I’m Michael Iglio, and I have the honor of serving as the CEO/President of Catholic Charities Fort Worth. As a chemical engineer by trade, my passion is finding and fixing the root cause of an issue, innovating, and disrupting processes to identify smarter approaches for achieving results. The more data and research behind a solution, the better. With over 20 years of experience in executive leadership roles across various industries, including Frito-Lay (CPG), healthcare, and insurance, I listened to God’s calling and joined Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) at the start of the pandemic. Every day since my start on April Fool’s Day 2020, I feel blessed and thankful as I’m continually inspired by our clients and team’s tenacity, determination, and heart.
We know that poverty is complex. For the past decade, we’ve focused on identifying a broader system of anti-poverty pathways and tailoring our programs to support our clients at all points on their journeys out of poverty. We have developed a framework of five key pathways, each representing a specific challenge in the fight against poverty. They are:
- Financial Resiliency: the ability to absorb financial shocks and crises
- Education: earning education and vocational credentials
- Employment: earning and maintaining a sufficient, living-wage income
- Resource Stability: the ability to have one’s basic needs met
- Emotional Resiliency: the capacity to respond to stress and adversity
In addition to our Pathways, what inspires me most about our ability to break the cycle of poverty includes:
- A relentless focus on identifying the root cause of a client’s poverty, utilizing an individualized, holistic planning process that operates outside of government funding silos. We customize solutions to help families achieve their bigger, brighter future, ensuring stability; we don’t want repeat customers.
- Our commitment is to disrupt the landscape of how poverty is addressed in this nation through continuous research, evaluation, and adaptation of our services in real time. We partner with external third-party researchers and have an in-house team of evaluation specialists to ensure our work makes lasting change.
- And lastly, we operate and run CCFW as a business, focused on culture, streamlining workflow processes, and adapting to the ever-changing social and economic landscape to best serve. This approach uniquely benefits both our donors and clients. Thanks to our fiscal stewardship, we are proud to say that over 93 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to serving clients in need.
I look forward to sharing more and hope you’ll follow along on this blog to get a front-row seat to what makes this 114-year-old poverty alleviation engine run.
With gratitude,
Michael Iglio
CEO & President
Catholic Charities Fort Worth