Alexandria, Va. – Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) has named Margaret (Maggie) O’Neill, the former Director of Volunteer Engagement at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington (Catholic Charities DC), the recipient of the 2025 Management Excellence Award.
Each year, the CCUSA Management and Administration Community of Practice confers this honor on an exceptional manager or supervisor in the Catholic Charities network who leads his or her team in inspiring and engaging ways. The winner of the Management Excellence Award consistently demonstrates exceptional dedication in five categories: leadership, innovation, engagement, commitment and being data-driven.
O’Neill, who retired in August after 12 years of service to Catholic Charities DC, built and shepherded a massive volunteer operation for the largest independent social services agency in the metropolitan DC area. Prior to her arrival, the agency lacked a streamlined process to make it easy for volunteers to get involved. O’Neill established the structure used to onboard and maintain the 3,500 volunteers that serve Catholic Charities DC each year. She also created a database to help maintain relationships with this growing community of volunteers.
“I’m very excited and, honestly, feeling a little sheepish to be honored by my peers with this recognition. I hope it’s obvious to everyone that I am representative of all my extraordinary colleagues who are committed to the mission of Catholic Charities, who bring smarts, energy and joy to their work,” O’Neill said. “It’s wonderful that Catholic Charities has selected a volunteer engagement professional for this management honor. I consider it the duty of Catholic Charities to welcome the entire community to do the work with us of achieving our enormous and enduring mission.”
During her time with Catholic Charities DC, O’Neill immersed herself in its nearly 50 programs across almost 30 locations, gaining a deep understanding of the individual needs and operations of each one. This level of commitment allowed O’Neill to match the right volunteers with the right programs and to establish systems to help the agency more effectively serve vulnerable people in the DC area.
Recognizing how frontline staff turnover often leads to staffing shortages at shelters, especially during peak volunteer hours of evenings and weekends, O’Neill created the Hope Corps program. Through this initiative, trained volunteers committed to serving at a particular shelter on a weekly basis become very familiar and comfortable with the shelter’s procedures and clients. These Hope Corps members can then help ease the burden placed on limited shelter staff and welcome volunteers to the site and help direct their work.
“Maggie’s thorough, innovative and enthusiastic approach to her work has made it possible for hundreds of volunteers to devote their time to living out the Gospel and helping their fellow human beings in need,” CCUSA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson said. “Over her 12 years with Catholic Charities DC, she set an example of excellence and compassion that all of us in the Catholic Charities network should emulate in our own work.”
O’Neill will be recognized and celebrated for her outstanding service at CCUSA’s 2025 Annual Gathering this fall in Puerto Rico.
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