Christa Bennett Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

Washington Dc-Baltimore Area

I founded Community Well to offer community-building consulting services to nonprofits and public policy initiatives.I create and implement communications and development strategies so that organizations can achieve their goals for the public good. I am particularly interested in advancing programs and policies that serve the wellbeing of women, children, and others with less access to social and political power.

I co-founded Network for Africa, which assists survivors of war and genocide in rebuilding their lives. N4A’s projects are locally led by our African partners, based on the needs of their communities – as expressed by the community, not by outsiders. While we have offered some short-term assistance in refugee camps elsewhere in Africa, our main projects are in Rwanda and Uganda. We offer job skills training; literacy, math, and business courses; seminars in legal rights and civic participation; and assistance with accessing health services. In northern Uganda, we have pioneered a first-of-its-kind trauma counseling program. We train lay counselors and provide them with bikes so they can visit surrounding villages, offering and making people aware of positive options, such as local business cooperatives that we assist with training. As a director of N4A, I have developed and evaluated projects with our local African partners and worked with our team to implement fundraising strategies.

As COO, I led UStrive's development, go-to-market, and operational functions. This included:- Closing deals with businesses and with community organizations, including $1M+ multiyear partnerships with major companies. This reflects UStrive’s commitment, largely unparalleled in the nonprofit space, to creating a sustainable organization through generating our own revenue.- Securing major gifts from individuals and foundations.- Planning for financial sustainability.- Hiring and supporting a diverse team passionate about UStrive’s mission and equipped to serve students and job-seekers.

As Director of Development, I increased UStrive’s number of paid corporate partnerships by more than 4x. This was the result of a more sustainable approach to nonprofit funding: generating revenue from companies who partner with us in employee engagement, customer engagement, and talent acquisition initiatives and from community organizations who use UStrive’s services to further their own programming with underserved communities. I managed our partnerships for success, with 90-100% retention of partners every year and employee engagement campaigns resulting in up to 3x increase in ESG scores for corporate partners.I also secured five- to seven-figure philanthropic grants and other major donations.

While studying for a master’s in international relations at the War Studies Department of King’s College London, I began a research internship with Waging Peace, a non-governmental organization that campaigns against genocide and systematic human rights abuses and seeks the full implementation of international human rights treaties. The following year, having completed my master’s, I was hired as Waging Peace's first in-office director. I grew our grassroots support into a full-time campaign machine that lobbied government officials and provided education to local community groups. I helped coordinate the first global Day for Darfur, enlisting speakers, planning logistics, and promoting the event in London. I liaised with colleagues to found Sudan Divestment UK, encouraging companies to withdraw from investments perpetuating the genocide in Darfur.

Ma, International Relations, Human Rights

Ba, History