Story of Impact | Gracious Hands
Moving single women and children from homeless to housing
“You have to entrust.”
Dr. Sonja P. Chisolm, Gracious Hands Founder & Executive Director
Game-changing Opportunity
Support the transition from passion-fueled labor of love to sustained mission-driven organization.
Gracious Hands’ accomplishments serving homeless women and their children had been confined to the capacity of its founder and volunteers. A more formal operating structure was needed for the organization to thrive.
Reemprise’s Role
Go beyond passively providing financial resources to active partnership. Reemprise joined with Dr. Chisholm to identify the steps needed to move Gracious Hands towards long-term sustainability, working together to envision and implement a sustainable structure. These steps included budgeting, succession planning, evaluation and learning, and fundraising. Reemprise lent their own expertise as well as found additional needed expertise.
Making the Difference
Reemprise embraced and challenged Dr. Chisholm to imagine how a more structured organization could expand her impact. The new structure and systems have enabled Dr. Chisholm to re-envision the future for both herself and the organization. Just a little over a year later, she has entrusted her team to run most of the daily operations while she can focus on furthering the mission and opening more transitional housing.
Measurable Impact
Prior to funding from Reemprise, Gracious Hands was run 100% by volunteers. They now have five paid staff members, including an alum. In addition to taking the majority of the burden off of its founder, the staff has allowed them to deepen their impact.
Sustained Performance
In addition to acquiring multiple paid staff, Gracious Hands added a detailed annual budget, bookkeeping software, a data and evaluation approach, and engaged their board of directors through more financial involvement. With these sustainability necessities in place, Gracious Hands gained the ability to see beyond the founder and the ED role as well as realistically look at additional housing.