Fran Van Kirk
PwC, Heidrick & Struggles, Retired
Recently we caught up with veteran Board and Executive Committee member Fran Van Kirk, a Delco native whose entire family has experienced and benefitted from the value of a Catholic education (four siblings, my wife and three children all attended Catholic grade & high school). Read his story and what fires him up about BLOCS’ future and how he hopes to leave a legacy in his community as a Board member and passionate fundraiser.
Catholic School From Start to Finish
I grew up in Springfield, Delco and attended Holy Cross starting in 4th grade. Prior to that, I lived in Collingdale and attended St. Joseph School, where I had 90 kids in my first grade class. I went on to graduate high school from Cardinal O’Hara, as a member of the first four-year graduating class.
“ I never had so much fun in my life.”
– Reminiscing on his memories from attending Cardinal O’Hara High School
I then attended Villanova University as a commuter student and graduated with a B.S. in Accounting.
Career Trajectory
Upon graduating from Villanova, I took a job with [now] PricewaterhouseCoopers. As a newly married guy, I was offered two tremendous opportunities to work in our offices in London as well as Boston. Through these experiences, my eyes were opened to career paths which would provide the business leadership and management opportunities that I was intent on pursuing. These roles led to my appointment as Managing Partner of our Valley Forge office and then a few years later, our Philadelphia office. I was blessed to serve in these roles until my retirement from PwC in ’05.
How did you come to work with BLOCS?
Around a decade ago, I joined the BLOCS Board. The minute I heard what [then-Board Chair] Mike O’Neill was doing, I was pretty intrigued by it.
“We’ve built a phenomenal group on the Executive Committee…I’ve been involved with nonprofit Boards constantly since 1979, and I can confidently say that of all my experiences, they’re the greatest group of people to work with. The passion we all share for making this thing better and bigger for the benefit of the students is really inspiring.”
What do you view as critical BLOCS strategic goals over the next 3-5 years?
What I’m really passionate about now, in the twilight of my BLOCS career, is an intense focus on achieving two main goals:
Creating a significantly greater awareness of the phenomenal value of BLOCS and the Catholic school system in the Philadelphia region, and
Developing a successful strategic plan for launching an Endowment campaign and raising significant amounts of money so that we can provide a scholarship to every child who would love to attend our schools
That’s what I want to spend a bulk of my not-for-profit time on fundraising BLOCS.
Challenges
As we move into a new era for BLOCS, one that is more mission-driven than we’ve ever seen before, we will set higher expectations for our entire Board in generating philanthropic support and developing donor prospecting strategies tailored to their personal and professional networks. To achieve this goal of developing authentic relationships with a greater cross-section of Catholic school alumnus and donors, as a Board, we must therefore have representation from a broader and more diverse set of communities across the Philadelphia region. A focus on diversity in our Board member recruitment will be critical to our future growth and organizational success.
