Harriet Karr McDonald

Ms. McDonald is President of The Doe Fund and co-founder of the Ready, Willing & Able program, the nation’s most successful work-based model for people experiencing homelessness and incarceration. Ms. McDonald began her work with this population when she was hired to write a screenplay about a young homeless girl living in Grand Central Terminal, Ms. McDonald met and formed a connection with the girl, April. Despite plans to adopt her and relocate to California, April passed away before her plans could be realized. At April’s funeral, Ms. McDonald met her future husband, George McDonald, with whom she launched the Ready, Willing & Able program. Their programs have helped nearly 30,000 people in New York over the past 30 years, and Ready, Willing & Able has since expanded to six US cities. She is proud to have designed and implemented solutions for some of America’s most challenging social problems. By offering paid work, social services and transitional housing, Ms. McDonald has empowered people to achieve economic self-sufficiency and true independence. She notes that it is key not to look at homeless people as a monolithic group, but as individuals with human potential, capable of becoming contributing members of society.