James Hansen

Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
Temple University Fox School of Business

Headshot of James HansenTracy and her team understand that their work, when done successfully, changes the lives of those being supported through fundraising. They are really smart, work really hard, and you can tell that the work is meaningful to them. Their approach is to inspire prospective candidates while also representing the University first and foremost. Their entire vocation is service-based and that permeates every aspect of their interactions with our team and with the candidates.

Their methodology really helps to orient the work and help you better understand your own needs. Tracy and her team are constantly calibrating their work based on your feedback, but they do so without your even knowing it, so it doesn’t become tedious. It’s kind of like sitting in the ophthalmologist’s chair when she checks your eyes. “Can you see the one better or the two? The three better or the four?” Tracy adeptly triangulates your original charge with the input she and her team provide, and any follow up conversations with you. Before the search is even closed, you’ll be inspired to think about the candidates as members of your organization thanks to the work that she and her team put into understanding and translating your needs.

In our case, we were interested in hiring fundraisers with non-traditional backgrounds. It was important for us to articulate this to Tracy and her team, and to the marketplace, that sector-switchers were very interesting to us. They were up to the challenge. They took the time to understand this non-traditional approach of ours and identified some really amazing candidates. I was fired up about the people we could hire. The final three or four…we ultimately hired all of them!