The mission of Catholic Charities USA is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same.
Catholic Charities USA is the membership association of one of the nation’s largest social service networks. More than 1,500 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions nationwide provide help and create hope for over 7.4 million people in need each year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.
For more than 275 years, local Catholic Charities agencies have been providing a wide range of vital services in their communities ranging from day care, adoption, and refugee resettlement to advocacy, counseling, and emergency food and housing. Today, the Catholic Charities network is made up of more than 52,000 staff and 210,000 volunteers.
Catholic Charities USA supports and enhances the work of its membership by providing networking opportunities, national advocacy and media efforts, program development, training and technical assistance, and financial support. Founded in 1910 as the National Conference of Catholic Charities, Catholic Charities USA is located near the nation’s capital in Alexandria, VA.
KERRY ALYS ROBINSON, PRESIDENT & CEO
Catholic Charities USA President Kerry Alys Robinson is a noted expert in Catholic leadership and philanthropy and only the second woman and second layperson to lead the U.S. Catholic Church’s domestic humanitarian work. In the past year, the nationwide Catholic Charities network served more than 15 million people in need.
For decades, Robinson has served the church and its mission to alleviate human suffering.
Most recently, she was an executive partner at Leadership Roundtable, which since 2005 has promoted excellence and best practices in the management, finances and human resource development of the Catholic Church. She was the group’s founding executive director.
Prior to that, Robinson served as director of development for Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University, leading a $75 million fundraising campaign to expand and endow the chapel’s ministry and construct a Catholic student center.
A member of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities and FADICA (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities), she has been an advisor to and trustee of more than 25 grantmaking foundations, charitable nonprofits and family philanthropies. She served for 15 years on the national committee for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Robinson is an accomplished writer and speaker and wrote the prize-winning Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy and a Spiritual Call to Service.
A graduate of Georgetown University and Yale, Robinson is married to Dr. Michael Cappello, professor of medicine and public health at Yale University. They have two children, Christopher and Sophie.