Profile: Harold Sparrow, AFP Passionate Fundraisers

Harold Sparrow is the Senior Vice President for Development at the YMCA of Greater Boston

1. What does success mean to you?
   In life some people leave a legacy to build upon while others leave a wake of flotsam and jetsam. Success is leaving a foundational legacy of excellence that will impact the lives of my family, friends, and community for generations to come.
     
2. What motivates you to do your best work?
   Public service that is mission driven. I am motivated by leadership, colleagues and co-workers that are in agreement, aligned and committed to hard work and achievement at the expense of self-promotion or aggrandizement. Plus compensation commensurate with deliverables and aggravation.
     
   
3. What attracted you to your current position?
   My personal belief in the mission of the YMCA of Greater Boston. The opportunity to work with leadership and colleagues that I admire and respect. The intergenerational scope, depth and breadth of the YMCA.
     
4. What was a defining moment in your life?
   Marrying my wife Rita. Marriage redefined my sense of purpose, improved my self-confidence, and settled my life. Ever since I married my life has been a consistent ascent.
     
5. What book are you currently reading?
   The Long Fall by Walter Mosely and Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney.
   
   
6. What is the book you go back to the most?
   Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson.
     
7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
   Breyers Mint Chocolate ice cream.
     
8. Are you a morning or night person?
   I love the morning. The sun rises, birds chirp, and all the promise of a new day.
   
   
9. If a spaceship landed outside your office right now, would you get in it and where would you ask it to take you?
   I would get in the space ship and ask my staff to take a lunar trolley tour. Imagine drinking coffee on the moon and watching earth rise or zipping further out in our solar system and watch Saturn with all of it’s rings set. Better yet I would also invite my “want to meet” and best donors and make it a cultivation event!
   
   
10. Are you a cat person or a dog person?
    I love dogs.
    
    
11. Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?
    Small fish in a big pond. It gives you more room to see, do, and become.
    
    
12. What’s the worst job you ever had? What’s the best?
    I was a skycap in college and welcomed the world, that was the best. The worst job is looking for one.
    
    
13. What scares you?
    Failure.
    
    
14. What’s your favorite beverage?
    Coffee.
    
    
15. What would be your first question to space aliens?
    Which way is up?
    
    
16. Is your glass half-full or half-empty and why?
    My glass is half-full. I believe in eternal life so when my glass becomes full I will just run over and go to a whole new level.
    
    
17. If you had a time machine what time period would you go to and why?
    I would like to go back to the forties and meet my parents when they were kids.
    
    
18. Can you swim?
    Yes. For the past seventeen summer vacations I swim with a group of men every morning at seven. This rite of summer has become a source of spiritual uplift, renewal, and strength that I draw upon throughout the year.
    
    
19. Married? Single? Looking?
    Married. When I got married I thought I would be the husband of one wife. However I have been blessed with three daughters and some days they get confused and it seems like I have four wives.
    
    
20. Who’s the coolest person you know?
    Reverend Ray Hammond