A Little Bit About Us

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At Gerard Search, our mission is to connect nonprofit sector professionals with meaningful career opportunities and to help our clients find the right people at the right time. We believe in building a truly diverse talent community by valuing both traditional nonprofit experience and transferable skills from other sectors, locally and globally.

We actively challenge exclusionary hiring practices; including rigid education requirements, demands for local market experience, inflexible work structures, and unnecessary criteria that too often limit access to great talent. We encourage our clients to recognize and embrace the unique contributions people bring through their education, culture, ethnicity, race, gender identity, age, language, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.

As a recruitment firm, our role is to connect people with opportunities. We work across a broad range of missions and causes so candidates can find roles that reflect their own values, interests, and goals.

Phil Gerard, a fundraiser with a background in social services and education, founded Gerard Search in 2012 while serving as Director of Development at Simon Fraser University. Recognizing the limited talent pool in the nonprofit sector and the need for greater awareness of transferable skills, he created TalentMatch, a cost-effective recruitment service designed to work in partnership with clients’ HR teams. This collaborative approach made professional recruitment more accessible to smaller organizations.

Since then, Phil has focused on building long-term relationships across the nonprofit sector and has developed a diverse network of over 4,000 candidates from a wide range of professional, cultural, and lived experiences. He works closely with organizations across the arts, education, social justice, environment, community services, and healthcare sectors, helping them connect with talent aligned to their mission and values.

We act as a recruitment partner to nonprofit organizations, supporting the identification and introduction of qualified candidates across Canada. Our role is to facilitate connections and support the hiring process, while all employment decisions, contracts, and compliance responsibilities remain with client organizations. We do not act as an employer or provide immigration or work permit services.