The mission of The Global Volunteer Partnership is to meet the resource needs of America’s skilled volunteers, nonprofits and companies seeking to have measurable impact on global challenges such as poverty, illiteracy, and disease.
Our vision is to become the leading catalyst for efforts by these skilled volunteers, nonprofits and companies to improve lives around the world.
The Global Volunteer Partnership is a 501 (c)(3) organization that is developing resources to enable skilled American volunteers and US nonprofits and companies to contribute to global development through projects targeting economic growth, education, health, the environment, information technology and agriculture. These resources will:
Founder and President
Jack Hawkins, responsible for the organization’s overall management and strategy, has played a key role in the recent growth of national volunteer service. From 2003 to 2009, Hawkins served as director of Volunteers for Prosperity (VFP), a Bush Administration initiative to promote international voluntary service by skilled American professionals that helped to mobilize nearly 120,000 Americans as volunteers abroad through a network of over 300 US nonprofits and companies. VFP became law through the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed by President Obama on April 21, 2009.
Previously, Hawkins held senior positions in nonprofit management, telecommunications, international consulting and banking. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Pittsburgh and received a master's degree in international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
Hawkins is a founding board member of the Building Bridges Coalition, a Minneapolis, MN-based nonprofit consortium of leading organizations working collaboratively to promote the field of international volunteering, and serves on the HOPE Global Board of Advisors of Operation HOPE, Inc., a financial literacy nonprofit based in Los Angeles, CA.
Email: jhawkins@globalvolunteerpartnership.org
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President
Bill Lovern, responsible for the organization’s financial matters and operations, has been a successful investment banker who spent his entire career either managing debt securities or advising those that do. He began his career trading and marketing government securities for The Bankers Trust Company on Wall Street. He later worked for Goldman Sachs in Philadelphia, specializing in financial futures and options as well as the rapidly developing market for mortgage-backed securities.
Returning to New York, Lovern worked for Smith Barney and then for the Japanese investment bank, Nomura Securities International, as a capital markets advisor to international fund managers and leveraged investors.
Bill Lovern has been active in numerous charitable and community causes. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and has completed coursework for a master's degree in business administration from New York University.
Email: wtlovern@globalvolunteerpartnership.org
Member, Board of Directors
John Hecklinger participates in the general governance of the organization. As chief program officer of Global Giving Foundation, a leading online philanthropy, Hecklinger is recognized for his expertise utilizing social media and technology to connect grassroots social entrepreneurs and NGO partners directly with funding sources. Previously, he directed Global Giving Foundation’s corporate partnership efforts.
After receiving his English degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of Florida, Hecklinger served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central African Republic, teaching Literature and Linguistics at the University of Bangui.