Looking Back. Building Forward.

CAAP’s Decade of Growth and the Road Ahead

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Ten years can change a lot.

For the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania, the past decade has brought significant growth, new partnerships, greater statewide responsibility, and opportunities that would have been difficult to imagine ten years ago.

Through it all, CAAP’s purpose has remained steady.

We exist to strengthen Pennsylvania’s Community Action Network so that all the Commonwealth’s Community Action Agencies can continue helping individuals, families, and communities move toward stability, opportunity, and long-term well-being.

What has changed is our capacity to do that work.

Over the past decade, CAAP’s annual revenue has grown by more than 400%, from under $1 million to more than $5 million. Net assets have more than tripled, creating greater organizational stability and allowing CAAP to take on increasingly complex work with state and federal partners.

But numbers only tell part of the story.

The more meaningful measure is what that growth has made possible: administering disaster recovery efforts, passing funding through to local Community Action Agencies in the network, helping lead first-in-the-nation initiatives, building new pathways for Community Action leaders, creating learning resources being used beyond Pennsylvania, and bringing people from across the country together to strengthen the field.

*Image Description: White text on a textured magenta background reads “Looking back. Building forward.”*

From Membership Association to Statewide Partner

A decade ago, CAAP was primarily known as a statewide membership association providing training, technical assistance, and advocacy.

Those responsibilities remain at the heart of our work. But CAAP’s role has expanded considerably.

Today, CAAP partners with state and federal agencies on initiatives involving technology implementation, disaster recovery, health-related social needs, research, leadership development, policy, organizational capacity, and systems change.

The Disaster Case Management Program following Tropical Storm Debby is one example.

After the storm damaged homes across Pennsylvania in August 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services received FEMA funding to establish a Disaster Case Management Program and subcontracted CAAP to administer the effort.

Working alongside PA 2-1-1, Develop Tioga, Northern Tier Community Action Corporation, and Lycoming-Clinton Counties Commission for Community Action (STEP), Inc., the program helped survivors in Tioga, Potter, Lycoming, and Union Counties navigate FEMA appeals, paperwork, repairs, unmet needs, and local resources.

From April 2025 through June 2026, those partner agencies supported over 400 households and made over 3,300 individual contacts. Of households that remained engaged through formal case closure, 94% were successfully closed, with the other 6% transitioning into longer-term local support.

That work requires coordination, administration, trusted local relationships, and an organization capable of connecting all of those pieces.

That is part of what CAAP has spent the past decade building.

Image Description: A textured blue background with white text reads, “Over 14 months, partners supported over 400 hourseholds and made over 3,300 individual contacts with a 96% successful close rate.”

Trusted With Work That Can Become a Model

CAAP’s growth has also created opportunities to participate in work far beyond traditional association services.

In 2024, CAAP launched a partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank to implement the Diaper Distribution Demonstration and Research Pilot, funded through the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with local match provided by a grant from Aetna.

The pilot is the first of its kind in the nation in scope and scale.

CAAP recruited Community Action Agencies into the distribution network, growing the initiative to 13 partner agencies serving eight western Pennsylvania counties. Participating agencies received funding, supplies, and technical support to build their distribution efforts.

In 2.5 years, the program has:

helped 7,354 families
distributed 2,951,371 diapers and pull-ups
connected over 7,100 families with additional economic and health-related services

Those numbers matter because the program was never simply about handing out diapers.

Families may arrive with one immediate need, but Community Action Agencies are positioned to see the larger picture. A diaper distribution visit can also become a connection to housing support, food assistance, employment resources, healthcare, or another service that helps a family move toward stability.

The Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank has credited the reach and local relationships of Pennsylvania’s Community Action Agencies with making that scale possible.

CAAP can help build the system. Local agencies bring the relationships and trust that allow it to reach families.

Connecting Pennsylvanians Through PA Navigate

CAAP’s expanding role can also be seen in its work with PA Navigate, a statewide platform designed to make it easier for Pennsylvanians to find and connect with community resources.

Through PA Navigate, individuals can search for support related to food, housing, transportation, utilities, childcare, healthcare, and other needs, while community-based organizations, healthcare providers, and state and local agencies can work together more effectively around referrals and services.

For CAAP, PA Navigate reflects another way the organization’s work has grown beyond traditional association services. It helps connect Community Action to larger systems while supporting a more coordinated experience for the people and families those systems are meant to serve.

*Image Description: White text reads, “CAAP administered a first-of-its-kind grant distribution research pilot.”*

Building the Leaders Community Action Will Need Next

Growth is not only about taking on larger initiatives.

It is also about making sure there are people prepared to lead them.

Across the nonprofit sector, experienced executives are retiring or moving into new opportunities, while talented frontline and middle managers may eventually be asked to step into positions requiring an entirely different level of leadership.

A strong “second in command” does not automatically create a healthy leadership pipeline.

That is one reason CAAP launched The Leadership CAAP in 2026.

The 10-month program is designed specifically for emerging Community Action leaders, helping frontline and middle managers build the confidence, self-awareness, relationships, and practical skills they will need as their careers grow.

Fellows participate in virtual and in-person learning, CliftonStrengths assessment and development, facilitated discussions, expert instruction, personal coaching from experienced Community Action leaders, and practical application between sessions. Each Fellow also completes a CAAPstone Project that applies what they have learned directly inside their organization before sharing the results at the annual CAAP Summit.

The program also reflects an important belief about the future of the field.

There can sometimes be hesitation within nonprofits about investing deeply in talented employees. What happens if we develop someone and they eventually leave?

CAAP believes the greater risk is failing to develop them at all.

People deserve opportunities to grow. Agencies need people prepared to advance. And Community Action needs a healthy pipeline of leaders who understand both the mission and the realities of leading organizations through change.

The next generation of Community Action leadership will not appear by accident.

We have to invest in it.

Image Description: On a textured cream background, blue and magenta text reads, “The Leadership CAAP is designed specifically for emerging community action leaders.”

Building Learning That Travels

Leadership CAAP is one part of a much broader investment in professional development.

CAAPLearn has grown significantly over the past several years, expanding the learning available to professionals throughout Community Action organizations. That growth reflects a simple reality: the needs of a frontline employee, program director, executive leader, board member, or Weatherization professional aren’t always the same.

CAAP has increasingly built learning around those differences, and the reach of that work is beginning to extend beyond Pennsylvania. Other statewide associations and nonprofit organizations are licensing CAAP-developed content, while CAAP staff are being invited to bring their expertise to organizations outside the Commonwealth.

CAAP’s annual conference has grown in reach as well, bringing professionals, speakers, partners, and Community Action leaders to Pennsylvania from across the country.

When people outside the network begin using what you’ve built and seeking out the expertise behind it, growth starts to create influence.

Image Description: White text on a textured blue background reads, “CAAP Training and Conferences attract participants from around the country.” A white minimalist map of the United States is on the right.

Strategy Made the Growth Intentional

None of this happened simply because CAAP became larger.

Over the past several years, CAAP’s strategic plan centered the organization around four major priorities:

strengthening a high-quality and efficient member network
developing an effective learning management system and training program
demonstrating Community Action expertise through broader systems work
building strategic partnerships that support long-term revenue growth

Those priorities helped CAAP ask bigger questions.

How do we make professional development more accessible and valuable?

How do we strengthen agencies for the challenges they face today and the leadership transitions they will face tomorrow?

How do we make Community Action expertise visible in larger conversations about health, prevention, poverty, technology, and community well-being?

How do we build partnerships that strengthen the network while making CAAP more sustainable?

The answers have taken many forms: CAAPLearn. Leadership CAAP. PA Navigate. Disaster case management. The diaper distribution pilot. Community Care Hub development. Research partnerships. Training. Consulting. Technology and emerging artificial intelligence initiatives.

Different projects. One larger strategy.

Build a stronger CAAP so CAAP can help build a stronger Community Action Network.

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Fifty Years Behind Us. A Different Organization Ahead.

In 2025, CAAP celebrated its 50th anniversary: five decades of advocacy, partnership, and service to Community Action Agencies across Pennsylvania.

Every year, CAAP releases its Impact Report at the conference, bringing together statewide data, stories, outcomes, and examples of the collective impact of Pennsylvania’s Community Action Agencies.

Community Action is often most visible during moments of urgent need: when someone needs food, housing assistance, utility support, transportation, disaster recovery, or help navigating a crisis.

But Community Action is also prevention.

It is helping a family become more stable before the next crisis arrives. It is strengthening health and economic opportunity. It is helping communities build systems that work better. And it is developing leaders and organizations capable of responding to whatever comes next.

That is the larger story CAAP has worked to strengthen and support.

Image Description: On the left is a photo of a large “50” in bright lights, surrounded by gold and blue balloons. On the right is a magenta background with the words, “Strengthen and support Community Action across Pennsylvania.”

The Road Ahead

The next decade will ask something different of CAAP than the last one did.

The challenge is no longer simply to grow.

It is to make that growth sustainable.

CAAP’s next priorities include diversifying revenue beyond grant funding, growing unrestricted revenue through consulting, training, sponsorships, and partnerships, strengthening internal infrastructure, investing in leadership development and succession planning, and maintaining the financial stability necessary to continue innovating on behalf of the network.

There will be new technologies to understand, new partnerships to build, new leaders to develop, and new challenges facing the families and communities served by local agencies.

CAAP will continue evolving with them.

The past ten years show what becomes possible when growth is connected to purpose.

A stronger financial foundation has allowed CAAP to take on more consequential work. Greater capacity has made us a stronger partner. Stronger partnerships have allowed Community Action expertise to reach new systems and communities. And investments in learning and leadership are helping prepare the network for whatever comes next.

None of that happens because of CAAP alone.

It happens because of our Board of Directors, staff, member agencies, funders, partners, supporters, the thousands of people across Pennsylvania, and across the country, who continue showing up every day to make Community Action work.

There is a lot in the rearview mirror worth celebrating.

But the reason to look back is not simply to admire how far we have come.

It is to understand what that progress now makes possible.

The next chapter is about what we can keep building together.