Phil Yagoda, Optimist and Team Player
The Passionate Father Turned Nonprofit Founder Dedicated to Making a Difference
In 2005, Phil and Cheryl Yagoda were faced with their biggest challenge; their son, Ian, had an inoperable brain tumor. “I started calling everyone I knew all over the country asking about the best children’s hospitals and doctors,” Phil says. Undeterred by the journey ahead, Yagoda began using his network to find the best care for his son. As Ian’s condition stabalized and he continued to thrive—as he does today—Yagoda recognized he could do more to help others who found their own families under the duress of pediatric brain tumors. The nonprofit, Ian’s Friends Foundation was born.
In your own words, what is Ian’s Friends Foundation at its core?
It’s a community; it’s a family, and it’s a foundation. When people get together to fight for something or to rid the world of something bad that hasn’t affected them, and God willing never will, there’s nothing as humbling as that because you see the true greatness in people really special to us and to me.
How did you take an organization self-described as a “grassroots” initiative and turn it into something as well-known as it is today?
If there’s anything that I really believe in, it’s a we; it’s not an I. It’s the team that’s really forged our success. University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler had this phrase, “The team, the team, the team,” and when you put a team around you, things do happen.
What do you want people to know about the goals and the work?
This is going to sound really weird, but I don’t believe in goals. Instead I believe in a vision. and our vision is “until there’s a cure.” We will go forward until we find a cure. A cure can come in many different ways. Someone said to me once, “Do you really think you’re going to find a cure?” and I do.
Tell me about one (or two!) of your proudest accomplishments with IFF so far.
When you help a family get to a provider quicker than they otherwise could have or get them to the best of the best in a few days as opposed to months and month, I’d say that’s almost priceless. We’ve also forced collaboration in the industry. We have a symposium that we created called the What IFF Symposium. Doctors from around the world fly in for the shark tank style event. The top three winners are determined by medical attendees, and we guarantee funding for the winners.
