglein, who “was just so charming and so helpful. If you ever needed anything, she was really ‘Johnny on the spot.’ This was my first time working with The Yunker Group, and I am just very impressed with them. I was almost sad when the search was over because I really enjoyed working with them.”
For Doug, the outcome was the real test of the partnership: “We were very pleased with the result. Our search committee was pleased, and everyone felt that they handled the process extremely professionally.”