Katie Kern

Katie Kern joined America's Charities in 2019 as a client engagement coordinator, helping to design and establish its new employee assistance funds (EAF) program. In less than a year, Katie was promoted to program manager, deftly navigating the program's unprecedented growth and ushering in a new era of America's Charities' employee-focused services. In 2020, under Katie's supervision, America's Charities launched its Quick Disaster Immediate Assistance Program, designed to help businesses get an employee relief up and running within days, rather than weeks, of contract signing—and the fastest way to help employees during the global coronavirus pandemic.

As of 2022, and with Katie now at the helm as Program Director, Employee Assistance Funds & Scholarships, America's Charities has facilitated more than 120 new EAFs – also known as employee relief funds, employee hardship funds, employee crisis funds, etc. – for employers of all shapes and sizes, processing more than 20,000 grants and managing more than $20 million in grants designated to help employees cope with unexpected hardships, including COVID-19. 

Click here to see an infographic of America's Charities' EAFs by the numbers.

In her role, Katie oversees all aspects of the EAF program, not the least of which is tailoring an EAF program to meet a company's specific needs and unique core values. Other aspects of her work range from designing online applications to managing the team assigned to review and qualify employee applications, from reporting results at regular intervals to supporting the Finance team as they distribute funds within the US and internationally, and from ensuring client success and assisting America's Charities' Donor Services and EAF Review Teams to answer employees' questions.

Katie's current focus is on strengthening each aspect of America's Charities' EAFs, specifically streamlining the technology infrastructure underpinning the program.

Watch this on-demand webinar of Katie and Jim Starr, America's Charities president and CEO, as they discuss the ins and outs of starting, expanding, or outsourcing an EAF program. 

Before joining America's Charities, Katie served as a director of operations and program administration at United Charitable, and a program manager for both the Congressional District Programs and National Heritage Foundation. Katie has also served on the Board of Directors for various 501(c)(3) public charities. 

When not playing with her nieces and nephews - and baby goats - on their farm, you can find Katie volunteering with causes she loves and teaching swim lessons to the community.