Gary Yazwa
"The Wizard of Yaz"

Foundation President and Campaign Director

Gary Yazwa’s leadership and vision have been the result of 35 years experience with the Boys & Girls Clubs. He credits the most important thing to happen in his life was joining the McKeesport Boys & Girls Club at age 8.

Gary grew up in the steel town of McKeesport, Pennsylvania and looked forward to the day he would be working in the steel mill like so many youth had done before. Staff members at the Club convinced Gary that there was no future as a steelworker and to pursue an education. As a result, he was the first kid in his neighborhood to go to college at the encouragement of the dedicated staff at the Boys Club. So in 1964 he ventured off with $10.00 in his pocket and a 32-hour bus ride to Shawnee, Oklahoma where his first experience outside the city of McKeesport began. There he received his AA before moving on to attend Clarion University in Pennsylvania where he received his teaching certificate. After one year of teaching, Yazwa heard that the physical education position had opened up at the Boys Club where he grew up. He quickly applied, knowing this would be a chance to give back and help those kids in his old neighborhood.

Yazwa’s skills in working with youth and his ability to communicate and attract people and resources made him one of the top performers in the Boys & Girls Clubs in the Western Pennsylvania system. Yazwa soon became a “troubleshooter” for the organizations experiencing issues with operations and community participation. He was sent to many struggling Clubs to help get programs going; work with staff; and engage the community. Realizing Gary’s turnaround leadership ability, he was not long for any one location.

In 1978 Gary made the move that changed his life, accepting a position as Executive Director in Tempe, Arizona with a small Boys Club of around 300 kids; a budget of $54,000; a 3,000 square foot building; and an outdoor basketball court. Gary’s vision as he toured the town was to see the potential of caring for and serving youth and creating a strategy to develop the board and staff with plans of some day having multiple Clubs. This was no easy task because to the West was the Greater Metro Phoenix organization and to the North was the Scottsdale organization. This meant Gary was going to have to be creative and resourceful to compete for dollars necessary to make the organization stable and grow.

In 1980, under Yazwa’s guidance, the Tempe Boys Club merged with the Girls Club, providing necessary and vital services for the girls in the community. About the same time Yazwa received word that many of the major league baseball teams training in Arizona were bidding out their concession rights. His Boys & Girls Club bid and received the first spring training site in Tempe. A year later they received the rights in Chandler and then Mesa. This program generated a million dollars net revenue in one month for the organization and helped stabilize and strengthen their position in the community. Gary spent 18 years building the Club in Arizona into one of the best in the country before leaving to take on the challenge reorganizing the Clubs in Tacoma, Washington as President/CEO in 1996.

To make a long story short, during his 35 years of working as a youth development leader, fundraiser, trainer and President/CEO, he has been part of a number of visionary changes that have had significant impact on the youth movement everywhere he has been. Some of those include: being one of the first to let girls participate in Clubs; developing state of the art teen programs; focusing on technology; developing a charter school; working to establish a Club on Indian land; merging multiple organizations to better serve community and enhance the ability to raise resources; developing the community development block grant program into his overall facilities plan; taking struggling organizations and boards and making them successful and prosperous; implementing the first incentive program and staff development plans within the Boys & Girls Clubs movement; building tremendous collaborations in every community; raising over $100,000,000 during his career.

In addition to his many activities and community commitments, Gary also served on the founding board of the American Humanics Program at the University of Washington Tacoma, a distinctive program that prepares college students for successful careers in the nonprofit sector and introduces them to a broad network of national nonprofit organizations and their local agencies. He is also a National Founding Board Member and current National Board Chairman of Kids @ Hope, an organization founded on the premise that “All Kids Are Capable of Success – No Exceptions”. Kids @ Hope is a movement that reverses the negative approach of kids at risk to kids at hope through adult mentoring serving as an anchor in a child’s development; through creating high expectations for all children; and through creating opportunities for children so that they may experience a sense of belonging, usefulness, competency and personal empowerment in order to make decisions which may positively affect their lives.

Yazwa has traveled throughout the country doing a variety of enthusiastic and important board and resource development workshops and training for nonprofits. He believes we must find a way for today’s busy executives and board members to engage in nonprofit work tailored to fit their personal situation. He is uniquely gifted as a true proven leader who gets the most out of people by raising the bar and challenging them to reach their fullest potential. He has worked with other nonprofits by challenging them to think, change beliefs, raise expectations, build lasting relationships that will lead to organization support and success for accomplishing their missions. With the ability to speak on many current issues facing nonprofit organizations, Gary’s most recent topics include: Building Staff & Board Relationships; Visionary Leaders; Art of the Ask; Aligning Resources to Support Growth; Strategic Planning; “Who Moved the Cheese”; Building Donors; Executive Leadership in Today’s Nonprofit World.

Gary’s ability to energize, his passion and his ability to take an idea and bring it to fruition has created a demand for Gary’s services throughout the youth development field.

To schedule Gary Yazwa for consultations or your next training event, contact him at (253) 502-4600.