Fundraising and Family: Faley Thriving at Boys and Girls Club of Skagit County
Written by Doug Goodnough
Fundraising is not only Ian Faley’s job, but also his hobby.
The 2010 Hillsdale College graduate has worked for the Boys and Girls Club of Skagit County, Washington, for more than a decade, currently serving as its executive vice president and chief development officer. However, he also offers fundraising advice for other Boys and Girls Clubs worldwide, even recently traveling to Wales. Faley also consults with several classical charter schools and trains school leaders in the art of fundraising.
“When you are good at doing something that’s really hard, something that most other people dislike doing, you can do some real work,” Faley said. “I found out that for my personality, for my demeanor, I love fundraising. I absolutely love it. Especially fundraising for a cause you believe in.”
After graduating from Hillsdale with a double major in economics and English, Faley tried his hand at teaching, eventually moving to Boston with his wife, Theresa (Whalen), ’12. Teaching in the International Baccalaureate program and coaching the rowing team at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School for four years, he inquired about becoming a head of school. He received some sage advice from a school superintendent friend who inadvertently pointed him in the right career direction.
“He said, ‘Ian, if you want to be head of a school, you have to know how to work with the community. You have to know how to fundraise and talk to people,’” Faley said.
Moving his family back to his home state of Washington, Faley accepted a fundraising position with the Boys and Girls Club of Skagit County, with the intent of using that experience to return to education. More than 11 years later, he is still with the club and couldn’t be happier.
When he started as a fundraiser in 2014, Skagit County had four clubs serving about 500 children with a budget of around $500,000. This summer, the organization will open its 14th club and is serving approximately 8,000 children with a fundraising goal approaching $10 million.
Faley said his economics classes at Hillsdale helped him articulate the “why” of giving back.
“I studied markets and coordination and everything you do in economics around choices and opportunity costs,” he said. “It gives you a unique ability and perspective to articulate why raising resources for overhead costs matters. The most unpleasant thing to do is trying to convince someone why paying for services and whatnot matters. Operationally, it’s vital.”
Faley runs a financial literacy program for club members because “it keeps me connected with the mission and what’s going on there.”
“How do you explain to someone why providing life-changing opportunities for kids is going to make a difference, especially in their local community?” he said. “I’m asking you, would you sacrifice some of your time? Or would you sacrifice a week’s worth of pay to make these opportunities possible? Can you help me get 1,000 mentors to show up every day? It is a crazy goal, but it resonates, and it sticks because people see you’re actually serious about this.”
In his fundraising role, he develops business partnerships and visits donors exclusively in Skagit County, a rural community approximately 50 miles north of Seattle.
“We’ve got towns and cities that are two-and-a-half hours apart,” Faley said. “But I get to drive home every night and put the kids to bed, so that’s been probably the biggest thing that’s kept me there.”
And family comes first. He and Theresa, whom he met while a student at Hillsdale, are raising four children, with another on the way. She helped organize a homeschool co-op that currently has more than 100 children enrolled, and they also have their school-age children enrolled in a nearby classical academy.
The Faleys are also involved in property management and development and have invested in several properties. But Ian said he always returns to his “hobby” of fundraising. He helps fellow Hillsdale friends and family raise funds to launch schools around the country. In fact, he is starting on his fifth school this year.
“It’s a lot of showing people the mechanics of fundraising,” he said. “There’s a schedule and a process to it. There are infinite amounts of great ideas for projects that people should get involved in and are going to make a difference. But it takes a lot of building partnerships and relationships to get people on board with those ideas.”
One thing he is passionate about is Hillsdale College. Originally eyeing Ivy League schools as a high school senior, one day a Hillsdale College admissions representative visited his high school. Faley noticed no one was talking to him, so he took “pity” on him and stopped and chatted.
“Two-and-a half-hours later, I went home and wrote my application to Hillsdale that night.”
A self-described “rabble rouser” as a student, he helped launch the club rugby program at Hillsdale and was also involved in the Praxis political economy group and the Catholic Society. He said the opportunity Hillsdale afforded to study and play rugby in Oxford, England, was “awesome.”
“I didn’t know what the liberal arts were before I went to Hillsdale,” Faley said. “I think I could argue I didn’t know what the liberal arts were until I was at least a year into Hillsdale. And when I did finally discover what they were and how it made a difference in your life, that opened my eyes to what the world was around me.”
Now, that world is family, fundraising, and volunteering to grill 11,000 or so pounds of salmon at the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which claims to be the world’s largest.
Whether the cause is grilling salmon for Tulip Festival tourists or raising money for opportunities for children, Faley believes in giving back and is eager to cultivate that spirit in others.
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in May 2025