Carpenter's Shelter, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s 2018 Annual Point-In-Time Count found that 226 people including 29 families with 53 children are experiencing homelessness at any given time in the City of Alexandria. More than 650 homeless and formerly homeless people access our services every year in order to achieve sustainable, permanent housing in the community. Common factors contributing to homelessness include financial crisis (e.g. job loss or medical emergency), serious mental health or substance abuse disorders, chronic health conditions, physical disabilities, and/or domestic violence. Homeless people must also face the incredible scarcity of local affordable housing. Between 2000 and 2017, the City of Alexandria lost 16,000 market-affordable apartments—90% of the total market-affordable stock. Currently, only 6% of privately-owned rentals with ten or more units in Alexandria are market-affordable.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Emergency Residential Shelter
Emergency Residential Shelter is a 60-bed facility that provides safe, temporary shelter. The shelter has rooms for families, laundry and bathroom facilities, space for meal preparation, common areas, and a children’s play area. When they move into shelter, residents collaborate with case managers to plan a path to self-sufficiency.
Where we work
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Emergency Residential Shelter
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In late 2022, we began transitioning our Emergency Residential Shelter to serve families exclusively. We anticipate the number of children we serve each year in our Emergency Shelter will grow.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
In addition to serving as many people as possible, we aim to quickly move people from homelessness to permanent housing and to provide them with the support they need to sustain self-sufficiency. Carpenter's Shelter is also pursuing an ambitious property redevelopment project to add affordable and permanent supportive housing to our rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. With the help of our supporters, we ultimately hope to prevent and end homelessness in the City of Alexandria.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Carpenter’s Shelter's clients achieve success by taking advantage of our array of services throughout their journey to permanent housing. Clients who are not ready to pursue permanent housing benefit from meeting their basic needs in David’s Place day shelter and Winter Shelter. Those who are ready for permanent, sustainable housing benefit from residency at our emergency shelter. Residents participate in individualized, supportive services and employment and education programs. Once residents transition out of shelter, they benefit from community-based supportive services, which provide ongoing support in the form of one-on-one meetings and access to rental subsidies, scholarship funds, and more. Now, in addition to attending to the experiences of individual clients, Carpenter’s Shelter is deepening our commitment to re-housing the homeless by investing in a concrete solution to homelessness—the creation of affordable housing.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
With thirty years of experience, Carpenter’s Shelter’s core capacity as an organization is permanently re-housing people that are homeless. Our Board of Directors ensures commitment to our goals, monitors our progress, and provides sound financial oversight. Our senior leaders uphold our mission, track our outcomes, and guide our professional staff they offer clients individualized, supportive care. Moreover, unlike every other homeless services provider in the area, our primary funder is not the government. Individual donors, corporations, and private foundations remain our greatest source of funding. In fiscal year 2019, we anticipate contributions from private sources to comprise two-thirds of our total annual revenue. This diversified funding stream protects our clients and programs from government budget cuts. It also ensures our continued commitment to cultivating new relationships and protecting our existing partnerships.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In fiscal year 2018 (FY18), Carpenter’s Shelter served 661 unduplicated individuals across our range of programs. This is an 8% increase over the previous year. The following indicates the number of people served in each of our programs and the degree of change from FY17:
- Emergency Residential Shelter: 213 adults and 67 children (16% increase)
- David’s Place Day Shelter: 104 adults (14% decrease)
- Winter Shelter: 297 adults and 33 children (11% increase)
- Post-Shelter Supportive Services: 105 adults and 27 children (11% decrease)
- Carpenter’s Clinic: 315 visits
We have also progressed on our property redevelopment project. In FY18, we sold our property to Alexandria Housing Development Corporation, relocated residents and programs to a temporary location, and continued providing uninterrupted services. When we complete the new building in 2020, we will offer all of our current services and add 87 affordable apartments and 10 permanent supportive housing units to the area.
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Carpenter's Shelter, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 06/21/2023
Mr. Jim Taylor
The Urban Institute
Term: 2022 - 2023
Edith Bullard
ACLU of VA
Mike Lyden
Katahdin Associates
Michelle Millben
Explanation Kids
Jim Taylor
The Urban Institute
Jonathan Wolcott
Holland & Knight LLP
Jennifer Poersch
HLP&R Advocacy
Simone Putnam
Marcum LLP
Willie Bailey
Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department
Nicole Bradley
Amazon Web Services
Masharia Holman
Pretrial Services Agency for District of Columbia
Ankur Shah
SunBridge Capital Management
Katherine McCarron
Federal Trade Commission
Kisha Perkins
SoFi
Tracey Pilone
Element 84
Lindsay Hutter
Goodwin Living
Judy Geli Robinson
Host Hotels & Resorts
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/06/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.