Heifer International, Building a Philanthropy Team – A Client Success Story

For more than 75 years Heifer International has worked to end hunger and poverty in partnership with the global communities it serves. Programs support entrepreneurs around the world, creating lasting change from the ground up, and it all begins with a seed investment of livestock or agriculture, followed by mentorship to help project participants build a business, and ultimately to gain access to supply chains and markets. By supporting and training the world’s farmers, ranchers, and female business owners, Heifer is investing in a new breed of success. Heifer has also made a significant commitment since 2018 to invest in its capacity to mobilize philanthropic resources domestically, thereby ensuring awareness of mission impact and active engagement with the strongest supporters.

The Heifer-KEES partnership began in 2018 when KEES was retained to provide Executive Search services for a position in New York City. The role had been vacant for more than a year and connections with donors were fraying. KEES helped the philanthropy team identify a robust pool of talent and ultimately 2 hires were made, one for NYC and the other for the Northeast Region (Boston). This was the beginning of a successful ongoing partnership that resulted in similar hires in the Mid-Atlantic, Los Angeles, Northern California (Bay Area), Pacific Northwest (Seattle), Mid-South (Nashville) and upper Midwest (greater Chicago).

Additionally, Heifer sought KEES’ expertise to fill a Foundation Relations role that had been vacant for more than a year. In 2019 a Senior Director of Global Foundation Partnerships was hired to rebuild a small team that had limited staffing in the past several years.

Most recently Heifer engaged KEES again to fill the leadership role for the philanthropy team. Hilary Haddigan, Chief of Mission Effectiveness retained KEES during the spring of 2021 as new leadership was needed. The role was reconfigured and a Vice President of Transformational Philanthropy (all individual and foundation giving) was hired in May 2021. Since, we have placed two additional Director of Philanthropy roles.

KEES is thankful for the partnership and proud to support the building of this diverse and dynamic team at Heifer International! We support the mission of empowerment and the pursuit of ending hunger and poverty worldwide.