frankly… Episode 92: Numbers Are Important, but Stories Are What Move People

In this episode of frankly…

The transcript below is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies. Tune in to the episode audio to hear the full conversation! 

Transcript

Dan

Hello, welcome to frankly. Today I am joined by a guest co-host, Tracy Wolf, who’s an integrated communications manager here at Franco and we are talking with Laura LeBlanc, who is Vice President of Philanthropy with Alternatives For Girls. And for almost 40 years, The organization has supported girls and young women helping those experience homelessness and other risks, avoid violence, early pregnancy, and exploitation with a focus here in Southeast Michigan and Detroit. So we talked with Laura about quite a bit that crosses over between the worlds of philanthropy and fundraising, communications, the importance of storytelling, not just for donors, but also for those who might be in need of services like this. So really great conversation. If you’re interested in more, check out alternativesforgirls.org to learn more about the organization, how you can get involved or donate to support. And also At Franco here, we recently put out a new Detroit Inspires Me merch line with all of the proceeds from that sale going towards alternatives for girls. So you can check that out on our website as well at franco.com slash shop. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Laura for a conversation. Hi Laura, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome to Frankly.

Laura

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Dan

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Talk about your career background, kind of what it is that got you into nonprofit and how you ended up where you are today with Alternatives For Girls.

Laura

Yeah, so I like to say fundraising found me. I never imagined that I’d be working in philanthropy for my career. My background is political science. And when I got out of college, my first job out of college in my career was a gubernatorial race. So I landed a job as a finance assistant and quickly grew the ranks. I just latched onto it and loved it. So I became the call time manager and eventually the senior call time manager. And almost every dollar raised went through my call time program. And it was just incredible. But what I learned about politics is I don’t like losing. So I, and you have this great vision and like this candidate with like, who wants to make so much change, but the change doesn’t happen unless they get elected. And I really had a heart for making a difference. Like the people I met, I traveled the whole state and like the stories I heard I was like, I want to be on the ground serving these people. And so I found my heart and home in nonprofits and found my way to Volunteers America Michigan. which their health and human services. And it was just life-changing. Like what I loved about it was not just working with my donors, but meeting the people we serve and like watching them. I was there for six years and there’s people who I would see them on their worst day, the day we met them. And then six months or a year later, I was helping them move into their first place to call home. And it was just incredible. And that’s when I knew this is what I want to do for my life. And I spent a couple years at Southwest Solutions, helped them through the merger to MiSide, oversaw all the rebranding, multiple website renovations. And what I love about what I do is I get to work in philanthropy, but also communications, PR, media, marketing, and really create a culture of philanthropy in organizations where the communications serve philanthropy. So I’m new to Alternatives For Girls, I’m Fresh Blood. And I’m so excited. They have such an incredible reputation and community. I’ve been familiar with their work for a long time. And I just knew this is my next step.

Dan

Yeah, so talk a little bit about that, I guess, your role today with the organization, but also just kind of who is Alternative For Girls? What’s the mission? Talk a little bit about that.

Laura

Absolutely. I’m their vice president of philanthropy and I oversee pretty much exactly what I love. So the philanthropy program, working with donors. But I also oversee all of our special events, our communications, our marketing, and things of that nature. And you know, Alternatives For Girls. We are celebrating our 39th year, so 2027 is our 40th year, which will be a lot of fun to celebrate. Yeah, so we’re planning that. But they started in a church as a five-bed shelter, and it was a volunteer-run program. Our previous CEO, Amy Good, started it. And what it built from is just incredible. And now we have a much larger shelter where we house girls and young women, some moms with their kids. And we have a crisis resource center. We have a street outreach team that serves people experiencing human trafficking. We serve a lot of women who unfortunately have gone through domestic violence and lived that. And I met with multiple clients recently, like getting acclimated, interviewing them for our impact report. And the stories you hear are so tragic, but what I’ve realized is they’re so common. And it takes 7 times of leaving for it to stick with domestic violence survivors. And I’m learning like less than 1% of human trafficking victims are ever even identified. And Alternatives For Girls is on the ground, like serving these people right here in Detroit where human trafficking is where one of the hot spots across the nation and What we’ve been able to accomplish is just incredible. And we have an after-school program, so girls who are at risk, we’re serving them. And like after three, Miss Sharon cooks food every day, so the halls like smell so good. But they get a good meal. They get to play. We have programming for them. We’re about to start summer camp, so it’s gonna be wild in the building. Our goal is 85 girls. this year. And we take them for incredible experiences. They’re going to go to Great Wolf Lodge this year.

Dan

Oh, that’s so fun.

Laura

So I know they’ll have a blast.

Dan

Yeah. So what is your, I know you said Detroit, but what does your service area look like? the whole region or city specific or how does that work?

Laura

Yeah, people primarily in Southeast Michigan find us. But I just interviewed a client the other day who drove down from Pontiac when she found us.

Dan

Oh wow.

Laura

But our shelter is in Detroit. We’re primarily working in Detroit. And our offices, or well, our shelter is in Southwest Detroit.

Dan

Got it. So I want to go back to something that you mentioned a second ago about kind of this crossover between philanthropy, communications, marketing. I know all of that plays together, but I guess how have you seen that cross throughout your career? Where do you see those two kind of be intertwined?

Laura

Some nonprofits have communications and philanthropy separate, especially in a big nonprofit. But what I found is combining them helps provide that culture of philanthropy. And I don’t think like we’re here to just brag about us. I think we need to talk about like if it weren’t for our funders, our donors, our volunteers, like this wouldn’t be possible. And I think that’s what our communications need to focus on. And like when we go to community and tell stories, like I want donors to know like these are the lives you’re changing with your gift. Like and sometimes it’s hard to connect that if you don’t talk about it. But I found it to be really successful and donors feel good.

Tracy

It’s the difference between what are the numbers of that impact and then the stories. The numbers are impressive, but the stories are what really move people.

Laura

Yeah, absolutely. And we’re actually about to put out our impact report for 2025, and we have about four or five stories in there. We have all of our stats, but we’ve got the stories. And I think a donor or a volunteer is probably not going to remember that we served 4,326 people. What they’re going to remember is Imani’s story. And I think that’s what’s important.

Tracy

When you interview some of these clients or the people in the program, I mean, talk to me about what’s your approach when you’re meeting someone new if they’re just getting acclimated to the program that they’re in? Talk about that a little bit because it’s not easy to hear those stories. It’s not easy to prepare for those. How do you go into those conversations?

Laura

Yeah, one thing that Alternatives for Girls has done is they’ve made a commitment to be a trauma-informed care agency. And it’s like a very intense three-day training and everyone in the organization receives that training. And I think that’s what helps us approach our clients with care. Like they have been through so much trauma and they have fought to get to the other side. We help them and support them, but they’re the ones doing the work. And so I think going in with that understanding, and also I always tell them, you own your story. You tell me exactly what you want. If you say something you don’t want out there, we’ll delete it.

Tracy

That control is theirs.

Laura

Yeah, absolutely. And I’m like, however you want us to tell your story, it’s up to you. Like, I want you to be proud of when we write this story, like, yes, I did that.

Dan

Yeah, and show that it’s possible for others who might be in the same situation. I mean, it’s the donor side of it, but it’s also serving the people who could use those resources.

Laura

Imagine someone experiencing domestic violence reading the stories of those we serve and that there is hope on the other side. so many women don’t know where to go to get their resources. And I hope that it inspires them to fight to change their situation. Like they don’t have to live this way and they deserve better.

Dan

Yeah, for sure. So going back on more of the fundraising side, I think there’s probably a lot of ways to answer this, but how has that role changed over the past several years since you’ve been in your career? How have you seen the world of fundraising or philanthropy shift? even down to events being with more people being remote.

Laura

It is known that a lot of people in philanthropy are moving away from events. But what I found in our organization is the people of Detroit are ready to serve. We have an incredible community that like wraps their arms around service. And we have a role model event. We just celebrated it March 5th and it’s like themed around international on Women’s Day. And we had 490 people come. And that I think is just a testament to the great work Alternatives for Girls is doing. And people are excited to partner with us, to show up to volunteer. So we have over 1,400 volunteers in our system. It’s exciting. But fundraising too, I think the unfortunate piece is like we have a lot of government grants and the government is ever changing depending on who’s in office. So you really like, it’s great to have them, but they could disappear at any moment. And the rules for them are always changing. And so what we’re investing in is individual philanthropy and really investing on working with individuals and donors. And so, that’s what we’re looking to grow. And we have over 200 donors who have been giving for at least 10 years. Like the commitment, yeah, and I think it’s because the great work that Alternatives for Girls is doing. But the average donor lifespan to an organization is 7 years. And then they normally fall off. They find different passions or different organizations. And I think it’s just incredible the amount of commitment that our donors have to our mission.

Dan

And I mean, I feel like that’s a huge testament not only to the work, but you were saying to the story that is told also and to ensuring that those people still feel connected to the work that’s happening and understand like how those dollars get used to create that impact. I feel like that’s such a That’s such a huge success for the organization to be able to continue keeping people passionate about that.

Tracy

It feels even harder to do now.

Dan

Yeah.

Tracy

Because talk about, as you were saying, the focus on the individual donor, that is such an extra hard task now, I’m sure, just given everyone’s feeling the pinch, everything feels like it’s gone up. People have really had to cut down on the number of charities that they’re donating to. And for the hundreds that you say attending the event and the volunteers that are associated with Alternatives for Girls, that feels extra, like a big extra accomplishment now because it seems even harder than ever.

Laura

Yeah. I think what’s really great too is we had our legacy CEO transition and our new CEO has been here just under two years. Her name’s Tanya Adair. And she has been incredible at just showing the community love for what they do. And that’s a part of her vision. And I think it just, like people want to wrap their arms around our girls and support them. And I think in part, it’s because of Tanya’s vision and how she’s approached it. lived before in this organization and now it continues under her leadership. And Tanya is face to face with our clients. Like when we have donors and volunteers and she always makes a point to come say hi and no matter what level of donor, they have access to Tanya. And I think that is really important because people are changing their giving. They might have to adjust, reduce. and really focus on just a couple nonprofits that they might support or even move to just one. And I think what matters is when they make that decision, some may feel bad, but you shouldn’t. I think it’s incredible. Even if you were a $5 a month donor, For some people, that’s a stretch. And the fact that they’re stretching to make a difference is so incredible. And you could talk all day about the major donors, but I believe any person giving from their heart is what is so beautiful. And I believe in recognizing all of them.

Dan

Because I mean, you think about it, even if an individual contribution is smaller than some, it’s, building that momentum and having a community as you grow that pool of donors too, all of those small donations add up to a huge, huge impact.

Laura

Huge impact. Like if you think, no matter your politics, if you think like what Bernie Sanders did, like his campaign was built on grassroots fundraising where it was made-up of thousands and thousands of donors. And that funded his campaign, which is incredible. And I think that just speaks to the difference. some people might give 5 and they’re like, they don’t even know if it’s really making an impact, but it is.

Tracy

Because if they didn’t, and if everyone made their decision that way, oh, well, I don’t know if this is enough. If everyone made their decision that way, nothing would get done. No help would be able to be provided. So it is important.

Dan

And having that large pool of smaller donors kind of builds more resilience into it also because you’re, it’s not just one person that you’re reliant on or one organization or one government funding source that you’re relying on. It’s this, you know, network of thousands or hundreds or whatever that might look like. That’s great.

Laura

Absolutely.

Dan

So I guess rounding things out here, tell us a little bit, we always ask this as a closing question, but What’s something that you’ve learned throughout your career, communications, fundraising, philanthropy, whatever that might look like, that you wish you would have known going into your first job? Either, and you can choose how you answer this, either your very first job on the political side or your first fundraising position.

Laura

I, you know, when I worked in politics, I thought that It was all about the candidate’s vision. And what I learned, diving in and meeting with donors, my favorite thing in my career is meeting with donors and hearing their passion for how they want to change the world. And they are so committed to making a better reality for others. And I think that just speaks to humankind, that we are in this together. Like you aren’t in it alone. There are others here to lift you up. And I think it just takes time and meeting with people to learn that lesson. And like, on the political campaign, you saw hope for what the future could be. But I often didn’t get time to really sit down with a donor and fully interview them because fundraising and politics is just different. And it seems like, they’re just focused on talking about what the candidate envisions. But I have had donors who imagine the most incredible things and partnering with them and even getting their opinion on how our services could improve. Like they’re not just, it’s not just transactional and about money, it’s about their vision. And I think Nonprofits can learn a lot. People have different careers, different paths, different skill sets, and partnering with your donors to help expand your vision is just so incredible. Often donors want to dive in and it’s not just monetary support they want to give and being open to listening. Like I find listening is the most important tool in fundraising.

Tracy

That’s good advice.

Laura

And yeah, and I think like there’s just so much to appreciate about like their vision. Like I’ve had donors who, you know, have wrap their arms around programs. We have a donor right now who was like, I want to do more. She’s retired and she spent her career in the sales industry. And she’s like, this is what I’m passionate about. I want to help girls and young women better their lives and change their story for the better. And she’s actually coming in and bringing her corporate knowledge our so great Detroit program, which has women who have struggled and we’re teaching them like real skills on like sewing and they make incredible things so people can check it out. They have little kid aprons and they’re so cute. But they were looking to build it up. Like it’s almost no one knows about this program. It is just like a gem. And these women, what they’ve done and how they’ve mastered this art of sewing is incredible. And our donor wants to help out and bring her marketing skill set to expand it. And so she’s diving in, she’s learning the numbers, she’s doing all of these things. And I think it’s just so great.

Dan

Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, it’s like having a giant advisory board. it’s all these different donors, the ones who are passionate enough to come forward and bring ideas like that. It’s just adding to the knowledge base that you have across the organization, different ideas, all of these things. That’s why you have boards. And that’s all the better if you can expand that to the people who are passionate enough to give.

Laura

Yeah, and I think it’s just incredible, like the amount of people willing to give of their time. they’re not getting paid for it. And they’re so committed and so passionate. And I think that’s just such a beautiful thing, like to volunteer your time. Like our board, they don’t get paid, but they’re leading the vision and helping us set our strategic goals and like look how we want to grow and how we can expand our services or improve our quality of service. And I think there’s just something so beautiful about volunteers. Like, I get paid to do this job. I love it and I’m in service too. But like I think eventually I’d like to be in a board service position for my career and expand so many nonprofits struggle to fund fundraising positions. And I just want to share the love.

Dan

Yeah, you’ve got some valuable knowledge there.

Laura

I mean, hopefully. That’s the goal. Lots of training. And I think it’s having a commitment to learning. And fundraising trends are always changing. And keeping up on that and learning. And I have my favorite folks that I follow in fundraising, like Adrian Sargent or Jen Chang. And there’s just incredible wealth of knowledge of people who know how to love donors and help bring them into the mission. And I think that’s what it’s all about.

Dan

Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It was really great to talk to you and get to know you and your organization a little bit better. And hope to see you again soon.

Laura

Yeah, thanks for having me. This has been a blast.

Dan

Thank you so much to Laura for joining us today. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you to Tracy for being a guest co-host with me today. Again, if you’re interested in learning more about Alternatives for Girls, be sure to check them out on their website, alternativesforgirls.org, or support them through our Franco merch shop at franco.com slash shop. Thanks again for listening and we’ll catch you next time.