The Night Ministry

In 1976, a coalition of congregations in Chicago hired the Rev. Tom Behrens to walk the streets at night, offering coffee to homeless people as a way to start conversations and build connections. Behrens soon envisioned a broader mission and created a nonprofit called The Night Ministry, dedicated to bringing support and shelter to the city’s homeless population.

During the 1980s, Behrens expanded the organization’s reach to address the increasing number of homeless youth in the city, while also adding healthcare services for individuals of all ages. By 2024, The Night Ministry had grown into a $10.5 million organization that helps more than 5,100 homeless people a year, with over 55,000 outreach contacts.

Although The Night Ministry has kept its original name, the organization has no religious affiliation, and its services are available 24 hours a day. Its programs range from distributing meals at Chicago’s L train stations, to supplying shelter for teens and young adults, to operating mobile healthcare buses, as a free and charitable clinic, in underserved neighborhoods.

“The cornerstone of our work is centered around ensuring that people who utilize the streets or public transit system as shelter understand that there are resources and opportunities available to them,” said Carol J. Sharp, president and CEO of The Night Ministry.

The nonprofit’s work is needed more than ever. In 2024 an estimated 68,400 people were homeless in Chicago, a number that has steadily grown over the past three years.

“We’re seeing the need continue to increase, and with shifts in the economy and the post-pandemic world, access to resources has decreased,” Sharp observed.

Since 2022, the city of Chicago welcomed an influx of more than 46,000 migrants. The Night Ministry continued to deliver services to all who sought support at their mobile health clinics. They expanded their partnership with the community by adding bus stops at police stations and other locations where asylum seekers convened. 

Although the nonprofit has grown significantly in its nearly 50 years, it remains true to its original mission of providing human connection, housing and healthcare to some of the city’s most vulnerable individuals.

Partnership with Kellogg’s Golub Capital Board Fellows Program

Since 2012, The Night Ministry has hosted board fellows from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, offering students real-world experience in nonprofit governance.

“From The Night Ministry’s perspective, we have a responsibility to prepare the workplace for future leaders,” Sharp said. “In this instance, we have an opportunity to understand firsthand what young people, our future leaders, are learning in the classroom. Utilizing their expertise -- or even challenging them to apply their expertise in a way that serves the non-profit sector long-term -- works to our mutual benefit as well.”

Ben Applegate served as a Board Fellow for The Night Ministry in 2015-’16 while earning a dual JD-MBA degree at Northwestern. Prior to graduate school, Applegate had worked at a nonprofit in Boston that administered the Section 8 federal affordable housing program, and at a consulting firm advising public housing authorities.

With his background in housing policy, Applegate took a deep dive to help evaluate the nonprofit’s housing programs. One component of his project was assessing whether to shift one of the organization’s shelters from a congregate living arrangement -- where residents are housed in one building -- to a scattered-site model, where individuals are placed in apartments throughout the city where they also receive services. The Night Ministry continued to build on Applegate’s work and, within a few years, transitioned one of its key congregate youth shelters to the scattered-site model.

Applegate also joined the nonprofit’s development committee to help with fundraising and event planning. After his fellowship ended, he continued serving on the committee as a non-board member and remained active in planning the organization’s annual fundraiser dinner.

“When I was a board fellow, I wanted to get involved with a nonprofit where I could eventually join the board,” Applegate said. “With my housing background, I was fully committed. That’s why I didn’t just focus on a research strategy project; I joined as many committees as I could, really jumping into being a board member.”

In 2019, Applegate was elected vice chair of the board. He also serves on the Executive and Philanthropic Engagement committees. He is an attorney with Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, a Chicago firm specializing in affordable housing financing and development.

Sharp called Applegate a “fantastic” board member, noting his expertise in affordable housing. “He’s been instrumental in aligning our work with an understanding of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding,” she added.

Applegate said one of the greatest benefits of the fellowship to students is the direct interaction with the CEO. Despite managing a 100-person staff, Sharp works closely with the board fellows to discuss potential projects, offer feedback and provide updates on the organization’s work.

The Night Ministry’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Michael Borromeo also meets with fellows to give feedback on their project ideas and how they could be most impactful for the nonprofit.

For Kellogg, the value of the fellowship program lies in the real-world experience it offers students, while providing organizations with valuable insights.

“The students are giving back to the organization through their projects,” said Allison Henry, director of the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program at Kellogg and Clinical Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations.

“From my perspective as a professor, these projects provide a powerful real-world learning opportunity,” Henry said. “I’m not creating a simulated challenge that an organization might hypothetically need to address. These are messy questions with unclear answers and often no right answer. The students have to connect all the inputs and make their best recommendations.”

When Max Barab joined The Night Ministry as a Board Fellow in 2023, the organization was undergoing a major leadership transition. He started his fellowship working with an interim CEO. Within a few months, Sharp was hired, and Borromeo became the new board chair. Observing how Sharp made decisions and communicated with the board and staff during that transition was a key learning experience for Barab.

Early into his fellowship, Barab helped organize an auction benefiting the nonprofit and attended as many board and committee meetings in person as possible. “That showed clearly I cared and wanted to be a part of their work,” he said.  

For his project, Barab simplified the nonprofit’s financial reporting and evolved the way financial information was communicated to the board, committees and staff. Drawing on his Kellogg classes in nonprofit finance and prior work as a product manager for start-ups Zumper and AllTrails, Barab helped make the organization’s financials more accessible.

Sharp said Barab was especially skilled in helping board members — many of whom have a for-profit background — identify opportunities to further utilize The Night Ministry’s financial reports to inform governance decisions. During the board’s annual orientation, Barab facilitated the section that outlines how new members interpret the organization’s financial statements and accounting policies.

“That was crucial in ensuring that we effectively onboarded new board members, and it activated how we widened our fundraising potential,” Sharp said. “We clarified the dynamics of various grants and how those are recorded. Board members were able to use that information to say, ‘Here’s how I can utilize my network and expertise to contribute to The Night Ministry’s mission.’”

Borromeo also noted the lasting impact of the fellowship. “Those kinds of educational materials and training certainly serve the organization because they’re useful and reusable. It helps board members get up to speed quickly, which is invaluable from a governance standpoint.”

He also recalled how another board fellow analyzed potential locations for The Night Ministry’s outreach bus. “That project was extremely helpful,” Borromeo said. “It allowed us to assess where the greatest need is in different neighborhoods and ensure we’re serving as many people as possible.”

Lessons from the Boardroom

For Barab, one of the key benefits of the fellowship was attending meetings with The Night Ministry’s full board, the Finance Committee and the Learning and Impact Committee. He saw first-hand the importance of the board’s role in guiding a nonprofit’s operations and fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities.

“Seeing that balance -- how the board respectfully kept their distance on things that were more of the staff’s responsibility – while staying involved in overarching strategy and decisions – was really helpful to see in action,” Barab said.

The fellowship also gave him the opportunity to engage with the broader Chicago community and to connect with other like-minded Kellogg fellows. Sharp requires all board fellows to complete volunteer training and attend board orientation prior to choosing their project topic. Fellows are also expected to volunteer for at least one program with The Night Ministry and participate in fundraising events.

For Barab, volunteering with The Night Ministry was one of the highlights of his fellowship. One night, he helped distribute food, blankets and winter gloves at an L station.

“I saw how the staff were so compassionate in working with the people they served,” he said. “It also got me out of the Evanston bubble of graduate school, seeing what it was like for someone who’s struggling or unhoused in Chicago.”

Another night, Barab brought board fellows and friends to cook dinner at the nonprofit’s youth shelter.

“It was a great opportunity to see The Night Ministry in action. It also helped me become more attached to the mission by seeing how the funds and decisions make an impact.”

Barab noted that his most significant growth during the fellowship came in improving his interpersonal skills, whether working with Sharp and board members or engaging with community members. Those skills have served him well in his current role as a senior product manager with Axial.

“The Night Ministry is a major nonprofit in Chicago with so much going on in any given day: They have real estate, they have mobile operations, they work with the city. They manage grants and private donations, so it really covers everything you could learn about in our board fellows program and more,” Barab said.

Kasturi Pantvaidya is a current Board Fellow with The Night Ministry.  She will graduate in June 2025 with a dual-degree from the MMM Program -- an MBA from Kellogg and an MS in Design Innovation from Northwestern's Segal Design Institute at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“While at Northwestern, I wanted to figure out how I could make an impact in Chicago and also learn what it means to be part of a board, if I choose to do that in my professional career after Kellogg,” Pantvaidya said. “The Board Fellows program was a good opportunity to explore what industries and causes I’m passionate about, and to think about how I can continue contributing to my community.”

Pantvaidya focused her project on board engagement, specifically the lifecycle and succession planning for board members. She interviewed current board members to understand their recruitment process, reasons for joining, onboarding experiences and feedback on their terms. The goal was to create a playbook for recruiting and onboarding new board members, best practices for the board and ways to increase board member engagement and impact.

“I also hope to collect anecdotes from nonprofits in the Chicagoland area that have strong board engagement about what they’re doing, to bring in some outside perspective,” she said. In addition, Pantvaidya is analyzing how other nonprofits use AI and technology to upskill their boards and enhance their board processes.

Sharp called Pantvaidya’s playbook a vital long-term sustainability project. “If we can define our succession plan for our board of directors, the organization can be around for another 100 years,” Sharp said. “Having a process in place for attracting governance leaders ensures that we’ll always have a steady pipeline of talent.”

Pantvaidya’s biggest learnings from the fellowship were gained by observing the dynamics of board meetings.

“We learned in class from Professor Allison Henry that 90 percent of a board’s work happens outside the boardroom,” she said. “At first I thought, what does that even mean? But after attending board meetings, I saw it in practice. I realized that committees meet outside of board meetings to make key decisions, and the CEO works really hard to make sure that people are on the same page. It’s not always easy, because people are on different committees, but seeing this process firsthand was invaluable.”

Classroom Connections

Kellogg’s Henry continuously refines the nonprofit board governance course she teaches based on the fellows’ experiences. Hearing from fellows that they were inclined to hold back in board meetings, Henry added a session in her class about finding their voice in the boardroom.

“I found that my fellows often come in with imposter syndrome thinking, ‘I’m too inexperienced to participate,’ so they would sit and watch at the board meetings,” she said. “That has value, but the nonprofits want your voice. They want your perspective. For many boards, the average age of their members is over 50, so to have a 20-something or 30-something on their board is an important perspective to add to the mix. Helping students feel confident they can participate -- and teaching them how -- is really critical.”

Henry added: “They are peers in that boardroom. Engaging with C-level executives in collaborative discussions is a new experience for almost all my students. It leaves them with a real sense of empowerment and enthusiasm to continue making a difference at that level.”

Borromeo, The Night Ministry’s board chair, said he is thankful that the nonprofit is involved in the Board Fellows program because of the type of talent they get to help advance the group’s mission. “I’m absolutely grateful to Kellogg and Golub Capital for helping us in that way, and I look forward to continuing this relationship because there’s so much good that comes out of it.”

The Night Ministry’s participation in the Board Fellows program has led to other Kellogg connections. In fall 2024, Sharp and Borromeo spoke to Henry’s Board Scholars class -- an offshoot of Board Fellows for Kellogg’s accelerated MBA and part-time MBA students. They discussed the dynamics between a nonprofit’s board chair and CEO, how they work together to lead their board, and how they build trust between the board and staff. Because Sharp was new to The Night Ministry at the time, they also talked about succession planning, her recruitment process and how the board contributed to the CEO search.

“The Board Fellows program is an admirable model,” Sharp said. “I’m always impressed with the way that they’re able to make it meaningful for students while ensuring that it’s not too time-consuming, so they don’t have to choose between going to a midterm or a board meeting.”