City Year transforms the lives of two distinct sets of constituents — but it doesn’t stop there. Relying on powerful stories to engage them, it also transforms the lives of donors.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

But Gordon is undaunted and maintains that it’s all working for City Year, thank you very much. And, indeed, the organization’s $50 million 20th Anniversary Campaign would seem to attest to that. It began its quiet phase at the start of 2008 and already has raised $28.5 million to support the organization’s national Whole School Whole Child program and build its national recruitment effort. The bulk of those gifts came in as three-year commitments that, Gordon hopes, will get City Year “out of … the annual-itis of any nonprofit organization.”