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When charity becomes a full-time job
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November 1, 2020As much as he enjoyed working with investors during his 32-year Wall Street career, Legate Mike Donoghue felt he had another purpose – to use some of what he had learned to help those less fortunate.
His opportunity came when, shortly after retiring at 58 as president of Phoenix Investment Advisor, he heard that Catholic Charities of Fairfield County in Connecticut was seeking a new executive director. “It’s what I like to call a ‘God-incidence,’” Donoghue said. Just 30 minutes earlier he had been praying for guidance about his next step.
After a national search that took several months, Donoghue emerged as the top candidate and assumed the Catholic Charities post Dec. 1.
Then, just as he was settling into the new position, COVID-19 hit. “It was a pretty crazy period,” he recalled. Knowing this was a time when the agency’s services would be needed the most, he said, “I wanted to keep every one of our programs open and active as long as we could keep employees safe, protected, and healthy.” Three large soup kitchens continued operating, offering 1,200 meals a day, triple the normal number, and food pantries provided 10 days of groceries to 300 families a month, twice as many as usual.
Because meals could no longer be served in a cafeteria, the agency switched to takeout. “We were still preparing meals, but people had to line up out front, socially-distanced six feet apart. Unfortunately, it looked like a bread line in the Depression era, but we were able to get people meals.”
Volunteer depletion, funds challenge – then Godsends
At the same time, Donoghue had to deal with a depleted volunteer corps that had included many seniors considered at higher risk of serious illness from the coronavirus. He reached out to younger volunteers and families, youth groups, and organizations like Legatus and the Order of Malta, who helped make sandwiches for the food centers.
Like many directors of nonprofit organizations, Donoghue also had to rethink ways to raise the money needed to maintain services.
Pre-COVID, the agency had been depending on three key fundraisers scheduled for May and June along with funds from the diocesan Annual Catholic Appeal, which was affected by the closure of churches.
Despite anticipating a $1.5 million to $2 million deficit, the agency broke even for the fiscal year that ended June 30, thanks to an outpouring of support from the community. “COVID’s been a challenging and difficult time,” Donoghue said, “but when times get tough, you really see the good in so many different people. The fundraisers we had planned turned into virtual events and ended up bringing in double the amount overall that we had budgeted for a year previously.”
Additionally, Donoghue reached out to pastors and parishes who organized drive-through food drives. “We would provide a list of items we needed most and publicize it through social media. People could either buy extra supplies or have them delivered and then on Saturday morning, they would drive through the parish parking lot, pop their trunks, and volunteers in masks and gloves would take the items out and load them into the Catholic Charities van.” The drives also provided an opportunity for pastors to greet parishioners and give them a blessing, Donoghue said. “It was a real community-building thing for parishes, a win-win all the way around.”
Roll-up-their-sleeves style
Legate Ann McCrory, a Catholic Charities of Fairfield County board member, credits Donoghue’s leadership with maintaining services and keeping the agency solvent during the coronavirus shutdown. “Mike did an amazing job of not only motivating staff to respond to the crisis of the moment, but also just by his presence on site and making sure communication got out there as to needs; he generated tremendous financial support for those services.”
Besides keeping the food centers and donations going, McCrory said Donoghue made sure the agency’s behavioral health services were converted from in-person to telehealth sessions and that the “meals on wheels” program for the elderly met a nearly overnight increase in demand. “It was a test of his ability to be nimble and react.”
Donoghue said, however, that although he has the job and title of executive director, his wife, Cece, does as much or more to help him and people in the community. “We’ve always been a team on that front. As soon as COVID hit, she helped organize the food drives and the sandwich preparation. We’ve always believed in working hard to serve people in need and she’s just been a tremendous partner in that.”
Despite the challenges of his new position, Donoghue hasn’t looked back. The biggest difference between his last job and this one has been the people. Although many work for modest salaries, he said, “They tell me how much they love their job . . . These people are the hands and feet of Jesus every day.”
JUDY ROBERTS is a Legatus Magazine staff writer.
