Few American cities face a more daunting homeless crisis than San Francisco, where on any given day 38,000 people walk the streets and settle into doorways and back alleys without food or shelter.
On top of that challenge, the Bay Area is home to a rapidly growing immigrant population from a host of countries, whose members are often in need of day-to-day help simply to survive.
Catholic Charities
At the heart of this city’s burgeoning demand for social services, ranging from housing and meals to legal assistance and education, is Catholic Charities San Francisco.
In order to affect the lives of its struggling constituents in a meaningful way, the agency has had to dramatically change in some ways.
It’s changed the way it manages and delivers a constellation of assistance programmes through its 500 employees and $60- to $90-million annual budget, among the largest in the Catholic Charities USA network.
Training programme
Rising to help meet that formidable challenge to Catholic Charities, not just in San Francisco but in its agencies across the country, is a new nonprofit executive management training programme.
As of this spring, the programme will have brought top-tier business school knowledge and skills to local leaders at nearly all of Catholic Charities’ 167 offices.
The programme gives Catholic Charities the opportunity to break from more than a century of entrenched management rules and regulations.
This then enables the nation’s largest purveyor of social services to move a new business model characterised by best practices, strategic thinking and, above all, the relentless need for change that nearly every office is now facing.
“The executive-level training enabled me to develop a robust theory of change across our agency, and that’s helped us to ensure the sustainability of key assistance programs and services,” said Ellen Hammerle, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities San Francisco.
One programme that has already benefited, she points out, is the Center for Immigration, Legal and Support Services.
Traditionally beset by fiscal challenges, that center revamped the structure of its extensive legal services programme to make it more of a business model than a social services model.
The process they use to do this was guided by the innovative thinking and strategic tools that Dr. Hammerle acquired from her nonprofit management training.
The need for advanced, C.E.O.-caliber education is echoed across the Catholic Charities network.
“We have amazing leaders in our Catholic Charities offices, but many don’t have the background of running what amounts to an independent business and don’t have the financial resources to get that in-depth training,” explains Anthony Sciacca.
He’s the executive vice president and chief development officer of Catholic Charities USA.
“Our C.E.O.s are thrilled that a course of this magnitude is being offered to them, and at the conclusion, they can’t wait to take what they have learned back to their respective organizations for implementation.”
Putting the ‘Theory of Change’ to Work
Catholic Charities in Green Bay, Wis., is closely following that playbook.
It is deploying theory of change tools that Karmen Lemke, director of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Green Bay, gleaned from her advanced business training.
These tools aim to target humanitarian services that will have the greatest impact on resource-poor communities in some 16 mostly rural counties of Northeast Wisconsin.
“It’s here, beyond the borders of Green Bay, where some of the greatest social needs exist, and where our unique presence can fulfill what God is calling on us to do to serve those most in need,” said Ms. Lemke.
She manages a staff of 35 and an annual budget between $4.5 million and $5 million.
“My academic training is helping us to connect our goals with our mission and to draw on data-driven information and resources wherever possible to make those important decisions.
“It will also be helpful in measuring and communicating the impact of our outreach activities.”
Laura Deitrick, director of the Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego, which designed and delivers the certificate-granting program, underscores its ability to change the mindset of participants.
“These leaders are running very successful organisations, but a programme like this is designed to move their thinking to a more strategic level, which could mean greater engagement with their boards, for example.
“It could also mean for instance, figuring out what measurable outcomes they want to achieve in the community and then writing a budget that will get them there,” Dr. Deitrick said. Read more
- Randy Young is a freelance writer in New Jersey.