Celebrating Sally Hornstra: Fourteen Years of Impact

After 14 extraordinary years, Sally Hornstra, our Director of Grants, is retiring from Cornerstones of Care. During that time, Sally has helped shape our development operations, leaving a lasting impact on our organization, our colleagues, and the children and families we serve. Her work, which is often done behind the scenes, has been a steady force powering some of our most impactful initiatives.

Sally’s Life Before Cornerstones

Sally’s journey in philanthropy began in the 1990s, when she helped establish a nonprofit daycare in Kansas City. Calling on her background as a middle school English teacher, she drafted the successful grant that launched the center, ensuring improved care for families. Encouraged by the Truman Hospital Foundation, she completed UMKC’s Fundraising Certification Program in 1999, beginning a 26-year career dedicated to grants, philanthropy, and serving vulnerable communities.

Before joining Cornerstones of Care, Sally advanced workforce development initiatives at Metropolitan Community College and supported essential legal aid programs at Legal Aid of Western Missouri, including HUD, VOCA, and VAWA grants. Her work expanded access for those who needed it most.

Joining Cornerstones and Growing with the Organization

Sally and Chad Harris, Chief Advancement Officer, at Sally’s retirement party

Sally joined Cornerstones of Care in 2011, drawn to the opportunity to expand her experience in private foundation grants. She describes what kept her here for 14 years:

“Several things: trustworthy, principled leadership; working with staff who are absolutely driven to provide the best services for children and families; and the opportunity to be part of truly exciting fundraising projects that are never boring.”

She guided the organization through major changes, including the 2017 merger of four legacy agencies and helping to identify funding sources during Covid. Chad Harris, our Chief Advancement Officer, recalls:

“Sally brought ethics, integrity, and high-caliber work to every project. During the dark days of COVID, we met masked across a conference table to review every possible funding opportunity. Her humor and resolve made all the difference.”

Transforming Programs Through Grants

Sally has been instrumental in securing funding for some of Cornerstones of Care’s most transformative projects:

• Homeroom Health: Sally collaborated with Chad Harris to raise $1.9 million for Kansas City’s first holistic pediatric health center.
• State and County Funding: She played a key role in securing multi-year contracts with the states of Kansas and Missouri and ongoing support from the Jackson County Children’s Services Fund.
• Anchors of Tomorrow: Sally’s efforts helped secure a multi-year, multi-million-dollar Hall Family Foundation grant to bring mental health services to children, families, and staff at five early childhood education centers.
• Build Trybe: From its early days of growing food and teaching healthy living skills to now offering culinary, trades, and conservation training for youth, Sally has supported this program through grants that continue to expand opportunities for kids in our community.

When asked about memorable grants he worked on with Sally, our grants manager Dane Sosniecki said “For grants that required us to speak in detail about our clients, Sally was always fiercely protective of how we described the children and families we serve. One time, even when I cited a government source that seemed to support the language I wanted to use, Sally pushed back. With her deep experience, she explained why it wasn’t right and helped me rewrite it in a way that upheld our values. It was rare for us to disagree, but when we did, she always stood firm for what she knew was right.”

Over her 14 years at Cornerstones, Sally has helped secure more than $1 million annually in charitable grants and $7 million annually in government grants, supporting over 15,000 children and families each year.

A Mentor, Colleague, and Friend

Sally and the Advancement Team at an event in 2022

Sally’s colleagues highlight her warmth, humor, and generosity of spirit. Sally Cook, Director of Development, recalls:

“She’s been my loudest cheerleader and most trusted sounding board. Some of my favorite memories are her perfectly timed humor—it always reminded us not to take ourselves too seriously.”

Dane Sosniecki shares how Sally shaped his career:

“From day one, every grant was a teachable moment. She shared everything she knew about funders and their preferences, always wanting me to succeed. Her lessons will shape how I approach leadership for years to come.”

Chad Harris reflects on Sally’s broader impact:

The funding and grant community trusts us because of her. They know we deliver. They know we follow through. That will have a lasting impact for years after she has left the organization.

Recognition and a Well-Deserved Honor

Sally’s decades of excellence were recently recognized with the Excellence in Development Operations Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The award honors her quiet, behind-the-scenes work that has sustained the organization for years. Whether renewing tax certificates, managing compliance, or coordinating across teams, Sally has ensured Cornerstones’ programs run smoothly and effectively.

“There are no dumb questions with Sally,” Dane recalls. “She always made time to mentor, edit work, and advocate for growth. Her support mattered to me personally and professionally.”

A Lasting Legacy

Sally Hornstra is more than a grants manager—she is a mentor, advocate, and friend whose integrity, humor, and expertise have strengthened Cornerstones of Care in profound ways. Her work has directly improved the lives of thousands of children and families and set a standard of excellence for all who follow.

Sally, thank you for your decades of dedication, leadership, and unwavering commitment. While we will miss your presence every day, your legacy will continue to shape Cornerstones of Care and the lives of the children and families we serve for many years to come.

Our full interview with Sally is below:

How did you first come to work here, and what drew you to this role?

A former grant writer at Ozanam was a teacher of mine at UMKC’s Bloch School where I completed a graduate course in non-profit fundraising. Several years later, I was looking to transition from writing government grants to learning more about private foundations. That professor’s old job at Ozanam was open. I knew it was the right place to learn and serve. I started there in 2011 and hung on for dear life through the merger in 2017.

Fourteen years is a long time—what has kept you here?

Several things:

Trustworthy, principled leadership demonstrated by the agency’s incredible commitment to Sanctuary, our WIDE Initiative, and a responsive, available executive team.

Working with staff who are absolutely driven to provide the best services they can for children and families. Social workers are so committed!

Growth and Change. I’ve been part of truly exciting fundraising projects that depend on a variety of funding sources. A grant writer can’t ask for anything more. It’s never boring at Cornerstones of Care.

What changes have you seen in the grants landscape or in our organization during your time?

The grants landscape has changed tremendously since 1999. When I started, government funders cared about an agency’s licensure or accreditation status, how many people were served, where they lived, and if the agency’s finances and governance structure were in order. Private foundations and our local donors – required a two-page letter and a project budget. The largest gifts were given based on a conversation and a handshake. The thinking was that if your agency was in good standing, then clients would benefit.

Then funders transitioned to outcomes-oriented grant awards, which evolved to a present-day reliance on evidence-based practices and validated assessment tools. Cornerstones of Care does not shrink away from the challenge of demonstrating the effectiveness of our services. The work here is organic and collaborative. For example, our Performance Excellence department is running EQUIP projects. One involves Outpatient, Day Treatment and Residential Treatment programs looking at how staff utilize the Ohio Scales, the agency’s preferred validated assessment tool for behavioral change. Our BIST program is working with researchers to build upon an established evidence base that demonstrates behavioral and cultural shifts for teachers and students in schools in several states. Our FFT teams in Kansas contribute outcomes data to FFT LLC and to DCF’s Family First Prevention Services program evaluations conducted by the KU School of Social Welfare.

What are some of the most memorable grants you’ve worked on?

It’s always the renewable grants establishing new services that are the most exciting. My first one was a Civil Legal Assistance grant at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. They had tried 11 times for that grant and failed. The executive director asked me to investigate. It turned out that the mix of preferred services were heavily weighted toward rural areas, and our proposals were geared toward services in urban Kansas City. With offices in Joplin, Warrensburg and St. Joseph, we could certainly weight our proposal more toward rural services. My boss cleared my desk for a week so that I could concentrate on writing it. We were awarded three new attorney positions and two paralegals.

Children’s Services Fund grants in Missouri have added and maintained new outpatient services in multiple counties. Sara Gardner, former Chief Development Officer, and Stephen O’Neill, former Vice President, wrangled me into assisting them on their first request to the Children’s Services Fund of Jackson County. Stephen said they needed a first draft and asked me how sensitive I would be to being edited. He warned that he and Sara were brutal editors! I told him I could handle learning something new. We were awarded two grants that continue to this day. I took what they taught me and working with Sara Barnes and her team, Cornerstones of Care expanded outpatient services funded through Children’s Services Funds in Clay, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties in addition to Jackson County. And, we added funding for BIST in St. Louis too.

Were there any particularly challenging grants that you’re especially proud of securing?

All grants are written with a team so I can’t claim any particular grant award as my own doing, but I do have some that resonate. My first grant from Health Forward Foundation, formerly the Health Care Foundation (HCF), was pretty awesome. I worked with a case manager at Ozanam who had an idea for a program that would benefit foster parents. His supervisor usually wrote the HCF proposals, but she gave me this project. When the letter announcing the foundation’s decision arrived, the President brought it to my office to let me open it with my supervisor and the Vice President looking on. I used to have a little bell to ring when money came in. I got to ring the bell that day.

Some honorable mentions: In addition to grants at Cornerstones of Care, I am very proud of my work at Legal Aid which included Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding for supportive services, HUD grants to support fair housing, and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grants to help victims legally separate from their abusers. At Metropolitan Community College I had the privilege of working on grant applications for the Department of Education and NSF, and an appropriations request to establish their Health Science Institute.

Can you share a grant-funded project that had a big impact on the community or organization?

There are several. Pre-merger, a grant (or several grants) supported five years of collaborative work by the five agencies before we were certified on the Sanctuary Model in 2016. Post merger, grants that expanded business into Kansas and across Missouri transformed Cornerstones of Care into a regional provider of child welfare services.

On a smaller scale, in 2017, we wrote a two-year capacity building grant to implement Solution-Based Casework, a practice still used by our teams in Kansas that works to mitigate the effects of secondary trauma on our case managers as well as improve the welfare of the children and families. At the start of the project, over 130 staff were trained, and our Collaborative Learning Department developed internal capacity to provide ongoing training for future staff.

All of the Build Trybe grants have had a big impact on the kids in the program and the community. Build Trybe is funded through grants, events, donations, and earned income. When I first learned about Build Trybe, it was a great little program that grew food and taught healthy living skills funded in part by the Health Forward Foundation. Then we snagged a USDA grant. Now the program is diversified. They are planning for their third USDA grant, and they are currently running grants from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the EPA. Older youth are getting real experience learning culinary, wood and metal working trades and conservation landscaping, in addition to employment experience.

I think the Anchors of Tomorrow grant from the Hall Family Foundation will have tremendous impact on the community. We now have staff in five Early Childhood Education Centers focusing on families in the urban core. Anything Cornerstones of Care can do to support the health and well-being of young families, including supporting the care providers at the centers will have positive impacts on our schools and communities for years to come.

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Program growth for Outpatient Mental Health Services. Sara Barnes and her group have taught me so much! They have incredible drive and manage their grants very well. I’m also proud of my contributions to Build Trybe. It’s so fun to see it take off like it has.

Is there a favorite memory or story that stands out from your time here or on the grants team in particular?

This memory makes me smile all the time. I went with Chad Harris, our Chief Advancement Officer, on some of his calls fundraising for Homeroom Health. It was pretty fun! One call stood out. It was to talk to a program officer at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation about a gift from a family foundation which hadn’t given since the 1980s. The ask amount was very bold for a lapsed donor like this, but strategically important to build momentum with other donors. The program officer was circumspect. She said she would see what she could do. They donated $100,000 which set in motion other gifts to complete the project. We came back to them again a few years later with a smaller project, the PATH renovation, and they contributed $30,000. With the right project, no doubt that foundation will give again.

What are your hopes for the grants program after you leave?

I hope the team integrates with the new business development staffing to support growth and sustainability of quality programming. There has never been a better time for greater integration to happen. Dane Sosniecki has been a powerhouse bringing in new charitable and federal funding and ensuring compliance post-award. Jeremy Fite is joining the team with a wealth of experience in program implementation and capital fund raising. Once the team is fully staffed, I expect that they will be able to provide much more support to Justin Horton, our Chief Programs and Innovation Officer, as he shapes the agency’s facilities and programming to meet changing behavioral health needs in the child welfare and education sectors.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the colleagues and partners you’ve worked with over the years?

I have worked with so many people over the years. The common denominator has been that they were all knowledgeable in their fields, passionate about service, and generous with their time. It’s been an honor to work alongside them.