The David Carleton Founder's Fund
David Carleton's visionary leadership started with a small organization called Kitchens with Missions in 2009. He understood the transformational power of social enterprise and job training and change lives and communities across the world. David's idea morphed and grew into Catalyst Kitchens in 2011 when it became the national initiative of Farestart, and eventually into it's own independent organization in 2022. David believed that by sourcing the best and most innovative practices, curriculums, and business models from our members, we would all be better together. The Founder's Fund honors that legacy and helps us to grow the capability of our national team, our events, and our infrastructure to better serve our members.
Many of our everyday practices in the network - to capture best practices, convene members to share ideas, build libraries of resources and curriculums, and pool our outcomes to leverage our collective impact to create change - first originated with David and his plans for what he knew Catalyst Kitchens could become.
The fund also helps to support a small grant given each year to a particularly impactful and innovative change-maker with one of our member organizations through the David Carleton Catalyst for Change Award.
Pictured to the left, clockwise: David speaks at the 2016 Catalyst Kitchens National Summit, David accepts an award for innovative business planning for the Catalyst Kitchens Network, and David presents the Catalyst for Change Award to the 2016 winner, Idalia Nunez.
