Meet Janette Phillips | Executive Director, Share Detroit

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janette Phillips and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janette, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Share Detroit’s website is designed to allow our community to DO GOOD and connect to hundreds of local nonprofits in metro Detroit. Our site offers 4 pillars for community members/neighbors to decide how to support the nonprofit. These pillars are: donating funds, volunteering, shopping a wish list and attending an event.

Our site makes it easy for neighbors to do research to learn more about nonprofits who support missions/causes that speak to their heart. There are hundreds of causes and areas to support including, children, animals, veterans, seniors, victims of cancer, suicide, literacy for children and adults, etc. We encourage students to use our site to find nonprofits to perform community service hours with, scouts to create projects, clubs/churches to support others in need, and more.

There is no other platform in Detroit that quickly brings nonprofits to the fingertips of neighbors to find and fund good. We are very proud of what we have built. The site is free for nonprofits to join and free for community members to use.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My career began in the corporate world. I was an Account Executive with the local telecommunications company and loved working with clients to solve problems and ease their work flow. I found I was good at ‘sales’ and helping customers understand why our solutions would make their lives easier. Flash forward to later in my career, after a family and after starting my own business for a while. I decided I wanted to use all of the skills I had learned in support of nonprofit work, rather than for profit work. Making money was not as important to me as fulfilling the missions of our nonprofits who support the underserved in so many ways. I now work at Share Detroit in support of 325+ area nonprofits. We help them to tell their story, promote their needs and events, and generally rally our community of generous neighbors to support them. I am now helping hundreds of nonprofits succeed with my experience and expertise in sales, project management, and finance. It is a very good way to support our community in my own way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Best time every in Detroit in the Fall begins with our cider mills! Yates Cider Mill, Franklin Cider Mill and others are a wonderful way to see nature and enjoy something that is unique to Michigan: our apples, cider and cider mill donuts!!

I would take them on a Detroit History Bus Tour in Detroit. This company creates unique experiences for groups to see Detroit landmark buildings, restaurants, food, drink, all while giving us the back story and history of Detroit in its hey-day. While in Detroit a must do is driving through Corktown to see the newly renovated train station that is a new mobility headquarters for Ford Motor and many other automotive / mobility / EV companies. So much is happening in Detroit! We are also home to many new craft breweries, so making time for a few beers in Detroit is a must if time permits!

A few hours north of Detroit is a city called Frankenmuth. It was founded and still has a strong German population. This city is famous for its fried chicken and the largest Christmas store under one roof in the country! Spending a day in Frankenmuth in the little shops, the large Christmas store and of course eating a famous Frankenmuth chicken dinner is not to be missed!

A nice visit to Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum are fun ways to spend the day learning about the early days of autos and the US.. The final stop would be to one of our lakes: Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit river, to enjoy riverwalks and see the largest fresh water in the world.

There is so much to do in Detroit and in Michigan!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to give a shout out to the men and women who created our Share City concept. It began in Charlotte, NC as Share Charlotte because I woman named Kelly saw a hole in ways for neighbors to support nonprofits and people in need. The idea spread to Omaha and Detroit, where generous people decided to replicate Share Charlotte in their home towns. Share Omaha and Share Detroit were a result! Karly Moore was our founding staff member of Share Detroit and she worked tirelessly to begin forming the organization and recruiting nonprofits to join the mission.

Website: www.sharedetroit.org

Instagram: http://instagram.com/share.detroit

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/share-detroit

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ShareDetroit

Other: http://vimeo.com/user137873060