Blog Posts - DukeEngageDetroit

DukeEngageDetroit

week 6- isa hogshire

7/6/2021

Nonprofit work is very unique work. What have you learned about how nonprofits operate this summer? What is something you didn’t know? What is something that has surprised you?

Based on my time at MedHealth, I have learned that non-profit work depends on the time and energy invested individuals. Constant flows of ideas and inspiration keep organizations these organizations alive. I admire how leaders like Stacey Frankovich and Paul Riser open their hearts and minds from people from all walks of life with the goal of expanding their networks and finding new pathways for innovation. The meetings I attended for MedHealth surprised me because employees, contractors, and partners came from wildly diverse backgrounds. Oftentimes, I struggled to understand the connections between these individuals. That said, Paul Riser exposed me to important concept in nonprofit work that I did not understand before: nonprofits operate at the intersection of multiple areas of social impact. To be truly successful, they must bring diverse stakeholders together.
Although the nature of nonprofit work (especially as an intern) is scattered, successful nonprofits stay true to their mission at all costs. I have learned that successful nonprofits require clear long-term strategies for engaging stakeholders in their work. MedHealth meets this challenge in two ways. Firstly, they pursue diverse funding sources. Secondly, they continuously listen and improve. They ground their approach to expanding medical innovation in the actual needs of health systems, entrepreneurs, and Michigan residents alike.

WEEK 6 - LARA BAMBERGER

7/6/2021

Nonprofit work is very unique work. What have you learned about how nonprofits operate this summer? What is something you didn’t know? What is something that has surprised you?

Though this summer is not my first experience working with a nonprofit, working with ProsperUS Detroit has exposed me to how unique nonprofit work is. The expression “it takes a village” comes to mind when thinking about my new understanding and appreciation of nonprofit work. Though different nonprofits are structured and operate differently, ProsperUS has shown me that one main aspect that makes nonprofit work so special, and that really makes the nonprofit work, are the people. For nonprofits to operate, do the good that they do, and make the change they strive for, they need a supportive, dynamic, passionate and engaged team to work together. They need a “village” to carry out their mission. And that is exactly what ProsperUS Detroit has. ProsperUS is made up of selfless, passionate, hardworking and ardent individuals that truly care about their work, their mission, and one another. And their individual passion inspires others to want to help achieve their mission. Those who work for nonprofits are willing to give it their all, in whatever capacity is necessary. The individuals that work at these nonprofits work together, take on roles they did not necessarily expect to, and give 100% of themselves to serve their communities.

One thing that I had never focused on before and was surprised to learn is how influenced nonprofits are by corporate America. They need investors, loans, and others to share their mission to get things done. I did not realize how important connection building and partnerships are. And while i knew funding was important, I never really focused on how important it was to the decisions and achievement of particular goals of a nonprofit. If the funding sources do not share a vision, the nonprofit may not be able to pursue that particular vision and goal. It was also very enlightening to learn about the extent of nonprofits working together, and working with community partners, and even larger corporate banks and companies that can offer immense support with resources including human capital and grants.

I have learned so much about nonprofit work this summer and look forward to learning even more in my last few weeks this summer.

Week 6 - Sophie Cartolano

7/5/2021

Nonprofit work is very unique work. What have you learned about how nonprofits operate this summer? What is something you didn’t know? What is something that has surprised you?

Coming into this summer, I simply understood nonprofits to be organizations that seek to do good in this world rather than to earn profit for its owners. After engaging with people who work for nonprofits, I have gained a deeper understanding of what makes them so special. In order for nonprofits to thrive, it takes immensely driven, selfless people who are committed to producing greater social benefits to run these organizations. Several staff members at nonprofits that I conversed with have expressed feelings of being overworked and under-resourced at times, but still take on such grand roles because they are passionate and thrilled to serve their communities. I find it both surprising and inspiring that nonprofit work is so rewarding that it combats any potential burnout that may result from the strenuous efforts it requires.

Something else that I have learned is the great advantages that can come from partnerships between nonprofits and businesses. While I initially thought of the two as completely separate entities, it has become more apparent that there is a lot they can offer each other. A connection between a nonprofit and a business can be beneficial through improved reputation, increased audience, and boosted morale among staff and company members. Communities are also benefited since awareness is raised surrounding their most prevalent issues and nonprofits become equipped with more resources to address these societal problems. Ultimately, the interconnectedness that nonprofits can bring about in a community makes their presence both crucial and powerful to a city's development.

Week 6 - Neal Dalal

7/5/2021

Nonprofit work is very unique work. What have you learned about how nonprofits operate this summer? What is something you didn’t know? What is something that has surprised you?

This is not my first time directly working with a nonprofit so I’m used to dealing with the lack of funding, chaotic nature of the work, and the need for adaptability. This is, however, my first time working for a nonprofit based in the United States and that comes with its own host of unique problems and challenges.

This summer, while working for Med Health, I’ve learned a fair amount about the intricacies of communication in corporate America and more specifically healthcare. Personally, the most surprising feature was the for-profit nature of health systems and how difficult it can be to work with and/or for them. One of the toughest parts of working for a nonprofit is simply getting your voice heard and your ideas recognized. Another surprising thing I learned about the nonprofit sphere is the importance of local norms and practices. Having sat in on meetings both in California and Michigan I got to witness the differences in the nonprofit ecosystem. California had a much better collaboration system than Michigan. In Michigan, the culture feels competitive and business-focused rather than California’s collaborative and product-focused style of work. Of course, this is based on my limited exposure to med-tech in California but this sentiment is something Stacey echoed as a problem for the Michigan entrepreneurship scene.

Overall, working in the nonprofit industry this summer was an enlightening experience. Without big corporate teams that specialize in dealing with specific problems it truly takes multi-talented individuals to handle all the unique challenges that nonprofits face. With Stacey’s guidance, I learned a little bit about what it takes to make a sustainable impact and get buy-in from those around you even when money is not the motivator.

week 6- patrick wachira

7/5/2021

Nonprofit work is very unique work.. What have you learned about how nonprofits operate this summer? What is something you didn’t know? What is something that has surprised you?

I have learnt that an essential pillar that needs to be central to the establishment and running of a nonprofit organization is sustainability. Through my experience with my partner organization along with other resources that I have explored, I have learned that the ability to develop a mission that can be carried out across a long period of time is crucial to running a nonprofit organization. Understanding this has led me to another side of the nonprofit space that I was not familiar with— the complexities of the funding process.

I have come to understand that funders of nonprofits have goals, which they seek to achieve by working with the organizations that they work with. As such, their funding is conditional on the requirement that their support goes towards missions/ objectives that they believe align with their goals. As such, the resources that are available for certain missions that a nonprofit might deem crucial might be limited, depending on their orientation to the goals of the funders. This has opened my eyes to the complexities of processes like grant writing, and the overall process of sustaining nonprofit organizations.

It is clear that the interests of funders need to be reconciled with the goals of the people running nonprofits. I believe synergies can be discovered in this process— funders can partner with organizations that they believe align with their needs, and people who found/ run nonprofits can adapt their goals to overlap with those of funders, such that common goals are achieved. This will ensure successful establishment and running of nonprofits, along with the realization of goals shared between funders and people who run nonprofits. Such considerations are continuing to be central to spending and collaboration efforts within the nonprofit space, especially considering how the wave of Environmental, Social, and [corporate] Governance (ESG) factors is continuing to influence decision making in the corporate space. Thus, I believe such factors should be key among the considerations of nonprofit organizations, as long as long-term sustainability is a priority for them. It should fall into such considerations as adaptability, which the COVID-19 experience has taught us should always be at the back of our minds.

week 5: tenzin choeyang

6/30/2021

Prompt: Please interview someone living and/or working in the social impact space in Detroit. Write a piece about them that you can share.

Would you please introduce yourself, including your current role and organization?

Alena Farooq is a young professional in the social impact space of Detroit. She is a current Associate at GreenLight Fund Detroit and one of the two primary program coordinators who Dono and I have the pleasure to work with and learn from this summer. Alena has a wide array of past experiences, including working in local NGOs, large corporations, volunteering opportunities, developing and coordinating education programs. In her interview, I learned that Alena’s initial upbringing was about 30 minutes outside of Detroit, with very little transportation compared to the city. She adds, her interaction with the city was really as an adult. Her work at the Urban Alliance, a national youth force that levels the playing field for young people in the workforce, equips them with the tools to overcome the systemic barriers that prevent equal access to economic opportunity. Alena was one of the people who helped launch the Detroit branch of Urban Alliance. After a year, her work was on impact investing social enterprise fundamentals applied to NGOs in finding mutually beneficial collaboration primarily for social good.

What does social innovation (and social impact) mean to you?

One of the things that drew her was searching for how we get better at solving problems, really getting to the roots. She exemplified that with an example of how nonprofits during clothing drives kill the local market at times. Here, the root issue is economic mobility, hence solving the root rather than a symptom.

How has Detroit and its social impact landscape influenced your definition of social innovation?

There is a need for a collaborative table that is intentional and has buy-in from city, resident, nonprofit, and corporate leaders. Her prior experience while working for the city’s food hub helped her ponder some questions: Right equipment? Right power? She reflects through her work with Urban Alliance as a pull model is essential.

Is there anything you would like to tell us about why you chose to be part of the larger work and your current role?

During the senior year of high school, Alena worked with students from 14 different schools. Then she first encountered how easy it is to rally around with an overlapping mission and get community members to the organization. They successfully raised $86,000 for Syrian American medical society. She continues, “when values and missions drive people, things get done.”

Why GreenLight Fund?

While at Urban Alliance, she worked to answer this collective question: “how can we as an organization tailor into a community’s need?” Moreover, she continued asking such important questions: when bringing the new program into space, how can we honor what's different, make it fit into the existing organization, and serve the community?

What were your biggest challenges and takeaways from this work?

Learn to listen instead of speak
Ask yourself: Does it matter to the people of Detroit?
Learn when to enter the conversation ( and to step back when not to)
Focus on alleviating experiences.

Any advice for the next generation interested in being part of such space?

“Take that intentional time to listen as you learn.”

What are the things that you look forward to/ encounter through this work that inspires you/favorite moments you would like to share?

Alena was (is) there to bridge the gap. She recalls her work at Urban Alliance, where she realized that students individually had everything they had to succeed.

Week 5 - Neal Dalal

6/29/2021

Please interview someone living and/or working in the social impact space in Detroit. Write a piece about them that you can share.

This past week I was lucky enough to speak with David Bloom, a serial entrepreneur who now teaches at the University of Michigan’s Business school. As an individual the best word I can use to describe him is interesting. He started off as an electrical engineer and worked at the forefront of the tech world. He oversaw one of the biggest mergers in the tech sphere and was geared to live a lucrative lifestyle if he stuck with it. In short, he did not stick with it. Instead, he moved to California and worked at a startup. Unlike today where startups are considered “sexy” and desirable back then working at a start-up was the bottom of the tech totem pole.

He decided to work in the start-up industry because he had the “bug”. This bug, as he described, is a push that entrepreneurs get to innovate. As an individual David jumps between ideas, some successful and some colossal failures. For him, all it takes is an idea and then he pours his time and energy into making it a reality. Amidst this conversation, I came across several pieces of advice that I found enlightening.

1.) For every person you talk to get two more conversations out of it.
2.) Don’t be afraid to talk about failure, too many people are
3.) Right now is the time to learn about Entrepreneurial Discovery
4.) Success with anything is based completely on the user so get to know people

Overall, David was an inspiring man and this conversation was a highlight of the Duke Engage program thus far.

Week 5 - Evan henley

6/29/2021

Please interview someone living and/or working in the social impact space in Detroit. Write a piece about them that you can share.

For one of our projects at ProsperUs, Lara and I are interviewing local entrepreneurs to write stories on their journey. One of the companies we decided to reach out to is Guerrilla Food, a grassroots culinary team that has a farm-to-table carry out restaurant, a catering program, and a vintage food trailer. Meiko Krishok grew up in Wisconsin and studied comparative literature in college. Although she didn’t have a traditional background in business, she was always interested in different cultures and traveling, growing up around her grandmothers who instilled in her a strong food culture. Post college, she spent some time traveling and got involved in grassroots organizing and teaching, specifically Asian American teenagers. After living in Detroit for a few years, she was connected to the local food scene as well as a woman who had an old food trailer that was going unused. Meiko decided to take advantage of the opportunity not to create a business, but to bring people together in Detroit, a city she had recently moved to. Over time, this food truck, Pink Flamingo, expanded into a catering company and brick and mortar location.

While talking to Meiko, I realized how important the communal aspect of Guerrilla Food is. So much of the joy that Meiko takes from the business has nothing to do with a monetary aspect, but mainly from bringing people together to enjoy food and culture. To me, this is what makes Guerrilla Food stand out: its commitment to their mission and community. Although Meiko never received formal training in business, she has taken advantage of many resources that have been made available to her; she jumps at every opportunity and is extremely passionate about her work. She recognizes that there are huge learning curves that restrict access to capital and connections, yet throughout her time Meiko has experienced kindness from fellow entrepreneurs. Detroit, although it has its problems, is a special place because of the passion of the people within it. They are resilient and kind, always willing to help one another for the betterment of their community.

week 5 - isa hogshire

6/28/2021

Please interview someone living and/or working in the social impact space in Detroit. Write a piece about them that you can share.
This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Riser, a pillar of the social impact community. Paul’s deep knowledge about the city of Detroit comes from decades in the social impact and entrepreneurship space. In many ways, Paul is the model social innovator. After starting a non-profit in college, Paul knew he wanted to kick off his career in Detroit to continue his work in social impact. Paul has a background in information technology and spent the early parts of his career at a biomedical startup. Later, he transitioned to TechTown where he started as the head of business development. In this role he helped small neighborhood businesses grow and leverage state-based resources. Today, Paul serves as the head of Detroit Urban Solutions. Paul’s current role stems from Detroit’s complex economic history. After the municipality filed for bankruptcy, the government sought to imagine what innovation and entrepreneurship would look like in the city. Paul and D.U.S. are continuing this work by helping to attract and keep innovative talent in the region. They look at community challenges and bring together partners and stakeholders to address the problem across multiple verticals. What unites Paul’s diverse set of experiences is his constant adherence to his holistic approach to social entrepreneurship and desire to improve the quality of life for the people of Detroit. He uses his personal ties to his hometown a community-level perspective to drive his efforts. Moreover, recognizes the importance of bringing people together, arguing when that you think you are working in one space in social impact, you are really working in all of them.
Having spent 95% of his life in the city, Paul and Detroit grew up together, learning to see challenges, not as obstacles, but opportunities for radical change. According to Paul, Detroit’s challenges are what make the city a unique hub for innovation. He describes Detroit as an “underdog” as its often under-resourced forgotten. That said, there is immense opportunity for growth, making the city the ideal test bed for innovation. Keeping with this mentality, Paul sees Detroit as a potential magnet for talent and ideas. His ideas are exemplified by his recent project Erie Hack which focuses on partnerships and technology to improve Detroit’s “blue economy.” Paul predicts that the water industry is an existing asset that should be leveraged and preserved as it directly relates to community issues. What excites Paul most about this work is that it offers him the opportunity to work with people focused on the “triple bottom line: people, plant, and profit.” My conversation with Paul has shifted my perspective on the power of location and the importance of personal connection. As I consider where I want to be after college, I hope to mirror Paul’s approach: choosing a location where your personal drive has room to flourish and help those around you.

WEEK 5 - LARA BAMBERGER

6/28/2021

Please interview someone living and/or working in the social impact space in Detroit. Write a piece about them that you can share

This summer my partner Evan and I are taking part in a Storytelling Project with ProsperUS Detroit. For the project, we have reached out and participated in interviews with some of Detroit’s most interesting and inspiring entrepreneurs to hear about their journeys and businesses. Last week, we interviewed Dhafir Hasan, founder of Krispy Addict, a street stylish clothing brand. Hasan is originally from the West Side of Detroit and graduated with a degree in business management. Since being a child, Hasan has had goals and aspirations of owning his own business. Hasan had the idea for opening his clothing brand for a long time, always interested in the clothing industry, but revamped his business plan, fine tuned his work, and named his concept while working with ProsperUS Detroit. The name of the company, Krispy Addicts, holds a deep meaning to Hasan. First, the name is in part inspired by Crispus Attucks, the first American, specifically Black American, killed in the American Revolution. Hasan spoke about how Attucks’s name is not one that is prominent in our classrooms or widely known, and Hasan wanted to bring recognition to him. Crispus Attucks was also at the forefront of the Revolution, and that is where Hasan wants his company to be, at the forefront of the new revolution by using fashion. Hasan pays detailed attention to the products he sells and the images he puts out, and wants to help his community remember and combat the issues that plague his community, and wants to do this through fashion. In addition to the tribute to Crispus Attucks, Krispy is also a term that is used to describe something that is fresh and new, and Hasan wants his brand to be for people that are passionately addicted to living a lifestyle and dressing in a way that is krispy.

Hasan is so much more than an entrepreneur and businessman. Hasan also serves as an inspiration for his peers and the youth in his area, and is a representative of and inspiration for social impact in his community. He wants others to be inspired by him, a man from inner city Detroit who had a vision from an early age and worked until his goals came to fruition. He is a role model for his community, demonstrating how you can accomplish what you set out to do and achieve your goals when you work hard and pursue your dream. Hasan currently operates two storefronts in communities where he is able to develop relations with the surrounding residents. He showcases other businesses’ flyers and business cards, and is open to local brands coming and doing popup shops in his store to help them grow. Hasan plans to follow through on many of his pre-COVID plans to engage with the community even more, speaking to community members, churches, and students, and giving back to the youth, helping them cultivate their skills so that one day they can fulfill their dreams just as he did.