Neosha Franklin, Marketing & Communications Manager at the St. Louis Community Foundation shares how the team at the St. Louis Community Foundation plans to leverage St. Louis' culture of philanthropy to bring long-term vision to the region. She shares her journey and expertise, including barriers to giving (especially for people of color), the power of leveraging your network, and she offers storytelling tips for a new generation of non-profit marketers.
Meet Neosha Franklin
Neosha works directly with donors who share the same passion she has, to better St. Louis through long term impact.
Visit St. Louis Community Foundation Website"How do we humanize and tell stories that people can relate too?"
Neosha Franklin
Show Notes
For our final episode in this first season, I sat down with Neosha Franklin, Marketing & Communications Manager at the St. Louis Community Foundation. We got to talking all things charitable giving in St. Louis.
The Community Foundation works with donors who want to give back to St. Louis. Neosha’s job is to make the case for investors, donors and community members, that giving through the Foundation can actually make real and meaningful progress toward building a more equitable and vibrant region.
As Neosha shares her journey, it becomes clear that she’s up for the task at hand. We talk about barriers to giving (especially for people of color), the power of leveraging your network, and she offers storytelling tips for a new generation of non-profit marketers.
One of my favorite parts of the discussion was a deviation into an aspect of her story that Neosha doesn’t talk much about (and I certainly didn’t know about her)—her first job out of school. She was tasked with managing communications for a St. Charles County school district during a historic Missouri Supreme Court ruling. This important moment in St. Louis history around segregation and bussing was covered by This American Life in a phenomenal two part series. I highly recommend looking it up.
Planning for the future is hard, and St. Louis has struggled to see the forest for the trees. Historically we’ve often trading long term impact for short term solutions. (just look to our long standing city / county divide) But Neosha and the team at the St. Louis Community Foundation are up for the challenge. They plan to leverage St. Louis’ culture of philanthropy to bring long-term vision to the region.
St. Louis Community Foundation: https://www.stlgives.com
This American Life – The Problem We All Live With, Part I:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with-part-one
This American Life – The Problem We All Live With, Part II:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/563/the-problem-we-all-live-with-part-two