Kate was just promoted to VP of Advancement  from Director of Development and Community Engagement.

After growing up in Northern Michigan, Kate moved to Philadelphia to complete a service year working with low-income preschoolers. She then moved to Detroit and worked at a mental health hospital where she continued to learn about broken systems and systemic racism. Kate realized her passion was for helping and connecting people. This is why in 2004 Kate and her husband landed in Grand Rapids. Kate earned a BSW with a bachelor’s degree in theology and a minor in communications from Kuyper College. After graduating, Kate worked for the Heartside Neighborhood Collaboration Project (HNCP) where she convened leadership from Heartside nonprofits to maximize resources and minimize duplications.

This led her to her most recent role as Director of Development and Community Engagement with Family Promise of Grand Rapids, where she is able to combine her passions for helping people and connecting community into one! She and her husband Patrick love to call Grand Rapids home and are grateful for this amazing community! Kate was the 2014 Young Nonprofit Professional Network, Breakthrough Award Nominee and National Association of Social Workers, BSW Student of the Year. She also was a Certificated Mental Health First Aid Instructor.

Kate consistently provides strategic leadership around revenue development for their programming. She is rooted in connecting people to mission-based work and is passionate about Family Promise of Grand Rapids' mission of ending homelessness one family at a time. She works alongside her team to help bring the mission of Family Promise to the community to help families with children experiencing homelessness. Her personal goal aligns well with the family promise goal as she is driven to make a difference in her community by putting the families first in her work.

Some of her accomplishments since joining the Family Promise of Grand Rapids team are as follows:

• Assisted in Family Promise of Grand Rapids' first Capital Campaign raising over 2.5 million dollars.

• Along with her teammates, Kate launched the 100 Homes for 100 Families Campaign which doubled their Partners in Housing Program Homeownership Program.

• Instrumental in bringing Fulton Manor online in 2019 to provide 70 additional emergency family shelter rooms to meet the need of the community.

Quote from Cheryl Schuch, Executive Director for Family Promise of Grand Rapids: 

“Kate has been an important part of our leadership team at Family Promise of Grand Rapids for the past seven years. She has strategically led our advancement efforts through capital campaigns, program expansion into new areas, and the COVID-19 pandemic.  We are thrilled to recognize her contribution with this promotion and are excited to see the community partnerships and resources she and her team bring forward to help end homelessness for the families we serve.”

About Family Promise of Grand Rapids
Family Promise partners with families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by helping them get back on their feet so they can create a stable lifestyle for their children. Family Promise has helped over 6,000 children and 4,000 families build a strong foundation for their family’s future by providing emergency services, housing and homeownership opportunities, and stabilization services, to families with kids experiencing homelessness. With the help of their Foundation program, Interfaith Hospitality Network, FPGR families have found futures full of hope and possibility. For additional information visit, https://www.familypromisegr.org/