Donor funds full-time leader for Hire Our Heros
Pittsburgh-area philanthropist and veteran
funds first full-time paid staff position at Hire Our Heroes
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 19, 2016 – With a $60,000 grant from his fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation, philanthropist and McMurray resident Joseph Fairbanks, Jr. has funded the lion’s share of the first full-time paid position at Hire Our Heroes, a nonprofit providing veterans nationwide with networking and career-building services. The southwestern Pennsylvania region is among the top-priority regions where Hire Our Heroes will serve veterans and the employers positioned to hire them. Only California, Texas and Florida have a greater concentration of veterans than Pennsylvania, where 939,000 of the nation’s 22 million veterans reside.
“Traits such as teamwork, discipline, focus, commitment, accountability and problem-solving are necessary for success in any career, and are developed in the U.S. military. Any success I had in my career is due in large part to the attributes acquired and developed while serving eight years in the U.S. Navy,” said Fairbanks, “But veterans and employers often underestimate the value that former military personnel bring to a private-sector enterprise.”
Why fund the position now?
“I’m hoping this gift will nudge others to give to causes they care about most,” Fairbanks says.
He also felt a sense of urgency to grow the Hire Our Heroes organization and its capacity to give back to those who have served their country. The nonprofit estimates that there are roughly 1 million unemployed veterans nationwide and another million who will leave the armed forces between now and 2020. The organization’s goal is to begin training, mentoring and coaching transitioning veterans as early as one year prior to their discharge.
“Outside of providing for the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, we believe that the most important service for veterans is providing a smooth successful transition to the private sector,” said Dan Caporale, founder and chairman of Hire Our Heroes. “The most critical element of this transition is a meaningful job that will benefit both the veteran and the employer.”
What the organization was able to do “with an all-volunteer force is impressive, but most of the hardworking and dedicated volunteers also have full-time jobs and families,” said Fairbanks. “To move HOH to the next level and broaden its reach, we realized we needed to invest in a full-time staff person to lead the organization, to establish a clear strategy and set priorities and objectives to ensure the best possible outcomes.”
The path to philanthropy: Fairbanks served in the U.S. Navy from 1973 to 1981, first on the destroyer USS Dahlgren in Norfolk, VA, and later in Trenton, NJ, where he ran a recruiting station on East State Street. He considers the recruiting station his “introduction to sales.” In the mid-1970s he worked with emerging technology and software in the Navy, which led him to a civilian career in high-tech sales with companies including ANSYS and IBM. In July 2014, Fairbanks did something that most people only dream about: he retired at age 59 from a successful 30-year career in high-tech sales. In November of 2014, he and his family established a fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation and began looking for ways to direct his expertise and financial resources toward helping other veterans transition from military service back to civilian life. After a few months of research with assistance from the donor services department at The Pittsburgh Foundation, Fairbanks connected to Hire Our Heroes, an all-volunteer organization until now.
With this gift and donations from other Hire Our Heroes supporters, Fairbanks and the organizations’ founder and board chair Dan Caporale plan to announce the new president & CEO of Hire Our Heroes in 2016.
According to Fairbanks, many organizations provide resume assistance and job fairs, but Hire Our Heroes provides veterans with extensive training, coaching them to sell their military skills and experience to employers. Simultaneously, Hire Our Heroes works directly with employers to demonstrate how hiring veterans helps companies achieve their business goals. Thanks to a partnership with Southwest Airlines, Hire our Heroes flies job candidates at no charge to job interviews out of state.
Boots on the ground in western Pennsylvania: Fairbanks is now organizing informal networking events and strategic partnerships with western Pennsylvania organizations that serve veterans. He’s actively pursuing contacts with former military officers who will volunteer with Hire Our Heroes and share its mission with veterans and employers across the state. He’s also reaching out to regional corporations to make them aware of the benefits of hiring veterans. These include Work Opportunity Tax Credits, which offers $1 billion in tax incentives annually to organizations that hire veterans.
“We need to reach as many veterans and employers as we possibly can. We match job postings from anywhere in the country to qualified veterans. It’s a lot of awareness building and education, but the payoff for veterans, their families and their employers is priceless,” said Fairbanks.
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About The Pittsburgh Foundation: Established in 1945, The Pittsburgh Foundation is one of the nation’s oldest community foundations and is the 13th largest of more than 750 community foundations across the United States. As a community foundation, its resources comprise endowment funds established by individuals, businesses and organizations with a passion for charitable giving and a deep commitment to the Pittsburgh community. The Foundation currently has more than 2,000 individual donor funds and, together with its supporting organizations, assets of more than $1.14 billion. Grantmaking benefits a broad spectrum of community life within Pittsburgh and beyond. Learn more at www.pittsburghfoundation.org.
The mission of Hire our Heroes is to empower veterans and employers with the knowledge, skills and innovative tools necessary to optimize a strategic workforce. Hire Our Heroes, based in Virginia, is a not-for-profit organization founded by veterans for veterans. The organization partners with world-class organizations and people who share in is vision to offer veterans a cost-free, best-in-class, transition experience. More information is available at https://hireourheroes.org/.