Jul 17, 2013 3 min read

Since opening its doors in 1941, the Washington City Mission has changed thousands of lives of homeless and impoverished people.

In June, CardConnect and its founder/CEO Brian Shanahan donated $200,000 to the City Mission to help the not-for-profit homeless and rehabilitation shelter continue its work to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance and recovery service.

It is the largest single donation the City Mission has received in a decade.

“My wife, Karen, and I have been giving to the Washington City Mission for about 10 to 15 years, and we’ve seen the positive impact the mission has had on the community,” said Shanahan, a Pittsburgh native and Upper St. Clair resident.

“We feel very fortunate that we’ve been successful in our business and we wanted to send a message about how important it is to give back. People of privilege need to do more and we’re hoping our donation encourages other businesses in the area to help out their neighbors get back on their feet.”

Last year, City Mission provided more than 107,700 meals and 30,000 nights of shelter to more than 900 people as part of its mission to share Christ and help the homeless live independently.

It also assisted more than 1,000 people through its Samaritan Care program, which offers a food pantry, clothing, furniture and other household items to the public.

“I want to thank CardConnect for their generous donation. I am truly grateful,” said Dean Gartland, president and CEO of Washington City Mission. “In the next three to four years, the mission will be transformed, and we’ll use the funds to help with our expansion and our ability to serve our residents, including the homeless veterans.”

The mission plans to increase the size of its men’s shelter, which currently accommodates 100 men – which often operates over capacity – and to purchase property on West Wheeling Street for a veterans shelter that can accommodate 34 veterans.

The City Mission also operates a recycling center and six thrift stores.

CardConnect, which has offices at Southpointe in Canonsburg, is an electronic payment technology and processing company that serves merchants, independent sales organizations and financial institutions. The company helps more than 50,000 businesses across the United States accept billion of dollars in bank card transactions each year.

Doug Bush, a former City Mission client who now manages the recycling center, believes the CardConnect donation will help provide more homeless men and women with a chance to turn around their lives the same way he did.

“Being at the City Mission was transformational for me,” said Bush, who stayed at the mission in 1999 and began to work there in 2000. “One of the things I learned at the mission was the idea of doing better. We can always do better. And a donation like that gives us hope and provides us with the opportunity to provide better services for our clients.”