Catholic Charities In the News
Harvard students share know-how with ‘charity’
February 7, 2009 - The Clarion Herald
By Peter Finney, Jr.
It didn’t take more than a few seconds to realize these students from the Harvard Business School meant business. They tossed around multi-syllabic words with ease and spoke in the rapid-fire cadence characteristic of the Northeast. They were the best and the brightest.
That’s why Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans was so excited to have students from the prestigious business school in town for a week Jan. 5-9, not to renovate houses but to offer expertise in developing a business plan template that Catholic Charities says will benefit its array of programs.
“The business plan template they provided will help us look at the puzzle pieces and put the puzzle pieces together,” said Aaron Portier, director of planning and evaluation for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Catholic Charities offers 48 programs that respond to the diverse needs of the poor and vulnerable. Because its programs are so wide-ranging, the social service agency felt it needed a better way to evaluate how well individual programs track the agency’s overall mission and how effective they are.
Portier said the Harvard template calls for programs to assess clients and their needs and then look at “the political, economic and regulatory realities” that affect the programs. For example, there may be other agencies providing similar services within the community, which should prompt a discussion of whether or not Catholic Charities should team up with other agencies.
The template directs Catholic Charities managers to review the previous year’s goals and objectives to see if they were met and encourages the use of consumer satisfaction surveys. Each program will examine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and concerns, and specific priorities that can be quantified are established for the next year.
With that information, each program can plan its upcoming budget and then track it regularly.
“The business planning template is another facet of our striving to provide the highest quality service to our clients,” Portier said.
A great price
And, all this expertise came at a great price – free.
“What surprised me was seeing how much the organization (Catholic Charities) is still recovering from Katrina and how much the hurricane affected operations and continues to affect operations,” said Mina Hsiang, the Harvard team leader who earned a master’s degree for her work on muscle-controlled medical devices that assist stroke patients. “It takes so much energy away from an organization’s ability to think strategically.”
Team concept
Hsiang and Harvard colleagues Emma Doggett, Sasha Duchnowski, Anastacio “Buzz” Teodoro and Abigail Wattley looked at four different service areas within Catholic Charities – childhood education, adult education, child and family services, and domestic violence services – and developed the business template after speaking with administrators and clients.
“I really hope this will enhance everyone’s ability to communicate and plan as an organization,” Hsiang said. “You guys are doing amazing things and have been so busy shooting out tentacles as a result of Katrina opportunities and money that you haven’t had a chance to have many vertical conversations.”
In other words, Catholic Charities has been like much of the rest of New Orleans, chasing its tail and trying to serve people and recover as quickly as possible.
“One thing we were constantly struck by was the volatility of funding and the challenge that imposes,” Hsiang said. “For a lot of nonprofits, funding or no funding drives so many decisions. That’s been true for almost every nonprofit I’ve worked for.”
A pitch for New Orleans
Catholic Charities co-presidents Jim Kelly and Gordon Wadge thanked the team for volunteering its week to help in another aspect of post- Katrina recovery. Last year, a similar group of Harvard Business School students came to New Orleans to work on a business model for the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance.
Wadge said there were numerous “career opportunities” in New Orleans, and Kelly also threw in a pitch for the future.
“I really hope and pray you will think about the poor and the vulnerable,” Kelly said. “There’s nothing more satisfying. We need bright, young people like yourselves who say, ‘Yeah, I can do this for you guys.’ As you look at your career options, I ask you to think about it. As we enter a tumultuous time over the next five years, we need more and more fresh faces, hearts and souls.”
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