Holly Morgan – Executive Director @ OlyCAP
Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with OlyCAP, on a nationwide retained search to find their new Executive Director in Seattle, WA.
Founded 55 years ago, OlyCAP (Olympic Community Action Programs) has helped people build resilient communities by providing equitable access to solutions and opportunities throughout Clallam and Jefferson counties. The agency today employs 106 dedicated professionals overseeing dozens of programs with a single common thread: service to the community.
These programs include:
Housing Services and Solutions: Offering 4 shelters, 3 permanent supporting housing locations, and homeless prevention, rapid rehousing and supportive housing services.
Early Childhood Education: Supporting Early Start/Head Start/ECEAP programs.
Economic Empowerment: Facilitating Guaranteed Income Program and FCS Supported Employment.
Home and Energy Resources: Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Weatherization.
Nutrition: Basic food outreach, Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) and a Mobile Food Market
Senior Focused Services: Arts & Minds Memory Wellness Program, Encore! Adult Daycare Center and Americorps Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP)
Brought on in late July, Morgan introduced herself to the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners (read full article here):
“OlyCAP was without leadership for several months,” Morgan said. “That was both at an executive level and at a fiscal lead level. So, there’s quite a few things that just need to be firmed up. I worked immediately to bring in an outsourced organization to manage our fiscal leadership. Our finances are so incredibly complex with all of the different funding sources and reporting requirements, and all of that stuff.“
“To have someone who is really knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with that kind of complexity, I think is important for us. The organization that we went with is CLA. They’re kind of big boys in the accounting world.”
OlyCAP also will be developing its 2025 budget with CLA, Morgan said.
“My priority for the first few months, I think, is going to be to fill all of the key positions that have been vacant for some time,” Morgan said, “and to really dial in on the fiscal side of things, to bring that around.”
Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour noted that, as a first-term commissioner, she has been amazed by how many projects OlyCAP is involved with.
“We have a really wide scope of service. We do,” Morgan said. “Part of my philosophy that I’m trying to bring to the community at large, every time I meet someone to speak with them for the first time, is really to emphasize the partnership side of the work that OlyCAP does. We don’t want to repeat services that are already being done well by someone else, if we can support them.”
“Maybe we as a CAP agency have access to some money that they can’t get. We’re really about partnerships and collaborations and working together. We are here for the community and to help people.”
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