The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation extends program providing skilled pro bono support to all grantees


WASHINGTON, DC — The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation is extending and expanding its partnership with Catchafire, a leading national platform that helps connect professionals who want to donate their time with nonprofits that need their help.

Since 2019, the Cafritz Foundation has underwritten the cost of access to Catchafire’s platform for many of its 400+ grantees, which are nonprofit organizations working to meet community needs in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In past years, eligibility to participate in Catchafire with Cafritz support was limited based on organizational size. Beginning in May 2023, all organizations that receive Cafritz Foundation grant funding will also be eligible for support through Catchafire.

During the first four years of the partnership, DC-area nonprofits completed more than $2.9 million in projects through Catchafire, representing 15,000 volunteer hours and more than 880 projects. Catchafire volunteers offer assistance on a wide variety of projects, including fundraising, data management, business systems development, translation, technical writing and graphic design. All the volunteers are skilled professionals who apply to work on a nonprofit’s project and are matched if both parties agree to work together.

“Almost all nonprofits have a wide variety of capacity-building and technical assistance needs but often don’t have the resources to hire consultants or access to professional networks to find skilled professionals who want to volunteer,” says Foundation Associate Director Tobi Printz-Platnick, who manages the partnership with Catchafire. “Catchafire provides best-in-class tools to help nonprofits fill that gap. After seeing how Catchafire volunteers helped nonprofits navigate the challenges of the pandemic, we recognized organizations of all sizes have unmet capacity-building needs. We are delighted to be able to expand this partnership to all the nonprofits we fund.”

“As we enter into our fifth year of partnership with the Cafritz Foundation, I am filled with gratitude for the incredible impact we have achieved together,” says Catchafire CEO Matt Miszewski. “Our collaboration has transformed countless lives in the DC area all through the simple of act of helping nonprofits and volunteers connect online. I am especially proud of the growth we have experienced over the years, both in terms of the number of organizations we have supported and the depth of our impact.”