Jack Eckhardt, ‘11, used the hard work ethic and critical eye he developed at La Salle to help communities through his career and a non-profit.
Lessons that Jack Eckhardt, ’11, learned at La Salle have stayed with him through a successful banking career and starting a non-profit.
Jack Eckhardt, ‘11, has two main takeaways from his time at La Salle: never give up and always look at life with a critical eye. These two takeaways have helped him as he’s worked his way through a banking career and starting his own nonprofit foundation.
A Northeast Philadelphia native, La Salle first caught Eckhardt’s attention when a professor came to speak in his accounting class at Northeast Catholic High School. After being impressed by the speaker, he arranged a campus tour.
“La Salle really stood out, from their academic profile to how invested they were in everything,” Eckhardt recalled. “I didn’t get the new business building, unfortunately, that came two years after I left, but you could tell that they really cared about their students and wanted them to succeed.”
During his four years as an accounting and finance major, professors in the School of Business, many of whom became his mentors, helped Eckhardt to realize his love of numbers as well as how to look at life analytically.
“The professors and their ability to establish a critical thinking philosophy in me really, really helped me get to where I am now,” Eckhardt said.
He also learned to never give up, no matter how hard things got.
“It was tough sometimes, but the support from the La Salle community helped me,” he said. “You can survive through anything as long as you don’t give up and work through everything.”
Critical thinking and persistence, the two things from his time at La Salle that he’s carried through life, have helped Eckhardt as he’s made his way through the financial world with a career that started as a teller at Citizens Bank just a few months after he graduated.
He worked his way up through Citizens, staying there until 2017, when he decided to leave big banking to join an organization where he could make more of a difference. He found that opportunity in his next job at Huntingdon Valley, a smaller community bank.
Eckhardt stayed there until 2023, going through huge world events like the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. The work he did during the pandemic is the reason that he’s still working in banking, he said.
During the pandemic, Huntingdon Valley got themselves set up so they could give Payment Protection Program loans to people. Eckhardt and his colleagues, who were considered essential workers, sometimes worked until the early hours of the morning, hoping to make a difference in their community.
“I saw people in tears; I saw people that didn’t know what to do. It was so rewarding to be able to say, ‘You know what?” Don’t worry. We’re going to help you. We’re going to make this crazy time a little less crazy,’” he said. “That’s the pivotal moment in my career, being able to find that community that I could give back to.”
Eckhardt left Huntingdon in 2023 to move to TruMark Financial Credit Union, where he still works today as the director of government banking.
Eckhardt’s desire to help the community didn’t stop with his banking work.
One day he was cleaning out his basement when he found a load of his daughters’ old sports equipment. After some research, he could only find places to donate it where those who needed it would still have to pay.
Thinking further, Eckhardt had the realization that he probably wouldn’t have been able to play youth sports, something he loved, without donated equipment. Doing the math and using baseball as an example, Eckhardt worked out that going from no equipment to full equipment would cost over $200 for just one child.
“I looked at that and said there’s no way people can just say I want to try baseball out and spend $250, there’s no rentals, there’s not options for people that have to decide whether they’re going to buy groceries or let their kid play baseball,” he said.
Eckhardt knew that there needed to be a solution, and on April 1, 2025, he started Pass the Play, his non-profit foundation dedicated to providing sports equipment for children who need it.
Donations of used sporting equipment are taken by Pass the Play in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and given out to children throughout those areas as well as in Philadelphia. Children, and the families of those children, can get the equipment either at gear exchanges or through an online form. If Pass the Play doesn’t already have the equipment on hand, they’ll put out a specific request to locate what is needed.
The next phase for Pass the Play is being able to accept monetary donations, something Eckhardt and his team are working on now. These will be used similarly to scholarships and will be able to help cover costs like registration fees.
The monetary donations will also be going towards Pass the Play’s ongoing commitment to being involved and working with local businesses. For example, a local photographer, Cassidy Lynn, has offered to donate her time to take sports pictures; these donations will support that relationship.
“It just feels so easy because people care about kids and people care about sports, so they want to jump in,” Eckhardt said. “It’s been easier finding people to help or donate than dealing with all the admin stuff, that’s been the hard part!”
–Naomi Thomas
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