Jerry Rauckhorst is the president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Hawai'i.

Q. How is the downturn in the economy affecting funding?

A. Even under the best of times we are challenged with financial resources. It seems that we are always looking for additional capacity to meet service demand and at times of downturn in the economy the demand is higher because more people are in need, more people are looking for assistance in general. There are just more issues that they're trying to deal with, so they turn to organizations like Catholic Charities Hawai'i for assistance.

But at the same time since the economy is down, that has a direct impact on tax dollars and tax revenues and obviously we see reductions in government funding. So it's a continual challenge that we have especially at times like this.

People of Hawai'i are so generous and they have been very responsive. The last real significant example of this was right after 9/11 and individuals and community organizations really did come through big time to help organizations like Catholic Charities.

Q. Have you ever had to scale back or eliminate programs because funding has come up short?

A. We have had to scale back, and in fact already within some of our programs we are seeing some reductions in force because we have already received notices from the state government that because of revenues declining, the dollars are just not going to be there to the extent that we had anticipated. It's the kind of thing where you're balancing the mission with the resources that you have and you're trying to do the best you can to stay true to the mission, but at the same time recognize you can only do what you can do based on the financial resources that you have available.

Q. What can you and the agency do to cope with the tough times?

A. It's imperative that organizations like Catholic Charities really look at various ways that we can deliver our services and programs.

For example, I think of a case-management program that we have for seniors and at one time the case management that we did was primarily funded through government. Through a previous decline in the economy we came to terms that there are all of these seniors that need these services, but the dollars are not there from government, how might we look at a different approach to providing those types of services?

That was at a time when there were a lot of senior housing projects being developed so we talked with some of the developers and essentially said, "Once your property is developed and operational, you will have a property manager and you will have a lot of seniors living in this project who will have a lot of needs and your property manager will not be prepared to deal with the various issues that may arise." So we essentially said, "Why don't you build Catholic Charities into your project and build us into the rent structure and in the long run it's going to provide the services that are necessary for the seniors, but at the same time there's going to be a cost savings because in the long run it will just make a huge difference to the bottom line." Today we are in 10 different housing projects and it's not government funding that's supporting that program.

Q. How many programs does Catholic Charities provide?

A. We have about 32 to 33 programs and services. In our most recent year we helped 52,000 people and the numbers have been going up.

Q. How long have you been associated with the organization and what drew you to it?

A. I've been president and CEO of Catholic Charities Hawai'i for 13 years, but I've been a part of Catholic Charities my entire career. My brother-in-law had been involved with Catholic Charities and during my college days he really became the role model and encouraged me to get involved with Catholic Charities and that was 35 years ago. I started off in Cleveland, Ohio, and worked there for a lot of years and became the director of Catholic Charities in Pittsburgh. I was in that position for six years before coming to Hawai'i.

Q. What brought you here?

A. The previous director of Catholic Charities in Hawaii, Tom Dinell, he and I worked on the national Catholic Charities USA board and Tom called me to let me know of his plans to retire and encouraged me to apply for the position. He thought that I would be a good fit.

Q. Does the name "Catholic Charities" pose a problem because people believe it serves just Catholics?

A. It's a real challenge for us and whenever I talk about Catholic Charities Hawai'i I will often say to the audience there are three myths that I would like to bust. The first is that you have to be Catholic to be served by Catholic Charities. The second is that you would have to be Catholic to work for Catholic Charities. The third myth is in relation to our funding. Many people would assume that because we are Catholic Charities that we must not be eligible for government funding and the reality is that we are a nonprofit corporation and we are eligible for government funding. We do not discriminate based on faith or anything else.

Q. What do you bring to the table at Catholic Charities?

A. It's the passion for the mission of Catholic Charities Hawai'i and not only to have the passion, but the ability to articulate that mission in a way that engages people to want to be involved. So whether they're involved on the staff level, on a volunteer level, financially supporting the organization, or leading the organization on the board of directors, it becomes a real team effort.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish at Catholic Charities?

A. We are involved in a $28 million capital campaign and that's to bring the various programs and services of Catholic Charities together into a one-stop-shop kind of location. That is at the former First Presbyterian Church facility in Makiki, which is now known as the Clarence T.C. Ching campus of Catholic Charities Hawai'i. In the fall of 2009 we will be complete on that project and we will be able to bring all of those programs and services together. It's all about serving people more effectively. That's something that I've been working very, very hard on, along with our board and our volunteer development committee.

In addition to that, looking into the future, it's just the ongoing development of staff and board and volunteers within the organization. Again, they are always prepared to make the kind of changes, make the kind of commitments, accept the kinds of challenges that confront an organization like Catholic Charities. So it's this whole area of succession and succession planning, whether it's at the staff level, whether it's at the board level or the volunteer level. We're looking at the long-term viability of the organization and making sure that the necessary planning and succession is in place to carry this organization on to even greater things so that it can be more responsive to people's needs and again to continue to improve the quality of life in our community.