Missions to Movements

She Tripled the Budget and Built a 3-Campus Nonprofit - Here’s How with Hope Pavich from Care for Friends

• Dana Snyder • Episode 208

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What does it take to triple a nonprofit’s operating budget, raise $3.3 million for a capital campaign, complete a $10 million dollar facility renovation, AND expand to three campuses, all in just six years? Hope Pavich, Executive Director of Care for Friends, joins me to share how she did exactly that. 

In this episode, you’ll hear how Hope’s team identified service gaps to build an innovative grocery delivery program for unhoused youth that now reaches 30 of Chicago’s 50 wards, and why funders jumped to support it. Plus, how an unexpected construction delay funneled into a long-term partnership with the Church of the Atonement, and why focusing on shared values over speed can create sustainable, scalable growth.

Hope is no stranger to strategic growth and mission aligned innovation. She also shares her process for crafting clear, funder-friendly storytelling, along with real-world examples on collaboration and leading through uncertainty.

Resources & Links

Learn more about Care for Friends, their programs, and how to donate.

Check out The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level.

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SPEAKER_01:

Today's guest is no stranger to bold moves, strategic growth, and mission-aligned innovation. Hope Pavich is the executive director of Care for Friends, a Chicago-based social services organization that has not only expanded to three campuses, but also tripled its operating budget, raised a 3.3 million capital campaign, and completed a 10 million facility renovation all within the past six years under her leadership. She brings over 16 years of nonprofit leadership experience to the table. And her superpower, if I dare say we talk about a zone of genius, is spotting service gaps and filling them with creative, funder-friendly solutions. So in this episode, we really dive into how Hope and her team designed a grocery delivery program for unhoused youth that now reaches 30 wards across Chicago, how she navigated a construction delay by really doubling down on values-driven partnerships, and what it takes to scale when you're a resource-conscious but impact hungry. I am very excited. It is full of real-world examples that you want to take a ton of notes on. Let's get into it with help.

SPEAKER_02:

Who is literally touching the work that you guys are doing that's advancing your mission already? And really looking around to see who is there supporting you already can one make you feel less alone. And I think that in itself is so powerful and so important in kind of freeing up the mind space. Because when you think the success of the organization only falls to you, yes, that's overwhelming and stressful, but it's also not true. There are so many people who are going to be involved in the work that you're doing. And so it's really useful to look around and think, okay, this is the community. This is the community that we're supporting, but it's also supporting us and supporting me and the work that I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, you've helped lead Care for Friends through some major transformations, including, let's just list a few, tripling the operating budget, expanding to a third campus, and launching a capital campaign. Listener, if you are interested in A, B, C or all of the above, hope is here for you. Can you walk us through maybe one? I'm sure there are many challenges, but one specific challenge you might have faced in that journey and how you solved it in a way that really aligned with the mission and sustainability?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, absolutely. There are many. So that is a very good question. So just to kind of ground us at Care for Friends, we're working to make sure that easy access to food, housing, and health care is a reality for everybody. So staying true to that mission has helped us really navigate some of the most unexpected challenges that have come up during this entire process. So one of the biggest hurdles that came to care for friends under my tenure happened even before we started construction on the new community center. So we have a lot of operations. And before construction began, I am not a procrastinator because that makes me anxious and stressed. And usually that helps a great deal. But before we moved into the new community or before the construction began, I was working along with the board to try to find a space that could both accommodate all of our operations and our needs, but also align with us in terms of what our values and what our mission was. And so during that process, we were introduced to the Church of the Atonement, which is a very mission-driven Episcopalian church in the neighborhood of Edgewater. So, kind of as an aside, churches make ideal landlords because they tend to have an enormous amount of space. If you are watching this on video, this is where I am now. And they are also typically very community service-driven, and maybe not most important, but certainly very important, they also usually afford or offer really affordable rent, which is clearly key. So we clearly, Care for Friends clearly saw that this was a good fit, but atonement had to get there as well. So after several thoughtful meetings and a detailed 45-page RFI, which I made the mistake of opening on a Sunday brunch, and I was like, oh my gosh, they got questions. I gotta have answers. So after all of those meetings and us filling out that RFI, both sides agreed that this was gonna be a good fit. And so, like, great, we found our space, construction's about to begin. Yay for not procrastinating. We're in a great, you know, we're in a great space. So as we were physically moving, like literally physically moving, I got the call that unfortunately construction was going to be delayed because of rising material costs. So as you can imagine, yes, it was during kind of like the custs, the tail end of COVID. Yeah. All of those costs at that point had just skyrocketed. So we needed to take a step back and figure out, okay, how do we move forward? I mean, this was already going to be an expensive project and this has gone up. And so it was the right choice to delay the construction. But at that point, we were already physically moving, and we really felt like, okay, if we postpone the move, that could possibly just jeopardize all of the work that we put into it, you know, into getting the atonement space and into making them feel comfortable, right? Because that was a big piece of it. And if all of a sudden we backtracked, we're just kidding, we don't need you anymore. Or right now, that could really jeopardize that situation. So we made the intentional choice to continue moving forward with the move. But we were very transparent with the church of what was happening and said, hey, you know, we initially had said this is gonna be a one and a half year lease, but we're thinking it's gonna be a bit longer. Three years later, we are still here. So that was true. But the relationship has just grown and that partnership has deepened to a point where we have actually both sides agreed that even after we move into the new community center, we will continue to have a presence up here in Edgewater because the community, yeah, the community has been awesome. You know, the donors, the volunteers, the guests, obviously Atoma, everybody has been amazing. And so it really didn't make a whole lot of sense for us to say, thanks for the three years, we're out. We're out, right? Right. So just making sure that everyone had kind of shared values was really critical in terms of making that journey not just stay on track, but also have an amazing outcome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And that might not have happened if you were there for a short amount of time. Like it might have been just so busy, we're going in, we're moving out, and now you've really made this solid impact there. You also mentioned that you've really successfully filled some critical service gaps with very innovative ways of funding that appeal to funders. Can you give an example of one of those where it really resonated with funders? I'm sure, especially in the moment we're living in right now, we're all looking for really creative solutions to bring to the table to stand out, but to also showcase like our sustainability in the mission that we're funding and fueling.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. And when we care for friends, when we're designing these programs, yes, we have to make sure that we're filling these social gaps, these social service gaps, but also looking at it from a funder's perspective. So whenever we're thinking about programming or designing programming, I always like to take a step back and look at it and think, would I donate to miss, would I focus, right? And if the answer is no, then you got to take another step back and figure out why the answer is no and kind of tweak it and adjust it accordingly until you get yourself a yes from yourself. I love that pause.

SPEAKER_01:

Seeking yourself outside of it for a second.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't like to say I'm frugal, but I'm frugal for sure. And so for me, obviously I support and donate our organization, you know, but I'm not an easy sell. So I think having that lens is really important. But one program that we have really grown and had an expanded impact is a program that we call the CarePax Delivery Program. And so back in 2019, when I first started at Care for Friends, we had launched an after-school program for Untouched youth. And we kicked it off in September of 2019. But then there was a fairly large teacher strike in Chicago, there were the holidays, and of course, then there was COVID. So we had done all the upfront work to make this program happen. And then external influences made it that it just wasn't, especially after COVID started, it wasn't really possible for us to continue to operate that program. But we had already made all of those connections. And so we still wanted to figure out a way that was supportive of the youth, but wasn't redundant. And so at that point, Chicago Public Schools was already offering hot meals. But after talking to the guidance counselors and teachers, what we realized is that these youth, especially the ones that don't have kind of a stable place to stay, really needed grocery support. And so in 2020, we received a microgrant to support youth. And we had to stop our volunteer program during COVID. So we have a volunteer program of about 600 folks. We had to pause that clearly. And so it was just myself and one other part-time staff person that was running the rest of the meal program. So we used that grant to get groceries through Instacart. And that's how we figured out that there was a huge need for this particular program. And then in 2021, we thought, okay, this has been such a demand for this. We need to make this program in-house. And so the way that we designed it was first kind of look at what other grocery delivery programs that exist offer groceries delivery to where students are staying, straight to their door. And we realized a few things. That one, at that point, all of the grocery delivery programs that existed were for homebound individuals, which is incredibly important. But at that point, there were no programs that delivered directly to youth. And on top of that, we were looking at youth who are living in not just food deserts, which gets a ton of attention, but also transportation deserts, meaning, you know, they're in an area that may have a bus, but here we call them ghost buses. So you're waiting for a bus that says it's coming, and then all of a sudden it just falls off the radar. This happens unfortunately a lot, a lot. And so if you don't have reliable transportation, you don't have access to healthy food choices, you're gonna go to the local, you know, corner store just to get some stuff, which obviously doesn't have a lot of good options. And so the uniqueness of this program was kind of hitting all of these different things. It was delivery service to youth, staying in these areas that have transportation and food access issues. And the most important piece of it is that we say it doesn't matter where we are or where that student is, as long as they are in the city of Chicago, we will deliver to them. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

So what would they? They would provide you with a house address, or it didn't matter.

SPEAKER_02:

It didn't matter. Sometimes we're delivering to school, sometimes we had one student who had an arrangement with the post office. We would deliver it there. A lot of students have actual housing, but it's called doubled up. So that is still a situation where someone is experiencing homelessness because they themselves don't have their own stable home. So they're bouncing from place to place to place. And so we also realized that it had additional impact because they were able to actually share the groceries with the people who were giving them a place to stay. So that kind of alleviated certain tensions within the household, you know, because you can overstay your welcome pretty quickly, especially if the, you know, there's nothing.

SPEAKER_01:

Adding to the bills and that, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Exactly. And so there are 50 wards in the city of Chicago, and through this program, we deliver to over 30 of them, actually. And so the funders really saw the unique aspect of this and how, and to this day, you know, our partners say that there's no other program in the city that offers something like this. So it continues to be an incredibly unique program. And obviously, funders respond to that. They want to be a part of a solution that's so unique and not redundant.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Is it mostly funded by grants where it kind of started, or has it expanded into individual giving as well? Both. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, absolutely. So individual giving, a lot of times we have events and we'll highlight one particular program that we really want to be supported by that particular event, that as well. And then of course, grants too.

SPEAKER_01:

Phenomenal. That's amazing. So, how often are you reporting or sharing the impact to those funders? Is that on an annual basis?

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. It's through an, you know, it's on an annual basis with our annual report. I always write an annual letter in December and share that with the funders, with our donors, with just the community. And so, of course, you know, I do occasional phone calls and outreach to major donors and kind of give them the updates in terms of the impact of that program. But particularly for any foundations that we receive funding from, that's on an annual basis.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I love like the through line that leads right into what I wanted to ask you next, which is the blend of strategy and storytelling when it comes to approaching supporters. What have you found? And it could be with this program or many others that you have, when it comes to really crafting that really comparative storytelling narrative that's highlighting the problem. But also, I just had Trevon Williams earlier this year from the NAACP talking about making sure that they're part of a winning team. So showcasing like this is a solution. Are you ready to be a part of it? It's gonna do this. We just need your help to get it to this part, right? So it's like the problem and like you can help make this possible. How do you work through that within conversations or within marketing that you do?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in keeping it as simple as possible because clearly define what that issue is. Yes, clearly define that, but then clearly define what's the solution. And this is where the story really is that I find very compelling for funders is what is their place in that story. But you have to make it simple, right? Because these issues can be incredibly complex, but funders don't have time to wade through the stories to figure out where their place is in that story. It is your job, it is your responsibility to make that clear and compelling for them. So I think it's really important also to not just get stuck in what the problem is. I find that to be not more often than not, but I find that to happen fairly often that you are only hearing about the problem, right? It's like, here's the problem. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. You're like, yeah, yeah, I get it now. I understand what the problem is, but where is my part in addressing that problem? That's right. And that is what your job is as a development chair, head leader, to make sure that you're clearly explaining what each person's role is in helping you address whatever that problem is. I find it to be very personally unsatisfying when I'm stuck, right? When there is a problem that's just being told to me and I'm like, I don't know how to solve it. I don't know how to address it. And then instead of getting, you know, being able to clear headed figure out what that solution can be, you just get frustrated and then you walk away, right? So if you can clearly define it, fine, but don't get stuck in that.

SPEAKER_03:

Move forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Show them what that is.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you think that's what addressed the change of really since you've been there, the capital campaign, the operating budget growth? Was that a definitive change when you came on to say, hey, leadership and board, this is how I'm going to be approaching things? Like what were the key things that you think led to that shift happening? Or was it already like that and you just took it to the next level?

SPEAKER_02:

When I first started, one of the first things I did was sit down with every board member. Because even if you have a strategic plan that everyone has contributed to, everyone's gonna have a different take on what that strategic plan is. And everyone's gonna have ideas that perhaps weren't flushed out in the strategic plan that are still incredibly valuable. And so when I first started, I realized that yes, it was a small organization, smaller than it is now, it was one place, one operation. But there wasn't a clear desire to be able to meet the demand of whatever the demand was, right? And not just kind of pass a baton on to somebody else, but to really meet whatever issues that there were with a creative solution. Knowing that, I felt very empowered to be able to kind of have a little fun with it, right? And say, hey, you know, I think there's a space here, for instance, right? The after-school program. We're not really supporting youth, but I think there's an opportunity here. And this is how I see it happening. And again, the after-school program didn't pan out for aforementioned reasons, but the care pack delivery program did, and it came from that opportunity. And so I really did use a strategic plan that had been created as a guide, but I really kind of read between the lines and all of those discussions I had with, you know, board members and funders and volunteers and donors and just the community to figure out okay, there's a clear desire for what we do, right? And there's a clear desire for funders to support that. How do we make that happen? How do we get to that next level? And so there was always this feeling of I'm supported, but without kind of this micromanaging way, which allowed me to go out there and just kind of toss some stuff at the wall, right? And see what stuck. And some things did and some things didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

And be able to take the approach. And you talk about really that trust and that alignment was there that allowed for these things to happen. So leading a$3.3 million capital campaign along a 10 million facility renovation with a partner, those things had to come with strong trust and collaboration from all angles. Was the capital campaign to be able to do the facility renovation for those tied to each other?

SPEAKER_02:

They were tied to each other, exactly. We had been very clear with the state of Illinois that the building that we care for friends was operating out of was really, I don't want to say it was a public safety hazard, but we had the public in there, and that building was imploding. So it was kind of a public safety hazard. And we needed a better space in which to carry out the programs in that neighborhood because there was a huge demand for what we were offering. And so the state of Illinois, after again, many talks and meetings and things of that nature, agreed to support us with a three million dollar grant. So that was to this day, that is the only government funding that Care for Friends has ever received. Everything else has been external. So that's been really fantastic. And it's great to have that. But when we received that word that we were going to get that$3 million from the state, we decided to go into partnership with Church of Our Savior, which is another Episcopal church. You'll see a theme here. And that was already a long-standing partner of ours because they created us. So in 1968, this church in Lincoln Park, which is a neighborhood in Chicago, they started giving us place for folks who were experiencing unrest during the 1968 Democratic Convention, letting them sleep in the pews, feeding them, things like that. So it was really supposed to be a one-off, but the need continued to exist. And so they continued to serve meals. And then in 2012, they decided this has really outgrown the operational capacity of the church. And so that's when Care for Friends became its own 501c3, its own, you know, separate entity. Having said that, Church of Our Savior is still a very strong partner of ours. So it only made sense for us to go in together in that building to make it a resource for the entire community. And I would really encourage anyone against going into such a high-stakes project with a new partner. Because as you can imagine, there have been, such as the delay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

There have been unexpected setbacks and issues. And you know, that's always going to cause a bit of stress and a little bit of tension. But knowing and fully believing, right, that both parties had each other's best interests in mind really allowed for anything to be talked through. And I think having that trust and that kind of strong partnership to begin with has been absolutely key in the success of this building going up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 1000%. You've been there for is it six years? Mm-hmm. Yes, a little over. Yeah. You've been doing a lot of things. You've been busy for a leader that might be listening, or another nonprofit professional peer who is maybe feeling a little bit stuck. Like, I want to do these things, but I'm not feeling momentum. Or like I just need like a switch for something just to like give to happen. What is one step or idea that you would suggest that they take to really think boldly about growth, to get unstuck, even if they feel, which is so common, under resourced, or maybe they don't have that really strategic partner right now, partners.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that is that's common to feel right, under-resourced and stuck, right? That I just don't have the capacity to think through some of these issues. And if that happens, for me, it's so important again to take a step back. I love taking stepbacks. I'm probably in another room at this point. I've taken so many. But take a step back and observe who is literally touching the work that you guys are doing that's advancing your mission already. And really looking around to see who is there supporting you already can one make you feel less alone. And I think that in itself is so powerful and so important in kind of freeing up some mind space. Because when you think the success of the organization only falls to you, yes, that's overwhelming and stressful, but it's also not true. At the end of the day, it's just not true. There are so many people who are going to be involved in the work that you're doing. And so it's really useful to look around and think, okay, this is the community. This is a community that we're supporting, but it's also supporting us and supporting me and the work that I'm doing. So I think looking at when people think, oh, I'm so underresourced, a lot of time they're thinking about their staff, right? But really try to think outside of payroll.

SPEAKER_01:

I always like to think about like, what if you had like having the perspective of you have everything you already need? Have you just not tapped into it yet?

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Exactly. I love that. Yes. And think big, think small, right? Like one of our biggest partners is it's called the Andersonville, which is another neighborhood. We love our neighborhoods, Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, and they are incredibly successful Chamber of Commerce. Obviously, some are bigger, smaller, whatnot, but they are a very successful chamber and they have a wide network, much wider than the Care for Friends Network. And every year they host an event for us called the Culinary Battle of Royale. And even through social, it's so much fun. It's actually tomorrow. Even I know, even through, you know, their social media has expanded our social media and has grown the network. But just having such a passionate, again, mission-aligned entity that's throwing us this incredible event, which takes a ton of lift. Yes, I'm doing some things, but takes a lot of lift off my plate. But at the same time is getting together so many groups of folks that would never even have heard of Care for Friends, you know, and that came out of conversations from meetings that, you know, we were both on. I said, oh, I'd like to learn more about you, and vice versa. So that's been huge. But even something that's seemingly so small can also add a lot of space in your brain. We get a lot at Care for Friends, a lot of deliveries, a lot of deliveries of food and other things. And so every week we have to unpack boxes and kind of crush them down. And we do try to reuse them both for environmental but also financial reasons. But we still end up with a lot of boxes that need to be crushed. And that used to always fall to me, which I'll be honest, I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I think it's an annoying task, and I I don't want to say hated it, but I certainly did not look forward to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Doesn't sound like a great probably use of your time.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, but there are some people who are like, I find it very satisfying. Great, awesome. So they've stepped up, you know. I don't even have to think about a box anymore. It's just automatically they're just unpacked or crushed down or whatever. I don't even have to think about it. And something so small that you think is kind of silly has really allowed me to have more capacity and just brain space to think bolder, think bigger, you know, taking away, just think about all those little tasks that you have to do that, like you said, maybe are not a great use of your time that can be delegated to folks that are maybe interested in doing it, you know. I think a lot of times people feel a certain way about delegating, and I'm kind of using that word loosely when it, especially it's a volunteer, but people want to help. And if you can kind of clue into the things that they enjoy doing, it's a win-win. So I think that is something, you know, you can ask people to volunteer, but at the end of the day, if they're not enjoying what they're doing, they're not gonna come back. But if they're enjoying it, then the Lord keep coming back because you're giving them You're totally reminding me of.

SPEAKER_01:

I've just started the Big Leap book. I don't know if you've read this. No, but it basically walks you through like your zone of incompetence, which is things that others do better than you. This is like big time waste.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I'm gonna be using that from this week on.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. This is like I want to do a whole workshop on this. The zone of competence, which is like things that others do as well as you, but you'd be mediocre in this space. There's a zone of excellence, so you excel in this, like you add lots of value to others, but it doesn't really feed your soul. Like you could totally get good out of it, like you're comfortable at it, but is it really like your source of like makes you happy and gives you energy? And then you have your zone of genius. So things that just you are uniquely suited to do, and how often, if you were to your point, if you were to write down the task that what's your zone of incompetence that you're just doing because you're used to doing it? The zone of competence, we're like, you could do it, but should you be doing it? Is that really your strong suit? Zone of excellence, which is probably like the hardest one to get rid of. Sure. And then actually being in the zone of genius, which is actually where you feel fulfilled and the things that give you energy and don't deplete your energy. So I love everything that you just laid out. And listener, like, please make a list of the things that are draining you. And I think that will, to your point, like open up the areas for you to think boldly. And my question for you is as we wrap the conversation, is to ask boldly, what is something that listeners could support you on, provide help for you on?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, if they are in Chicago, we would of course invite them to come and volunteer with us because we love our volunteers. And as I've mentioned repeatedly throughout our conversation, they have helped us with so many things. But if you're not in the city, go to our website to learn more about the programs. And I would invite you, if the work that we're doing is speaking to you, I would invite you and very much welcome you to become a monthly donor because it really truly does help us figure out budgeting, right?

SPEAKER_01:

If we can love that you made that ask.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, it it's so helpful because if you can rely on certain income coming in, that is just incredibly, incredibly beneficial to the organization. So that would be my non-Chicago. And if you are a Chicago, also please become a monthly donor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I love that. So I will say there's an organization that I know of that made a request for people to join their monthly giving program, and it was such a niche audience. It was great. 2,500 people join their monthly giving program from that podcast conversation. What? Just saying. Just saying. It works. Keep asking. So hope, thank you so much for being here and all that you do. And I visit Chicago from time to time because I have family in the area. So whenever I am town, I will now hit you up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, you can choose from Southloop, Lincoln Park, or Edgewater because we'll be in all of those places.

SPEAKER_01:

Beautiful. Hope, thank you so much. Well, thank you, Dana.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movements. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.

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Dana Snyder

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