Kim LaFranchi, Senior Associate
Ms. LaFranchi has been a part of the SDS team since its inception in 2002. She has expertise in nonprofit capacity building for community and economic development organizations. As a Senior Associate at SDS, she strives to provide clients with innovative tools, strategic solutions, and core resources for them to become more effective, efficient, and sustainable community service providers. She works in partnership with a variety of large and small regional and national nonprofits to assist them in planning for and implementing public and private funding initiatives, as well as developing creative solutions to organizational and programmatic issues. In this capacity, Ms. LaFranchi has been able to leverage her in-depth knowledge of and experience within the nonprofit sector, her understanding of service-based program development, and her relationships with funders to assist in securing over $13 million in government and foundation grants, loans and contracts for SDS’ clients.
Through her academic and career pursuits, Ms. LaFranchi has extensive experience working within Los Angeles’ nonprofit industry as a direct service provider within a vast array of social service settings. As a mental health therapist and case manager, she worked with children, youth, and adult populations within public and private school systems, the criminal justice systems, mental and medical hospitals, homeless shelters, substance abuse treatment programs, and community clinics serving low-income communities. She has also participated in a range of research projects focused on at-risk populations. Ms. LaFranchi previously worked as an independent consultant for a low-income housing developer to complete facility and service evaluation for over 10 separate housing and childcare facilities. She joined the SDS team as a consultant when SDS opened in 2002.
Ms. LaFranchi has gained a breadth of experience while working as an employee of and as an independent contractor for nonprofits. This has led to her first-hand understanding of the core characteristics and issues facing the constituencies that community and economic development nonprofits serve, as well as the key challenges and barriers facing today’s nonprofit organizations.
Ms. LaFranchi received her Masters in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Multicultural-Community Clinical Psychology, from The California School of Professional Psychology in 2000. She has also completed the academic curriculum for her PhD degree. Her academic and career pursuits have focused on low-income, at-risk, and disenfranchised communities. Her Masters Thesis and Dissertation focused on looking at the impact of the social and physical characteristics of housing on parenting styles of low-income mothers.
Ms. LaFranchi is also an avid world traveler, spending an extensive amount of time visiting developing nations and diverse cultures in Southeast and Central Asia, Africa, Mexico, Australia, Central and South America, and Europe. Her love of travel and exposure to the vast cultural diversity that exists around the globe has lent itself to the development of a great respect of and desire for disenfranchised communities and cultures to become empowered and achieve social justice.