By Austin Newell
NASHVILLE, TN — If you’ve ever paid any amount of attention to Nashville’s nonprofit scene, you’ve more likely than not heard the name Hal Cato.
Hal Cato was raised in Nashville, and he’s lived there almost his whole life. He got his start in commercial real estate in the city, and during that time got interested in volunteering.
“I was looking for a good way to give back…The only thing I could find was meals on wheels, and started delivering meals on wheels, and then I started recruiting friends to do it.”
Since then Cato has become a monolith in Nashville’s nonprofit world. His first organization, Hands on Nashville, was formed as a direct result of his involvement with Meals on Wheels, at the age of 24. Since then he’s moved around from organization to organization. Cato’s most recent venture, Thistle Farms, is a nonprofit whose mission statement is: “dedicated to helping women survivors recover and heal from trafficking, prostitution, and addiction”. Cato served as CEO of the organization starting in 2015, but stepped down in 2022.
“I felt like I had done what I had been asked to do, and the organization was in a good solid place, and I just felt that it was time to move on.” Said Cato. “I think too many leaders don’t know when it’s time to dismount. And knowing when you’ve done what you’re asked to do, and that it’s probably time to move on to my next thing, I think it’s an important voice to listen to.”
Even if you haven’t paid much attention to nonprofits in Nashville, it’s still likely that you may have heard his name brought up in the context of another leadership position: Mayor. In late 2021, Cato voiced his interest in the possibility of a Mayoral run in the 2023 election. Obviously that has not happened. Cato himself says that the reasoning behind this is simple.
“I think [I] just decided it’s not something I want to do.”
Cato also stated that he has no plans of running for mayor in the future. Instead, he will continue his philanthropic ventures as CEO of “The Community Foundation”, a nonprofit that focuses on giving individuals the resources to help their respective communities in Middle Tennessee. Whether that be by financial means or otherwise.
“It was interesting because right after I said I wasn’t going to run they reached out and they were doing a CEO search. And I realized that many of the things I cared about, and that were calling me to run for the mayor, in terms of quality of life issues, children and youth, bridging capital for bringing people from different walks of life together to solve problems, those were all things I could get to do in that role.”
If you ask Cato what drove him to get so involved in this line of work, and stick with it for so long, his answer might surprise you.
“I just knew that it made me feel better about myself, and better about my day. And that was enough at the time.”
For him, giving simply feels good.
