Q&A WITH RETIRING CEO GREGORY KEPFERLE
On October 24, retiring CEO Greg Kepferle was honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from two local organizations. During a lunchtime celebration, the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits recognized Greg’s lifetime of service with a special recognition as part of the organization’s Annual “Be Our Guest” event and Community Impact Awards.
During an evening dinner and reception, the second Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Greg at the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Annual Corporate Philanthropy Event and Community Impact Awards.
Retiring CEO Gregory R. Kepferle reflects on his mission-driven career serving others and almost 20 years leading Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
What is your proudest accomplishment?
I am proud of Catholic Charities’ compassionate and professional care for our families and neighbors in need. I am proud to have had the honor of leading such an exemplary organization both in times of plenty and times of crisis, growing both the depth and the breadth of our services to help even more people meet their needs.
I am proud of how much our agency has changed and grown and yet stayed true to our mission and values and retained our overarching culture of compassion. Over the past twenty years we maintained our commitment to Senior Services, Kinship Resources, Youth Empowered for Success, and Handicapables. Our CORAL after school program has grown five-fold, and we expanded Behavioral Health Services, Refugee Foster Care, Immigration Legal Services, the Employment Network, Housing Services, and our Charities Housing developments. We launched new programs like Advocacy and Community Engagement, Parish Engagement, Family Resource Centers, Family Assets Development, Inmate Services, Re-entry Services, the Window, Disaster Response Services, Food Distribution, the Franklin-McKinley Children’s Initiative and now the new Rotary Mobile Medical Clinic. And we continue to innovate in disrupting poverty from the lessons learned through Step Up Silicon Valley to our new strategic initiative, Footsteps: Pathways to Self-sufficiency.
What have you learned about effective leadership during your career?
Through 35 years serving in leadership roles in three different Catholic Charities agencies, I have learned a lot about what not to do and how not to do it. I could probably write a book on this. First, it is important not just to have a vision and shared values, but to be able to communicate these so that others are inspired and motivated to act with compassion. It’s recognizing that it is not all about you, but about the mission, the people we serve, and the team that makes it happen. It’s having the wisdom and prudence to discern when to say “No” to worthy endeavors so that we can say “Yes” to focus our resources on truly transformative strategies. It’s about recruiting a competent compassionate team and giving them the support they need to lead others. It’s having the integrity and humility to admit when I am wrong, and a heart that listens to the wisdom of those we serve. It’s having the courage to challenge the systems that keep people excluded and in poverty. And it’s about having a spirit of joy and gratitude that celebrates the accomplishments of others.
A defining characteristic of your 19 years leading Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County has been your prioritizing community partnerships and high levels of collaboration – not only among government agencies and other nonprofits, but also with the families and individuals who are living in poverty and asking for help. What led you to reach out and make these connections?
As the saying goes, “It takes a village.” Not a single person, not a single agency, nor a single neighborhood can break the cycle of poverty, end hunger and homelessness, and bring healing and hope to our communities. It takes all of us working together, because the issues of poverty, social injustice and natural disasters are so large and complex. I first learned the power of collaboration responding to the Loma Prieta Earthquake working with multiple nonprofits, faith- based organizations, foundations, and government agencies. A mantra I have used throughout my career since then is, “Don’t duplicate. Collaborate!” We can leverage each other’s resources, rely on the unique strengths each organization brings, learn from each other, and create solutions that are greater than the sum of its parts.
Our agency’s response to helping tens of thousands of our neighbors who were impacted by the economic effects of COVID was a herculean effort that unfolded rapidly. Looking back, what is your takeaway from the intensive period in the early months of the pandemic?
I am so proud of the amazing response by our team, volunteers, and community members during the pandemic. Schools were closed, seniors were required to shelter in place, seniors and families were struggling to access food, children to access education, and unemployed workers struggling to find enough money to survive. The readiness, willingness, and agility of our team was amazing. We call it “the pandemic pivot.” Within a matter of days our CORAL after-school staff were distributing groceries to lines of thousands of cars in parish parking lots, and behavioral health and youth services staff were driving to isolated seniors’ homes.
How has your faith guided you throughout your career? Ignatian spirituality - find God in all things. Faith in action.
Other staff pulled from Immigration Legal Services and other departments opened a hotline to distribute millions in financial assistance to immigrants. Senior meals became curbside to-go boxes. We launched rental assistance programs with funding from the City of San Jose and Destination:Home. Staff went door to door in neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic to urge people to get vaccinated. And CORAL staff managed public school classrooms during the day for vulnerable children. When a crisis hits, our staff runs towards the disaster to help people in need. We do it nimbly, competently and compassionately. This is why I am proud to have led Catholic Charities.
What would you tell a college student who aspires to work in the nonprofit sector?
Come to Catholic Charities! You will never find an organization with such depth and breadth and community connections, locally, nationally and internationally. As a member of Catholic Charities of California and Catholic Charities USA we are part of the global network of Caritas Internationalis in Rome. Especially in these troubled times, our community needs people with a heart for selfless service. Be ready to find a job that uses your best skills and moves your heart. More than a career, perhaps here you will find a true calling where, as Frederick Buechner says, “your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.”
Many people think of social service agencies only in terms of their programs and their delivery of service to people in need. Why is advocacy such an important part of moving the needle on poverty?
Since the 1910 founding of the National Conference of Catholic Charities which became Catholic Charities USA, we have been called “the attorney of the poor,” that is, advocates as well as service providers. Since the 1970s we have described our mission as involving service, advocacy and convening, where “advocacy” was the short-hand term for transforming society. It’s not enough just to help someone with immediate needs, we need to address the root causes and the systemic barriers to social and economic justice, and work to build a just and compassionate community as we say in our mission statement. Advocacy is not just about professional staff supporting or opposing public policies, but in its best form appears when the community members themselves speak out on behalf of their concerns. Our strategy then includes facilitating and developing engaged community members through family-centered community change.
While we can alleviate, reduce and prevent poverty, I don’t believe we can serve our way completely out of poverty. Poverty is too embedded in the socioeconomic and political reality of our country. Rather it takes all three pillars: service, advocacy and convening. First, find effective and efficient ways to help families address their needs and improve their economic mobility. Second, scale those solutions through new public policies while advocating to change current policies that are barriers to self-sufficiency. And, third, do this by convening unlikely allies from the private sector, government, faith communities, neighborhood groups, and other community-based organizations.
What words can you give us to inspire those of us who will continue your work here at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara county?
I am still looking for the answer to the question on my wall from 19 years ago: What will revolutionize how we care for the poor?
● Never give up.
● You are making a difference, even though you don’t see it every day.
● And at the end of the day, it’s in God’s hands. You are the hands and feet of Christ. You encounter Christ in the people you meet. It’s simply about love. Having compassion with professional skill. Keep on changing lives for good. And keep on doing good – better.
