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Board & Staff

Chris Irish

Chris Irish

“My greatest accomplishment has been to mentor and build strong teams that are passionate about an organization’s mission and vision. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to blend two of my personal passions —leadership development and the arts—into my professional life.”

Chris Irish’s career includes work in municipal government, real estate, and non-profit leadership. She served as the CEO/Executive Director of Sedona Jazz on the Rocks, Scottsdale Leadership and The DC Ranch Community Council. In 2018, Chris wanted to spend more time with her family and transitioned into a part-time position as Director of Public Affairs for DC Ranch, a master planned community in north Scottsdale. Chris has a passion for community service. She is a former board chair for Keep Scottsdale Beautiful, Scottsdale Public Art and Arizona Citizen’s for the Arts. Currently Chris is active with The Women’s Collective and is a new member to the Family Promise board. Chris moved to Arizona in 1979. She has been married for 34 years to her husband Bob who is a retired Chief of Police. Chris has two stepsons and seven wonderful grandchildren.

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Strategic Plan Initiatives 2025-2030
 

5-Year High-Level Objectives


1. Expand Impact

Family homelessness in AZ is a growing problem. In order to serve more families we need to broaden our scope of services, improve our infrastructure and expand our reach.

2. Enhance Our Brand Recognition

We have a 25 year legacy of serving the community, strong relationships with our valuable Congregations and Volunteers, and a growing external awareness of our Mission through recent efforts to improve our marketing and public relations. Yet, Family Promise is still a fairly well kept secret and cities have begun to utilize funding to establish their own homeless programs instead of leveraging ours.

3. Elevate Service Excellence

We have established a flexible and adaptive service model. Opportunities exist to further improve our efficiency, strengthen our graduate connections, expand our employee’s skills and engagement and enhance relations with our constituents and communities.

4. Ensure Sustainability

Our current funding is primarily sourced from annual contributions and grants that require sustained efforts for renewal. Fundraising activities are extremely important, but divert resources from serving families and are currently higher (as a % of total expenses) than our peers. A window of opportunity exists to develop a meaningful Planned Giving program. This along with continued focus on providing low-cost service, Major Donor giving, our new Endowment Fund and the establishment of an Earned Income business enterprise can help reduce our dependence on annual contributions and grants, thereby improving our long-term sustainability.

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