We were lucky to catch up with Karly Moore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Karly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.
It was 2017 and I had just finished my third year of teaching elementary school on the east side of Detroit. We had just found out that our school was essentially closing, so I was left with a lot of uncertainty and fear. Working at this school was so physically demanding, the building should have been condemned. I was left choosing between whether I wanted to continue teaching at a new school, or pivot and find a new way to serve the community. I reached out to an incredible mentor, Paul Vlasic, and asked for advice. He mentioned that there was this small nonprofit in Charlotte, NC called SHARE Charlotte. A woman, Kelly Brooks, saw a need for a central place for people to go to find ways to give back to their local community. She quickly realized that this platform would be wildly successful in other cities, so she reached out to the Walter Scott Foundation out of Omaha, Nebraska, and Paul Vlasic to see if they would be interested in helping her get this platform scalable so they could deploy them in their respective cities, and hopefully many others across the US (and world, maybe?!).
The next three and a half years go by with a lot of bumps and roadblocks along the way, which I know is a familiar feeling for a lot of organizations. Unfortunately, a lot of these barriers were out of my control, so I had to try and use my time wisely while I waited for things to come together. I built my own database of nonprofits across metro Detroit, scoured their websites for email addresses, and hit the pavement. I reached out to every nonprofit I could find and told them about SHARE Detroit. I visited nonprofits across metro Detroit, met with employees and volunteers, all to see if this platform would be something they could benefit from being a part of. I built relationships with a lot of nonprofit leaders, some of whom are on the SHARE Detroit team, because ultimately the consensus was unanimous: When can this launch?!
COVID hit early 2020, SHARE OMAHA had launched, so I utilized that year to learn from them. I visited their offices during a major campaign, and that was such a formative experience. Their team in Omaha is remarkable, and they took me under their wing no questions asked. I got to see all of their materials, merchandise, future plans, and beyond that build relationships as friends. They showed me around their amazing city, and I quickly realized that these people were not going to let me fail. I took what they gave me and ran with it. I found Janette (who was one of the first nonprofits to meet with me), and she agreed to be the Executive Director. We pitched what we needed to our “angel investors”, got the green light, and launched February of 2021 with 20 nonprofit organizations.
Karly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Karly, and I grew up in metro Detroit. I was an elite swimmer, so my entire life revolved around swimming through age 21. I went to college (for swimming) in Buffalo, NY at The University at Buffalo for four years, graduated, then moved back home with my parents. I had virtually no friends there, and no plans for the future other than I wanted to work with/at/for a nonprofit.
I got a job at Urban Outfitters and made some amazing new friends. I got to travel to new countries like Thailand and Poland for the first time ever, and basically lived my best life. During this time, I secretly applied for Teach for America. Their interview process is (or was at the time I’m not sure what’s it like now) rigorous and they have a notoriously small acceptance rate. Once I got to the location round, I selected Detroit. I got accepted and spent the next three years teaching 2nd and 3rd grade. The stories from this era of my life are truly insane, a lot of which I think I’ve blocked out by now. Throwing 22-year-olds with no prior teaching experience into a classroom of 30+ students in an underfunded, under resourced, school is definitely a choice. I loved my students so much, and leaving them was incredibly difficult, but I think even if my school hadn’t closed, I would have left anyways.
Flash forward to what SHARE Detroit is now, I’m so incredibly proud. We’re a nonprofit whose mission is to help metro-Detroit nonprofits fulfill theirs. We do this by providing a free platform (ShareDetroit.org) to help shine a light on the needs of local nonprofits and connect them to community members who want to do good. Right now, there are thousands of grassroots organizations working in our communities to fill needs that aren’t being met. These organizations don’t have the funding to pay for advertising or SEO, so when people google “volunteer opportunities near me” or “nonprofits near me” they will never show up. A lot of these organizations are completely volunteer operated, so it was massively important to me that SHARE Detroit remain free for nonprofits to use. We work to eliminate barriers that prevent nonprofits from getting the visibility and support they need in order to operate, funding being the number one issue. Nonprofits across our community can create profiles to highlight what they do, who they serve, and most importantly, ways you can help!
Visitors can browse by nonprofit, or by the type of way they are looking to give, which we call our “pillars of giving”.
1. Individuals can donate money directly to nonprofits (SHARE Detroit doesn’t take any fees off of the donations that flow through our platform).
2. Purchase items from a nonprofits wish list – they’ll ship directly to the organization!
3. Browse local events that nonprofits are hosting or participating in
4. Volunteer!
A few things that set SHARE Detroit apart is that we put a huge emphasis on volunteering, specifically skills-based and virtual volunteering. Our volunteer specialist works with schools, universities, businesses, to connect them with nonprofits who need their support. If you find a volunteer opportunity you like, you fill out a quick form which will immediately be emailed to the contact of the nonprofit’s choice to ensure a direct line of communication. We want to be viewed as a conduit – not a middleman.
Another cool thing about SHARE Detroit is the ability to filter through nonprofits based on the causes they support. If you’re wanting to support a women led nonprofit that supports autism, you can apply those filters and find all of the nonprofits who have self-identified and supporting those needs. You can also filter by geographic location – metro Detroit is massive.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Doing what I do, I get to meet with hundreds of nonprofits across metro Detroit. Most of the people I get to meet with are incredibly passionate about what they do, hardworking, and determined to fulfill their organization’s mission. It’s so interesting getting to hear from these grassroots nonprofits that really don’t get the visibility they need or deserve in the community. What SHARE Detroit does, is we work to break down those barriers and provide our nonprofits with support.
A lot of people don’t realize SHARE Detroit is a nonprofit itself, and a free one at that. When people donate to our nonprofit, their money has a ripple effect across many nonprofits, causes, and regions. That money also multiplies as it ripples because the connections, we’re making aren’t just a single donation and that’s it. These are people finding a unique volunteer opportunity that speaks to them and donating their time over the next few years. These are nonprofits showing the community exactly what items they need in order to operate so they don’t end up with a ton of stuff they can’t use. It’s really amazing getting to see that ripple across so many different, unique nonprofits.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The goal of SHARE Detroit is to create a level playing field for nonprofits across our community. A lot of people don’t realize that there are thousands of organizations, most of whom you’ve never heard of, doing real work to better our community. A lot of existing nonprofits don’t realize that there are other organizations they could connect and partner with. This is because there wasn’t a platform or space for these kinds of connections before we came along. On ShareDetroit.org, every nonprofit has equal footing and visibility. There is no preferential treatment or pay-to play, as we try to remain as unbiased and neutral as possible. The goal is to uplift all of the nonprofits in our community so that people can find one that really resonates with them. Each visitor to our site will determine what causes are most important to them and find others that are already doing the work you are also passionate about. I think it’s really important for Share Detroit to help provide visibility to the nonprofits and people doing the work and help to make meaningful connections. We have the ability to amplify their messages across metro Detroit and hopefully get them the support they need in order to operate and do more good in our community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sharedetroit.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/share.detroit
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SHAREDetroit/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/share-detroit/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/user137873060
Image Credits
Painted Light Photography