During a 25-year career in New York and Michigan as a technology professional and executive focused on large systems implementation services for customers around the world, as well as building a project management practice, George also nurtured his passion for giving back to the community.  Encouragement to engage beyond the workplace with organizations focused on disadvantaged communities, civic engagement, animal welfare, rights of and support for diverse populations, and children’s health, Westerman realized his passion for making the world better and longed for an opportunity to engage more deeply.

Following his first profession, George was encouraged by professional colleagues and nonprofit leaders to consider a second career in the nonprofit sector.  George built on his volunteer service that included successfully leading a capital and endowment campaign for a community-based organization.  He built his knowledge by attaining the Certification of Fund Raising Management offered by the Fund Raising School of the Lilly Family Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, his alma mater, and secured a position with the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation (now The Children’s Foundation) in 2014 as a development professional.

Working in the major gifts and planned giving area, George built a planned giving program nearly from scratch and leveraged the expertise and mentoring from new colleagues in the Planned Giving Roundtable for Southeast Michigan as well as expert professionals in the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (previously Partnership for Philanthropic Planning).

Westerman continues to be inspired by those who have built the profession he now enjoys and sees a day when he will serve donors not solely by proposing structures for impactful gifts, but helping them learn creative ways to achieve their philanthropic goals and build a legacy that goes beyond the nonprofit causes they care about, but also is woven into their family DNA.