John “Jack” Foerst, a resident of Manhasset for 51 years and a pioneer in the field of nonprofit fundraising, died on Oct. 7 after suffering a stroke. He was 89 years old.
“He had a great way with people,” said his sister Catherine Linehan. “He was an exceptional person and I think most people felt that way.”
His people skills served him well in his decades-long effort to raise money for organizations ranging from the worldwide philanthropy Community Counseling Services to nearby St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill to Changing Our World, a philanthropy consulting firm, Linehan said.
“Mr. Foerst is perhaps the most prominent nonprofit fundraiser in American history,” Changing Our World said in a statement.
His daughter, Katie Bill, said, “he could get to the heart of an issue very quickly and his God-given talent was the ability to come up with solutions.” She said his fundraising success drew on that talent as well as his “ability to connect with anybody on any level.”
Growing up in Middle Village, Queens, he was “very sports minded,” Linehan said. He won a baseball scholarship to St. John’s Preparatory Cchool in Queens as well as a basketball scholarship to St. John’s University.
After graduating from St. John’s, he began work as a social worker and soon after became New York State regional director for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, according to Changing Our World. He later joined Community Counseling Services, where he worked for 44 years and served as chief executive officer from 1969 to 1994.
“Community Counseling Services predominantly did diocese and parish campaigns raising money for each of the parishes,” Bill said. “From there it branched out to hospitals and schools affiliated with the Catholic Church.”
Under Foerst’s direction, the organization grew from serving such nonprofits in New York State to sustaining partnerships that spanned the globe, Linehan said. Even the Reagan administration sought Foerst’s services on public-private collaborative fundraising projects, she added.
While at Community Counseling Services, Foerst worked out of offices in Ireland, Hawaii, Toronto, Hong Kong and Japan, Bill said.
His work for the organization included an effort to save the Old Globe Theater in London in the 1980s. He also helped raise funds for the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., Bill said.
In 2001, he accepted a job at Changing Our World as a special adviser to the chairman, a capacity in which he served until his death, the organization said.
In addition to Foerst’s work internationally, Linehan emphasized his efforts in support of local organizations like St. Francis Hospital and the Heart Center in Roslyn. He also raised funds for Abilities Inc., an Albertson-based organization that trains adolescents and adults with disabilities for entry into the workforce.
At Foerst’s funeral last week, Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre spoke of his first meeting with Foerst when Murphy came to Long Island in 2001.
“Jack took out a yellow pad and wrote a list of 50 people I should get to know,” he said, according to Bill.
He lived at 77 Dover Road, right behind the Americana Manhasset mall, Linehan said.
His wife of 58 years, Marion Cassidy, died in 2011, and his sister Barbara died in 2000.
“He was a strong family man,” Bill said. “He loved going on trips with his wife.”
Besides Linehan and Bill, he is survived by one child, Jared Foerst, and six grandchildren.
“He traveled all over the world but he always liked Manhasset,” Linehan said.
