Executive leaders at Crisis Assistance Ministry are building impact, not just inside our agency but across the entire county. Matt Sharp, our Chief Housing Stability Officer, shows what happens when nonprofit executives step beyond their own walls, serve on boards, and bring that experience back home to strengthen housing stability and economic security for local families.
Matt’s story begins with a simple reality many nonprofit leaders know well: the work is heavy, and the systems behind it are often fragile. Over nearly 19 years in nonprofit and higher education, he has watched executive directors try to carry everything, including strategy, operations, fundraising, and HR, without enough support. Instead of accepting that as normal, he built a career around fixing it.
Matt Sharp’s Journey from Operations Strategist to Housing Stability Leader
He served as Chief Operating Officer at RunningWorks, Inc., a Charlotte-based nonprofit supporting the overall health and well-being of individuals in underserved communities. There, he helped streamline HR, finance, programs, and advancement so more energy could go to people, not paperwork.
Later, through his consulting firm, Sharp Advising, he focused on mid-size nonprofits whose leaders were, in his words, “burnt out from a million things that they’re doing” and didn’t have time or capacity to step back and think strategy. He came in to build capacity, implementing systems and processes so organizations could be more efficient and set themselves up for long-term success.
Today, that same systems-focused lens guides his work at Crisis Assistance Ministry. As Chief Housing Stability Officer, Matt leads our Housing Stability Services division, overseeing emergency financial assistance and financial empowerment coaching. These services help families in Mecklenburg County stay in their homes and move toward financial security. His job is not only to respond to crises, but to build structures that make stability possible.
Ascend Nonprofit Solutions Shared Services: Strengthening Nonprofits in Charlotte
That commitment to infrastructure and capacity is also what drew Matt to Ascend Nonprofit Solutions. Ascend is a shared-services nonprofit serving agencies across Mecklenburg County. It offers office space in an uptown building, along with access to finance, HR, and IT support. For many nonprofits, that means they don’t have to hire a full-time CFO, full-time IT person, or full-time HR staff. They can plug into Ascend’s shared services instead and focus their energy where it matters most: their mission and their community.
When Ascend’s leaders looked for new board members, they weren’t just seeking names. They wanted operational, strategic nonprofit experience from someone who had lived the reality of building capacity inside mission-driven organizations. Connections from Leadership Charlotte, where Matt is a graduate of Leadership Charlotte Class 36, helped bring him to the table. His background, including interim leadership experience through Armstrong McGuire’s Interim Management Institute, made him an ideal fit for a board focused on strengthening nonprofit operations and shared services.
Leadership Charlotte and Armstrong McGuire: Building Connected Nonprofit Leadership
Matt’s journey also highlights how Charlotte’s nonprofit leaders benefit from investing in their own growth. Leadership Charlotte gave him exposure to the broader civic and nonprofit landscape more than a decade ago, shaping how he thinks about collaboration and community leadership today.
His connection to Crisis Assistance Ministry itself came through Armstrong McGuire’s Interim Management Institute, which prepares leaders to step into interim roles with confidence. For three years, Matt balanced consulting work with interim leadership, helping organizations build stronger systems during key transition points.
All of these experiences, including consulting, interim leadership, leadership development, and now board service, are part of a larger pattern that Matt supports: when executives step outside their immediate roles to learn, lead, and listen in different spaces, they bring back insights that benefit their home organizations and the families they serve.
Force Multiplier Nonprofits: Share Charlotte, Charlotte ToolBank, and Ascend
In talking about Charlotte’s nonprofit landscape, Matt often points to “force multiplier” organizations, nonprofits that exist to help other nonprofits thrive. He names Ascend Nonprofit Solutions, Share Charlotte, and Charlotte ToolBank among these crucial partners.
“There’s a ton and ton of nonprofits in the community here in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County that focus specifically on one clientele, one customer base, on a region,” he reflects. “Then there are a few agencies here in Charlotte, Share Charlotte being one, and Ascend Nonprofit Solutions, that help nonprofits do better work.”
Charlotte ToolBank offers another concrete example. “If Crisis Assistance had to do a big, huge project and we need the ladders and saws and tables, well, instead of us going to purchase them, Charlotte ToolBank can feed us,” Matt says. “That type of organization I think is needed more and more. And I think the community can get behind that. There are force multipliers out there like Ascend and others.”
Some supporters want their contributions to go straight to families in crisis. Others are drawn to organizations that strengthen the entire nonprofit sector. Together, these different kinds of support make the ecosystem more resilient and, ultimately, more effective at keeping neighbors housed and financially secure.
Why Nonprofit Board Service in Charlotte Matters for Executive Leaders
For Matt, serving on boards is part of being a fully engaged leader in Charlotte’s nonprofit community. His seat on Ascend’s board gives him regular opportunities to connect with other organizations in the building and beyond, many of which are current or potential partners in housing stability and economic mobility work.
“By having a seat on the board at Ascend Nonprofit Solutions, I’m able to learn about other organizations. My name is able to get out there,” Matt explains. “And more importantly, Crisis Assistance Ministry’s name is able to get out there. That’s why I think board involvement from executive team members is so important, to continue to get our name, as in the agency’s name, out there to give a face to who organizations can contact.”
His board involvement is intentionally structured for sustainability. The time commitment is once or twice a quarter, not weekly, and the focus is on shared vision and operational support. That allows him to stay deeply engaged at Crisis Assistance Ministry while still serving in a way that benefits nonprofits across Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
How Charlotte’s Nonprofit Leaders Make Crisis Assistance Ministry Stronger
Understanding and getting to know what other nonprofits are doing outside of your own bubble is highly important, Matt emphasizes. For leaders committed to housing stability and economic security in Mecklenburg County, that broader view isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential. It shapes how we design programs, how we collaborate, and how we respond when families arrive at our doors facing impossible choices.
At Crisis Assistance Ministry, we are proud of our executive team members who extend their expertise within the community and among partners. When leaders like Matt bring board experience, shared-services insight, and deep relationships back into our organization, it makes our agency stronger, more connected, and better equipped to help families in Mecklenburg County keep a roof over their heads and move toward lasting financial stability. It also shows what is possible when Charlotte’s nonprofit leaders see their roles not only as stewards of individual organizations but as builders of a shared, county-wide safety net.