About Ward Family Foundation, Inc.
Mission
The Ward Family Foundation, Inc. was established in January 2001 to assist existing charities improve their effectiveness by implementing best practices. There is a vast network of excellent programs already in place to serve many worthwhile charitable causes. Our mission is to assist these existing programs become more effective. The foundation was inspired by Catholic social teaching which, among other things, recognizes the fundamental right of each human person to life, food, shelter, clothing and medical care. The Ward Family Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization operating as a private operating foundation.
Background
The vision for the Ward Family Foundation originated from the personal and business experiences of John L. Ward, the
foundation's founder and Chairman of the Board. John Ward has extensive experience in the business world as a
management consultant. In 1992, he founded a company to assist businesses improve their operating effectiveness through
the use of benchmarking and best practices concepts. Benchmarking is a management tool to help companies remain
competitive and become more effective. Best practices are those specific operating practices or philosophies that are
proven to improve effectiveness.
His firm has become one of the foremost authorities on business performance measurement and implementation of best
practices. Each year, his firm provides benchmarking and best practices consulting services to approximately 250
businesses throughout the United States and Canada.
The Ward Family Foundation will take these proven concepts and practices that have been successfully used in the
business world, and apply them to charitable causes. We believe the business world can and should help charities more
effectively serve their cause.
Homeless Program Best Practices Study
Consistent with our mission to assist existing charitable causes become more effective, we recently completed a comprehensive best practices study of 22 homeless programs in the Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati areas. The results of this study are included in detail throughout the remainder of this document. In addition to this best practices study, we have initiated two implementation projects designed to further assist homeless programs improve their effectiveness. These implementation projects are referred to as the Tracking Database Project and the Aftercare Program Project. Each project is briefly described below.
