EARLY LIFE

Rachael was born in Australia in the early 1980s to wealthy parents who owned restaurants in the community of Cambra. Growing up in a wealthy and comfortable lifestyle, Rachael was very privileged and enjoyed many things that others did not have. In addition, Rachael’s parents were very loving, and instilled in the young Rachael and her siblings the value of caring for others – something that would greatly influence Rachael’s career choices later in her life.

As a young Chinese girl living in Australia at the time, Rachael was not immune to racism; back then, Australia was an overwhelmingly-white country and racism was rampant, which affected many families like Rachael’s. In spite of this, her parents did not allow themselves to be overcome by hatred, and this inspired the young Rachael as she saw her parents as examples of what it means to be a good citizen.

When Rachael was around eight years old, her mother accepted a job in the Australian Foreign Services Department and became the highest-ranking diplomat of another ethnicity – which was particularly impressive, considering the prevalence of racism at the time. Rachael later stated that her mother was one of her greatest inspirations and role models because of how she taught her to handle both responsibility and criticism.

MOVING TO CHINA

In 1989, after the infamous Tiananmen Massacre in China, Rachael and her family moved from Australia to China after her mother was appointed as a foreign diplomat in the country. Living behind the walls of the Australian embassy in China, Rachael initially struggled to get along with others; at her school, her classmates were of many different cultures, and she had no concept of race relations whatsoever.

During her stay in China, Rachael went with her parents to live in Guangzhou for a short time before settling in Beijing. Because she came from a wealthy family, she knew little about the seriousness of poverty until she witnessed it first-hand among her fellow Chinese people. Once, she had even given food to an eight-year-old boy she found begging in the streets.

This experience resulted in a radical change of views for the young Rachael, who had been living comfortably until then, unaware of just how many people suffer from poverty. From then on, Rachael was inspired to help the poor members of her community.

The early 1990s brought misfortune to the Chong family, whose businesses in Australia were devastated by the financial crisis at the time, which affected almost every sector of society. Fortunately, though, Rachael and her siblings still lived quite comfortably due to their parents’ work (her mother was a diplomat for the Australian government while her father established a new, moderately-successful business in China), and were able to receive quality education.

In Rachael’s elementary and high school years, she developed her desire for philanthropy through numerous extra-curricular activities. In high school, Rachael was often praised as being among the brightest students in the class, and she graduated with excellent grades.

GOING TO THE UNITED STATES: RACHAEL’S COLLEGE YEARS

After graduating from high school, Rachael moved to New York to study at Columbia University’s Barnard College. During her first year at Barnard, Rachael spent one semester in the Arizona desert with fifty other students from all over the world to study in the Biosphere, an enclosed ecological institute which studies life systems.

During her summer vacations, Rachael stayed busy by engaging in philanthropic and charitable activities and joining various organizations and their programs. In her first year, Rachael started working with Shell, and worked as an intern for Goldman Sachs in her sophomore year. During her junior year, Rachael spent some time with the UBS Investment Bank (as an investment bank analyst and sales and trading agent), and the company was so impressed with her performance that they offered her a job upon her graduation.

While studying at Columbia University, Rachael not only proved to be among the best and brightest students, but also showed her genuine desire to help people and create the world she always dreamed of: a world free from hunger and poverty. However, in her time working with several investment companies, Rachael became frustrated with the lack of opportunities to use her skills for the greater good. Realizing that she was limited in her career path, Rachael decided to leave the banking industry and search for new opportunities:

“After college I went into investment banking like many of us did back then. While I was there, I had the brilliant idea to stay sane by volunteering my newly minted finance and business skills. Only problem was that for the life of me, I couldn’t find an appropriate skills-based or pro bono volunteer opportunity. I thought it was crazy that people who wanted to give their skills couldn’t find a way to do so.”

FROM BANKING TO MICROFINANCE

After Rachael graduated from Columbia University in 2004, she turned to the world of microfinance and began working as a “public sector team intern” with FINCA International, a well-known non-profit organization. Two years later, in 2006, Rachael founded the “Duke Microfinance Club” while pursuing her graduate studies at Duke University. She completed her studies and earned her Master’s degree in 2009.

In 2007, Rachael was also significant in the establishment of “BRAC USA,” where she served as its Program Manager for over a year. While working with “BRAC USA,” Rachael was able to use her skills to develop programs that would help people, and also learn newer methods to improve what she already knew.

FOUNDING “CATCHAFIRE”

Eventually, Rachael’s work at BRAC led to the establishment of “Catchafire,” a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging young professionals to become involved in organizations and causes. Using the tagline “Give What You Are Good At,” “Catchafire” has become one of the largest volunteering services in the world, giving over six-million dollars in services to non-profit organizations. Although based in New York City, “Catchafire” has since expanded to other cities, and continues to grow as more and more people offer their talents and efforts to causes that are worth their while.

In an interview, Rachael described the work of “Catchafire:”

“Catchafire works a bit like a dating site—we match professionals who want to give back with social good organizations that need professional services but can’t afford them at market rate. Say you’re a PR manager, a graphic designer, a video editor, or a marketing executive. You fill out a profile with Catchafire, giving information about your skillset and your cause interests. Meanwhile, social good organizations can list projects in areas that require a certain set of skills—for example, a social media campaign for an HIV-AIDS education nonprofit, or a fundraising event for an animal shelter. Our special matching algorithm suggests possible matches.”

Today, Rachael continues to look for ways to improve her organization’s services. Looking back at what “Catchafire” has accomplished, Rachael understands there is still much that can be done, and as long as improvements can be made, she will never stop:

“One of the biggest challenges we’re faced with now is how to expand Catchafire into other markets (we currently only serve organizations with a presence in the greater New York City area), without losing the personal touch and individual passion that has made us successful so far. We’re proud of what we’ve done so far, but we think the model has the potential to make a huge impact on the way social good organizations operate, and for that to happen, we need to scale up tremendously.”

It does not require a job with a large and prestigious company to impact the world in a great way; all you need is the desire to do it, and the determination to devote your time, effort and resources. As Rachael says:

“My vision is to change the world for the better in a really, really big way. Catchafire has the potential to create a more efficient and effective nonprofit / social good sector and build a movement of socially conscious, action-oriented, talented individuals. I couldn’t imagine a bigger goal or a cause I care more about. My vision for Catchafire is a life vision not only a career vision.”

Work History

• 2002-2004: Multicultural and International Student Association (Columbia University)
• 2003: Goldman Sachs
• 2004-2005: UBS Investment Bank
• 2005: FINCA International
• 2006-2007: Duke Microfinance Club
• 2007-2008: BRAC USA
• 2008- Catchafire

Organizations and Programs Supported

• Catchafire
• BRAC USA
• Duke Microfinance Club
• FINCA International
• Multicultural and International Student Association
• Youth Challenge America
• Project Have Hope
• Goods for Good

Awards and Achievements

• 2009: Became a Finalist for “New York City Entrepreneur” and a Semi-Finalist in the “Dell Social Innovation Competition”
• 2009: Won Second Place in the “DFJ Gotham East Coast Venture Challenge”
• 2009: Won the “Duke University Start-Up Challenge Social Enterprise Track”
• 2010: Conferred Fellowship by West Coast Village Capital and won the “Innovators Series” of the Huffington Post
• 2011: Named Judge for the “Global Social Venture Competition”
• 2011: Became a Finalist at the “Startups for Good Challenge”
• 2012: Conferred Fellowship by the NYC Venture Fellows and received the “Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award”
• 2012: Named Judge for the “Global Social Venture Competition” and Judge for the “Talbots Scholarship Program”
• 2012: Included in the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company
• 2013: Received the “No Apologies Award” from the AWNY’s “Changing the Game”

RESOURCES:
The Huffington Post (Rachael Chong)
LinkedIn (Rachael Chong)
Gotham Gal (Rachael Chong, Woman Entrepreneur, Catchafire)
Care 2 (Turning The Table On Traditional Volunteering: An Interview With Catchafire’s Rachael Chong)
ClaudiaChan.com (Interviews: Rachael Chong)
Catchafire Blog (Meet Rachael Chong, The Passion Behind Catchafire)