The Pope Effect

Pope Francis, who set DC, NYC and Philly ablaze last week with his six-day visit, has helped boost the Catholic church’s image and bring attention to several social issues. One Baltimore nonprofit is seeing the rewards. 

Catholic Relief Services, which provides humanitarian and economic development help in over 100 countries, is fielding more inquiries from all over the world. COO Sean Callahan, here with Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, says Pope Francis’ popularity among a wide range of people, not just Catholics, has helped bring more attention to the organization’s work after a challenging period for the church. More people are learning about the church’s social focus, which mirrors the work of CRS, and making more financial contributions to Catholic-affiliated organizations, says Sean. He spoke to us from Philadelphia, as his organization prepared for the Pope’s visit over the weekend.

The organization is run by Carolyn Woo, here with the Pope in June. CRS, with a projected $735M budget next year, works directly with existing, local organizations. Sean says CRS, unlike most crisis response organizations, stays in the communities it’s helping for long periods to make sure the local organizations are able to survive. He says the biggest challenge is capacity building among those organizations. That’s why CRS focuses on helping them find local funding sources and expertise.

CRS’ most recent work is in East Africa, helping local organizations deal with a drought in Ethiopia and Sudan. There’s also been continuing work related to the earthquake in Nepal, as well as providing assistance to Syria and surrounding countries as refugees flee the war. Sean says the organization, which has about 5,200 employees, will focus more on increasing impact investing, which are funds going to corporations and organizations that are used for social benefit, alongside financial return. CRS is also focusing on using information and communications technology to better serve the poor. Both issues have been focus areas for Pope Francis as well.