Chris thought we didn’t like him.
Connected through a board member matchmaking service, Chris received an introductory email, but we (Reach) never responded. Eventually, when Chris followed up with the service about our silence, the matchmaker asked us, “Are you not interested?”
It turns out that the email from the matching service was sent to an address ending in reachincorporated.com (we’re a .org, folks!).
Once we actually got to connect with Chris, we were intrigued. He’s a DC native, clearly committed to his city. His educational journey started at Lasalle-Backus, a DCPS school. His undergrad was at GW. Though he left for a bit to attend some school in Connecticut, he returned to this city – his city – to contribute through social impact investing.
But, he was…quiet.
In board members, you want evangelists. You want people that will get others excited about your work. And Chris seemed…quiet. He was also clearly smart, committed, and passionate. Specifically, he did housing in his day job, and he wanted to dig into some other issue through his volunteer work. He wanted to learn.
So, we invited him to join our board. We thought we’d need to support him in becoming an evangelist.
Ha!
Within weeks (weeks!), his then employer had become a major donor. His (now former) colleague, Yolanda, has become a wonderful thought partner and supporter. He continues to look for ways to support, celebrate, and amplify our work. We know that Chris, now the Senior Director of Fund Design and Modeling at LISC, is going to do good things for our city.
Chris has forever been #AlwaysThere for DC. And, because he knows that Reach is, too, he’s #AlwaysThere for Reach.
During the month of December, we aim to raise $200,000 to support our ongoing
programming. While it’s changed this year, we remain committed to providing
comprehensive support to hundreds of students this year. We can’t do this without
your support. Please consider making a gift here. So far, we've raised $95,766.
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