Caritas Communities was founded in 1985 to prevent homelessness and stabilize neighborhoods by providing affordable housing for the working poor. In the past 15 years, the organization has grown substantially, from 200 units of housing to over 1,000 in approximately 28 buildings in the Boston area. Today, it is the largest nonprofit owner and manager of permanent veteran and single room occupancy housing in Greater Boston. While most of the organization’s revenue comes from its real estate properties, Caritas also raises part of its annual budget through foundation grants and fundraising events. Caritas sought to build a robust development function that would allow it to double its fundraising income and provide a stronger base for the organization as it continued to expand its role as a service provider and an advocate for the working poor.

The Impact Catalysts team (as its predecessor firm, Root Cause) helped Caritas Communities structure a new fundraising plan. We helped Caritas articulate a theory of change, map revenues and costs, create an inventory of their private donor database, define board and staff roles in fundraising, and build a competitive landscape with the end goal of developing a fundraising plan and job descriptions for fundraising staff. Impact Catalysts also helped Caritas develop a donor prospectus summarizing the organization’s plans for the future in a format designed to be quickly understandable by funders and other stakeholders. As a result of our work, Caritas hired a Director of Fund Development and Communications who had a clear role, concrete goals, and a comprehensive strategy to execute. She has successfully grown revenue for Caritas, and the organization had their most successful annual dinner ever in 2016, grossing $1 million in donations, up from about $200,000 in 2012 when we began our project with them.