Sarah's Circle

One of the underlying causes of today’s homeless crisis in major cities across the U.S. can be found over 40 years ago in a nation-wide major policy shift for mental health services. Many mental health facilities were shut down, and residents were put on an out-patient basis, if receiving treatment at all. At that time, several large mental health facilities closed in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, leaving many people homeless.  

Sarah’s Circle was created in 1979 to address the lack of affordable options for women who were housing insecure.  “When Sarah’s Circle was started, all that was available was “a hot (meal) and a cot in the basement of the local Baptist church,” said Ragnar.  “A group of women in the neighborhood got together and rented an apartment that women could use during the day to wash, stay warm, and stay off the streets.”  Eventually, the women founded Sarah’s Circle, naming the organization after the cat that lived in the daytime program space. 

Sarah’s Circle continued as a day program through 2005, when the board of Sarah’s Circle decided this approach wasn’t aligned with their mission to end homelessness for women.   “It wasn’t a sustainable model,” observed Ragnar.  The board debated whether to merge with a larger organization, but ultimately decided to remain independent.  They hired Ragnar in 2006. She brought experience in both finance and welfare services to help the organization develop a new strategy to provide affordable housing and wraparound services for homeless women. 

“It was a tough time to begin our first housing development project, with the deep recession of 2008,” recalled Ragnar. “But we got it done and used the expertise gained to continue with our development efforts to create more permanent, supportive housing for women.”  To meet the rising demand, Sarah’s Circle has added two more buildings, which together offer 50 interim beds and 76 permanent apartments, all within a few blocks in Uptown.  And they are in the process of trying to acquire nearby parcels for building 4 and 5. 

The Board Fellows program run by the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has been a key strategic partner in enabling Sarah’s Circle’s impressive growth.  “We’ve had a fellow each year for the last 11 or 12 years,” said Ragnar.  “They provide a lot of value doing research on projects that provide a foundation for us to think about key issues that we will refer back to for years in the future.”   

Ragnar first became connected with Kellogg when she was taking classes in their nonprofit management program.  She was later invited back to guest lecture and learned about the potential benefits the fellows could provide.   

The fellows have worked on a wide range of projects.   Among the highlights cited by Ragnar were an effort by Melissa Siskind ’23 to systematize and improve how the organization gathered employee and client feedback.  “Our old survey had about 100 questions and we didn’t get much of a response,” said Ragnar.  “Melissa’s project looked at the number and types of questions to use and the best format and methods for the survey.  It has really become institutionalized and given us a strong baseline to evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts.  After the first time we used it, we were able to identify several immediate steps for improvement.” 

“Working with Sarah’s Circle as part of the Board Fellows program was one of the most impactful experiences I had at Kellogg,” said Siskind.  “The board welcomed me with open arms into their meetings and strategic planning sessions, and the staff supported me throughout my strategic project. It was amazing to be a part of the conversations that were deciding the vision and future for Sarah’s Circle, and witness firsthand a dedicated, mature, and well-run board in action. The experience taught me the high level of commitment that it takes to be an impactful board member, and as a result of the mentorship I received during my time with Sarah’s Circle, I now feel much more well-equipped to join boards as a full voting member in the future.” 

A second key project by Anastasia Charlotte Turovsky ’19 evaluated whether Sarah’s Circle should continue to develop affordable housing projects.  Charlotte worked with Ragnar and the Board’s housing committee to conduct national research looking at different models in 6 peer organizations. Ragnar recalled, “She concluded that our approach was working, but due to various constraints, including specific types of rental subsidies, we could only do one building project at a time.” 

Other projects have focused on benchmarking, including the work done by Bethany Wylie ’20 on employment services offered to clients and  the current work led by Jessica Qian ’24, which is looking at different approaches to peer support.  “She’s been terrific,” said Rob Turner, her board mentor.  “She has looked at a range of models across the country along with our own practices to distill what can work best.”  Added Ragnar: “We don’t have a formal model in place, so a key part of the project was capturing our current learnings.  What we thought initially might work didn’t, so we had to change course.  But there is value in the conversations that the process generated, even when it doesn’t go as planned.  I can see us building on what we learned from the project for the next  2-3 years.” 

Over time, Sarah’s Circle has refined an approach that sets the fellows up for success, built on Turner’s expertise. “Because I’m a consultant by trade,” said Turner, “we have tried to apply a lot of structure around the process to make sure things stay on track. And we have fine-tuned what makes for a good project.  It needs to be right-sized to what can be done in a year.  We can’t just ask them to solve homelessness. It’s not going to happen.  We try to focus on finding a project that can leverage their prior experience and skillsets – i.e. if they have built databases, we identify a problem where this can be helpful.”    

“The benefit of long-term partnerships like the one with Sarah’s Circle is that institutional knowledge builds on both sides,” says Allison Henry, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Impact and Director of the Golub Capital Board Fellows program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  “The nonprofit partners develop their own way of creating an inclusive experience and productive learning environment for their Fellows.  And on the flip side, the Fellows can help onboard their successor to generate faster and more effective results.” 

Sarah’s Circle takes the following actions to make the most of their experience in the program:  

• Facilitate an introduction to the full board at the outset, a short mid-project check in, and then a 30-minute presentation on their findings at the end 

• Pick the board mentor based on who is the best fit for the topic – i.e. for the new project on fundraising, the chair of the Development Committee will be the mentor 

• Assign a senior staff person for the area to serve as a main point of contact

• Clearly define the key question for the project at the outset, but stay open to change as it evolves.  As Ragnar notes: “Getting a new perspective on the issue can help change how we want to approach things.” 

• Make sure the fellow always interviews staff to get their perspectives

• Meet at least monthly to check on progress

• Arrand a handoff between outgoing and incoming Fellows so all knowledge is transferred

In addition to the specific goals of each project, Ragnar has seen a number of benefits for the dynamics in the boardroom.  “We have a number of long-serving board members who’ve gotten to know the fellows process.  They look forward to it each year.  It’s become institutionalized.  Their work generates conversations that we might not have had otherwise.  Gives the board the benefits of a 3rd party perspective, while at the same time providing input from frontline workers and clients.” Turner added: “They get very involved in the discussions at the program committee.  It’s a smaller group and closer to the projects they’re working on.  I encourage them to ask questions.  One of the core principles of our DEI work is fostering diversity of thought.  As folks who are new to the organization, they may see blind spots that we have been taking for granted.”    

“Each one of the fellows brings something unique and special to the organization,” concluded Turner.   “And hopefully they’ve taken away a new perspective that can enrich the rest of their lives.”