• Co-Founder, The Ansara Family Fund & The Haiti Fund
• Catalyzers
• http://ansarafamilyfund.org/

“Having learned about scores of social enterprises all over Haiti via the Haiti Fund at The Boston Foundation, I am convinced that Prosperity Catalyst and Candle have the most viable and empowering model for women. Prosperity Catalyst is designed to give women the self-confidence and job readiness skills they need to work in the formal economy. Prosperity Candle provides ready access to an international market for their goods, which is hard to come by for many Haitian products.”

Karen Ansara and her husband Jim’s passion for ending poverty at home and abroad first grew out of their experience adopting their five children, three of which immigrated to the US from South America. Their love for Haiti began just before the 2010 earthquake, when Jim, a retired General Contractor from Boston-based Shawmut Design and Construction, agreed to oversee the building of a community hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti under the auspices of Partners in Health. That hospital is now the 320-bed Lopital Inivesite Mibale. When the earthquake struck, they worked with staff at the Boston Foundation to establish the Haiti Fund to support reconstruction and human rights in Haiti. Karen co-chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and chairs the Steering Committee of New England International Donors (NEID), a network of international funders committed to international philanthropy. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Partners in Health, as well as the Boards of Directors of MicroCredit Enterprises, the Essex County Community Foundation, and Harborlight Community Partners (an affordable housing non-profit on Boston’s North Shore). She is a member of the Leadership Council of Oxfam America and is active in First Baptist Church in Beverly. She holds an M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Salem State University.