The following is a conversation between Rosanne Haggerty, President & CEO of Community Solutions, and Denver Frederick, the Host of The Business of Giving.
As regular listeners of this podcast know, The Business of Giving has closely covered the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change global competition since its inception. The competition seeks to identify the proposal that promises the greatest, real, and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time.
This year, MacArthur awarded the $100 million award to Community Solutions to accelerate an end to homelessness in 75 US communities in five years. And here to tell us more about it, it’s a pleasure to have back Rosanne Haggerty, the president and CEO of Community Solutions. Congratulations, Roseanne!
Rosanne: Thank you, Denver, and thank you for having us back.
Denver: So, what was it like for you and your extended team when you received word, out of 755 entrants who had submitted proposals, that your Built for Zero initiative had been declared the winner of the $100 million grant award from the MacArthur Foundation?
Rosanne: Some combination of thrilled, stunned, humbled, grateful that probably characterized the team’s response, especially since the other finalists were amazing organizations, and we learned so much through the process. We just are grateful to have gotten that far.
So, we are especially excited for what this means for this issue at this moment in history, especially excited for the extraordinary community partners who are really the essence of the Built for Zero work. So, to wrap it all up, we are really excited.
