Staff Spotlight: Anne Casteen
Today, we’d like to shine a special spotlight on Anne Casteen, Director of Development at Big Brothers Big Sisters. She has been with the agency for 2 years now, bringing her long-time passion for the mission!
A great day for Anne looks like a day at the lake, surrounded by family and friends. She loves to cook for people and always finds opportunities to use Italian, Peruvian, or Japanese recipes. Another way she hopes to expand her pastimes is through getting back into Pilates workouts and bike riding.
Anne never passes up an opportunity to see more of the world and revisit her favorite travel spots. A recent trip to Japan with her friends has taken the top spot on her list of favorite travel destinations. They stayed in a surf town that reminded her of California.
One of Anne’s favorite hobbies merges her love of cooking with her travel experiences. Whenever she tries a new restaurant in town or while traveling, she tries to recreate the food, making “copycat” dishes.
Anne spent her childhood growing up in Fort Wayne, where she attended St. Jude and Bishop Dwenger. The boilermaker attended Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in restaurant, hotel, institutional management, and tourism. She lived in Chicago, then moved to Southern California for many years before returning to Northeast Indiana.
Anne’s family is a long-time supporter of the agency, serving on the board, attending special events and working at the agency. She had always felt inspired by the mission, so when the opportunity to join the nonprofit presented itself, Anne jumped at the chance.
As Director of Development, Anne manages the agency’s recruitment efforts and donor relations. She carries many responsibilities across the nonprofit, assisting with everything from events to running the Real Men Read program. Recruitment efforts include hosting presentations and working informational booths, along with leading the yearly recruitment campaign. Her job takes her across Northeast Indiana to workplaces, gatherings, faith organizations, and community groups, always with the intent to develop new connections and recruit volunteers for the nearby waiting youth.
What is your favorite part about working at Big Brothers Big Sisters?
Anne: It's hard to pick just one, but I love the energy and the heart that everybody on our team has. I think everybody's very mission-focused. I love the creativity. We are able to do a lot of things, you know, with a very limited budget as a non-profit, but just with the creativity and how inventive our team is, you know, we're allowed to do some really cool things to further development and serve the kids.
No two days look the same for Anne. She works across departments on various projects and often meets with donors, volunteers, and Littles. Presentations and recruitment get her out of the office and away from the desk. However, there’s one other factor that takes her out in the community: School Buddies! Once a week, Anne has lunch with her Little Sister Azorah.
Tell us about your School Buddy match.
Anne: My favorite thing about being matched with Azorah is that she really keeps me on my toes. Our conversations are always so funny, and I like watching her grow. She wasn't really ever shy, but she is very comfortable with me now. And if I change up what day of the week I come, she always questions me the next week, like, ‘Why didn't you come on Friday?’ I think she likes to look forward to it at the end of the week, that maybe it makes her week go faster. But I love it because I get out of the office once a week. I don't eat my lunch at my desk, and I get fresh air, and I always come back with a funny story.
Anne loves how her job allows her to connect with new people and reconnect with old friends at community events. Her friendly personality makes forming relationships with Big Impact Partners, volunteers, and donors an exciting and enjoyable part of her role. The work that goes into finding new volunteers and community supporters is all made worth it when she gets to see the result.
What is the best part of your role at the agency?
Anne: I also love when a potential volunteer signs up, and then weeks later, I see a picture of them with their Little at their meeting, their first match photo. And they're both smiling so big! And I think, oh my gosh, they are going to have so much fun together. And that's really ultimately what it's all about.
However, there is a tougher side of volunteer recruitment, especially for a program that supports youth. Watching Littles wait so long for Bigs adds pressure to her job. It’s also challenging to see volunteers who are nervous or hesitant to join because she knows how fun and fulfilling the program can be for volunteers.
…And the hardest?
Anne: I think the hardest part of my job is knowing how many kids are waiting for a Big. Then also when I meet a potential volunteer who's thinking about signing up, but they're hesitant because they think they wouldn't be able to connect with a child that they're not related to, or they don't think that they're qualified or special enough to be a mentor.
And I get that because that was me. I hesitated for a long time. And of course, we would never pressure anybody into signing up. But I want to always tell them that the thing I regret the most is that I didn't sign up to be a Big a long time ago.
Anne knows the importance of finding mentors for kids. In fact, she personally understands how crucial a supportive adult can be for a young person navigating changes and challenges. That’s why she’s glad that the program exists and goes all the way up to age 22 to support young people as they transition from their teen years to adulthood.
Do you have a mentor in your own life, either personal or professional?
Anne: I think it's really cool that our Big Futures matches stay open until the age of 22. I lost my dad shortly after I graduated from college. When you're 22, you think that you are all grown up, but now I know that that's a really vulnerable age…So, I think it's cool that if something happens to a child at that age, they're still very connected to their Big.
So, after my dad died, I was really blessed to have older siblings who served as mentors. And then my dad's brother, my uncle Don, really has been a mentor since then, professionally and personally. He's been a mentor for countless people. I'm blessed to have him just a text or a phone call away.
What's the best piece of advice you've gotten from him?
Anne: The best piece of advice I have received from my uncle Don is that life is a series of trade-offs, which just means that no decision is going to be perfect. When you choose one thing, you're letting go of something else…Make the decision that gets you to your ultimate goal. He also has really modeled that you need to put faith, family, and friends first and keep that at the center of your life.
Thank you, Anne, for passionately playing your part in getting mentors for youth in our communities!
