PLATINUM2021

Catalyst Miami

Miami, FL   |  www.catalystmiami.org

Mission

To identify and collectively solve issues adversely affecting low-wealth communities throughout Miami-Dade County.

Ruling year info

1997

CEO

Gretchen Beesing

Main address

3000 Biscayne Blvd Suite 210

Miami, FL 33137 USA

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Formerly known as

Human Services Coalition of Dade County Inc

EIN

65-0690368

NTEE code info

Urban, Community (S31)

Employment, Job Related N.E.C. (J99)

Financial Counseling, Money Management (P51)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Catalyst Miami's vision is a just and equitable society in which all communities thrive. Even before COVID-19, 53.4% of Miami-Dade households were in liquid asset poverty, without the cash to survive 3 months in the absence of income (Prosperity Now 2020 Scorecard). Exacerbating these economic strains, Miami-Dade deals with the unknown of hurricane season each year. We estimate that a family of 4 needs $400-600 to prepare. For many, that cost is now out of reach.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

CLEAR

CLEAR = Community Leadership on the Environment, Advocacy & Resilience

The 10-week CLEAR program provides participants with the groundwork to become climate justice educators, leaders, and innovators in their own communities and beyond. Participants will develop a deep understanding of climate science, local climate change threats, and solutions.

Program graduates can apply for a Neighbors to Leaders Fellowship—mini-grants with continued mentorship—to support their own community resilience projects or initiatives.

Population(s) Served

HEAL = Housing Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership

The 7-week HEAL program provides participants with the groundwork to become affordable housing advocates, educators, leaders, and innovators in their communities and beyond. Participants will develop leadership skills and a deep understanding of the history of housing advocacy, cutting-edge solutions, and how to get involved locally.

Program graduates can apply for a Neighbors to Leaders Fellowship—mini-grants with continued mentorship—to support their own housing justice projects or initiatives.

Population(s) Served

Every year, we organize a three-day trip to Tallahassee, during which a delegation of community members, partners, and staff members meet with elected officials to discuss the issues of greatest concern to the communities we work with. Participants of Catalyst to the Capital (C2C) receive training, meet with legislators, and advocate for their communities.

Population(s) Served

The Neighbors to Leaders Fellowship provides assistance to such leaders who have gone through our leadership programs such as HEAL and CLEAR. Through this fellowship, participants gain access to financial resources, one-on-one technical support, and professional networks that advance the development of grassroots, community-based initiatives. This program allows our alumni to take the next step as they implement the training and skills they gained in our leadership programs to support their personal growth, strengthen our communities, and create a Miami-Dade in which we all thrive.

Population(s) Served

Including financial coaching, credit building & coaching, tax preparation, healthcare access, income supports enrollment, FAFSA assistance.

Population(s) Served

Small businesses are the bedrock of our local economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catalyst Miami was one of three organizations to receive a grant from the City of Miami to support small businesses that had suffered economic losses. We began providing technical assistance to help businesses get back on their feet, and we will continue offering this service beyond the pandemic.

Population(s) Served

The Worker-Owned Enterprises Program equips participants with the tools to create employee-owned businesses called worker cooperatives. These businesses are owned and democratically run by the people who work there. Through cooperatives, the Program contributes to a new, more resilient economy that works for all by supporting living-wage jobs, creating business ownership opportunities, and developing wealth from the ground up.

Population(s) Served

The Building Prosperity Workforce Cohort aims to help people transition into full-time, living-wage jobs. Each cohort member is placed with some of Miami's top workforce programs offering employment training and opportunities. As they each go through their programs, they also meet monthly as a group to share their learnings and support each other—receiving $50 for each group meeting they attend.

Population(s) Served

Future Bound Miami is a Children's Savings Account (CSA) program that establishes a free, long-term savings account for kindergarten students, increasing their readiness for college or postsecondary education. By 2023, we seek to establish a CSA for all kindergarten students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS).

Population(s) Served

The Enable Project is a Catalyst-led coalition that trains nonprofits about inclusion of people with disabilities in their organizations and movements. The goals of this collaborative project are three-fold:

to assist persons with disabilities in securing public benefits to which they are entitled;
to increase civic engagement among people with disabilities so that their voice is heard in policy decisions that impact their lives; and
to increase the representation of people with disabilities in social justice movements.

During 2019, the Enable Project, in collaboration with Venture Café Miami and the Cambridge Innovation Center, hosted several meet-and-greets, events, and workshops. Training and presentations focused on topics designed to increase access and inclusion in civic engagement and social justice organizing in Miami-Dade County. We placed specific emphasis on the intersection of civic engagement and disability, building capacity around disability benefits service delivery, planning accessible events, and the intersection of domestic violence/sexual assault and disability.

Population(s) Served

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of meetings or briefings held with policymakers or candidates

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Also created space for 482 community members to participate

Policy wins at local, state, and corporate levels.

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Local: 10 State: 10, Corporate: 1

Number of leadership development training graduates

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

CLEAR

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Decreasing

Context Notes

In 2019, we hosted 3 cohorts of CLEAR and 2 cohorts of HEAL. In 2020, we hosted 2 of CLEAR and 2 of HEAL.

Number of small businesses who received technical assistance

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of cooperatives incorporated

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Percentage of kindergarten students from first Future Bound Miami cohort to activate their free savings account

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

95% of kindergarten students received 2 sets of financial education lessons as part of the kindergarten curriculum

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Design and implement innovative programs to build the health, wealth, and civic engagement of people in low-wealth communities in Miami-Dade County.

Create opportunities for community members, business and civic leaders to work through and solve critical community issues together.

Promote engaged community leaders and constituency-informed policy and system reforms to better meet the needs of communities.

Catalyst Miami's community-building strategies are founded on the twin pillars of economic and democratic inclusion. Our work can be grouped into these twin pillars.

1) Community Economic Development
We believe residents are better able to prosper when they are healthy and financially secure. Through our free services and programs designed to help people and small businesses improve their health and financial stability, we are working to fulfill our vision of a more just and equitable Miami.

2) Policy & Advocacy
We believe community members should be at the helm of public decision-making, particularly regarding issues that are central to their lives. That’s why we train individuals to become grassroots leaders and build high-impact coalitions to effect change. Our policy and advocacy work also enables us to conduct deep community engagement, as well as coordinate and develop community-led programs that increase civic participation and resilience. Through this collective approach, we believe we can better build power toward constituency-informed policy and system reforms.

For 25 years now, Catalyst Miami has ensured that families' basic needs are met, provide coaching and tools to establish long-term wellness, and create effective coalitions of change-makers. We are a nimble, innovative nonprofit. We untangle the biggest, boldest strategies to addressing poverty until they work to fit to serve Miami. All the while, our programs and services are driven by and centered around our most vulnerable community neighbors. We regularly request feedback from our clients and re-design our programs and services to best meet their needs over time.

Catalyst Miami has launched numerous innovative programs and services each year. Here are just three:

1. Future Bound Miami is a universal children's savings account program (the first in Florida) available currently at 30 City of Miami schools. Having launched in 2019, Future Bound Miami received funding from Miami-Dade County to expand to the next 98 schools in 2020. The program will continue to scale until it serves all of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

2. In our financial coaching work, we regularly re-imagine ways and products to best help our clients save and build wealth. Finding ways to support clients dealing with hurricane season on an annual basis has given way to different solutions such as no-interest emergency loans and a matched savings program as covered by US News World & Report (A Miami Nonprofit Promotes Disaster Savings Accounts in Hurricane Season, September 22, 2020).

3. For 15 years, we've traveled with community members to Tallahassee every year to speak with our elected officials. 2021 was the the first time we met virtually with our legislators. We advocated for issues including Medicaid expansion, stable housing during the pandemic, and against the anti-protest bill.

Our advocacy and mobilization initiatives are creating transformative ecosystems:

- Building, growing and catalyzing new networks
- Connecting and leveraging existing networks
- Achieving policy wins through networks
- Increasing voter education and engagement
- Raising the level of community-led advocacy
- Boosting community participation in town halls, associations, committees
- Providing leadership development and opportunities to learn about public policy

Our comprehensive programs and financial products are making a difference:

- Lowering liquid-asset poverty and financial insecurity
- Reducing the number of unbanked and underbanked residents
- Lowering unemployment and underemployment
- Increasing the number of people with health insurance
- Increasing access to income supports, such as SNAP, TANF and EITC, for those most in need
- Helping people and small businesses find opportunities to boost their economic resilience

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We act on the feedback we receive

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection

Financials

Catalyst Miami
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build 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.

Catalyst Miami

Board of directors
as of 02/22/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Damian Daley

DLF Attorneys

Term: 2021 -

Aileen Alon

aire ventures

Charles M. Auslander

Crabtree & Auslander

D. Marcus Braswell

Sugarman & Susskind

Mary C. Casey

JPMorgan Private Bank

Joaquin Dulitzky

AllianceBernstein

Jason R. Kaye

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Giuseppe F. Mantica

IBERIA Bank

Charmel Maynard

The University of Miami

Daniel Tramel Stabile

Shutts & Bowen

Gina Ciraldo Stabile

Cosmedical Technologies

Marjorie York

none

Cristina Zampieri

Amerant Bank

Melanie Garman

Truist Bank

Nyame Nti Nsibienakou-Fawohodie

Department of Health

Melanie Hapner

Amazon

Francoise Cham

Self-employed

Korene Stuart

Black Girls CODE

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

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

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 4/12/2021

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
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 03/12/2021

GuideStar 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

Data
  • 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.