New CEO espouses smart growth for Boys & Girls Clubs

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada is growing. After its merger with its Henderson and Las Vegas Boys & Girls Clubs, the nonprofit is in a crucial time of progress. To help continue its path of success, it has named northwest resident Andy Bischel as its CEO.

"The merger really streamlined things for the organization and has made things much more financially healthy," Bischel said. "Since the organization is solid, and there's still a large need for this organization in the city, we are looking to expand in the future. We just have to be very strategic about this to make sure we create sustainable growth — that's key."

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada operates 14 facilities and three summer outreach programs in Southern Nevada and serves more than 21,000 youths in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Southern Highlands and Summerlin. The clubhouses offer children in kindergarten through 12th grade a variety of educational programs with the mission to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.

Bischel is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He moved to Las Vegas in 1983 to attend UNLV on a swimming scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in hotel administration and worked at the Anaheim Marriott in Southern California for three years, but after flirting with the hotel industry, he decided it wasn't the right career for him.

He moved back to Las Vegas with his wife, Shannon, a Las Vegas native, and decided to go back to school. While he was attempting to get his teaching credentials from UNLV, Bischel started volunteering with the swimming department as a coach. The athletic department eventually hired him as the coordinator of athletic development.

"That was my first development job," Bischel said. "That's when I got a taste of doing fundraising, ticket sales and small events."

After four years, Bischel took a job as assistant coach for UNLV men's golf. One of his primary functions was being administrator for the Rebel Golf Foundation, which is essentially the financial backbone of the men's golf program, with funds in excess of $3 million, he said.

"I loved the job even though I wasn't a golfer," Bischel added.

Then, Bischel landed the job that perhaps struck a chord with the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada: From 2009 through this past January, he worked as the director of development at The Animal Foundation.

"The Animal Foundation's Development Department was a startup venture when I arrived in November of 2009," he said. "I was the first externally focused employee. I came at a difficult time. The Lied Shelter outbreak happened in 2007, and when I got there in 2009, it was still suffering from difficult (public relations). No one knew about the foundation. People just knew about the shelter. I had to rebrand the foundation."

The Lied Animal Shelter outbreak killed about 1,000 dogs and cats due to virus and bacteria spreading among overcrowded animals.

Bischel had to quickly set out to establish baseline fundraising, marketing, promotions, outreach and volunteer functions to better serve the organizational mission and homeless pets in the community.

"Luckily, animals are incredibly marketable and have a real presence and just grab people's attention," Bischel said. "I left generating 100,000 unique visits a month on their website and 1 million to 1.5 million pageviews a month."

While The Animal Foundation had a 30-plus-year history, Bischel had to mobilize supporters and help with corporate sponsorship. In mid-2015, he caught the attention of one of the board members of the Boys & Girls Clubs, who encouraged him to apply for CEO.

The position came at a crucial time after the Boys & Girls Clubs merged its Las Vegas and Henderson divisions into one entity.

"Between managing the UNLV Rebel Golf fund and creating The Animal Foundation's development group from scratch, we knew Andy had the experience we were looking for to lead Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada," said Matthew Nelson, chief board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada. "He has a proven track record of implementing successful marketing and development programs that he will bring to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada to complement our strong operations team."

Bischel said there are plans to build the 15th Boys & Girls Clubs clubhouse on Boulder Highway in 2017 through a Community Development Block Grant and partnership with Nevada HAND, a nonprofit with the mission to improve the lives of low-income individuals by providing affordable housing solutions and supportive services.

He also sees the need for a Boys & Girls Clubs location in the northwest area.

"Regardless if you're in a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, there is a need for after-school programs everywhere," Bischel said. "Most households have two working spouses, and kids need a safe place to go."

It is set to be built on a tract of land from Clark County that will also hold low-cost apartments and a food pantry. Bischel said he is hoping to find more community partners that can help with the physical structure and capital expenses.

"I'm looking forward to the future," he said. "I can see long-term growth. My biggest challenge is being patient so that we can grow smart and be sustainable. You don't want to go too far out and put yourself in financial risk. How do we provide services in Boulder City, Pahrump, Laughlin, Bullhead City? There are needs everywhere. We just need to find the right partners to build programs with."

Visit bgcsnv.org or call 702-367-2582.

— To reach North View reporter Sandy Lopez, email slopez@viewnews.com or call 702-383-4686. Find her on Twitter: @JournalismSandy