His Goal? To Grow the Platform and Reach More People in Need

Cooking for friends and family is his love — but helping others is his passion.

Meet Max Glick, South Oakland Shelter’s new Director of the fund-raising site HandUp.

An alumnus of Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan, the 28-year-old started his new job April 23, coming to SOS from the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, where he was Associate Campaign Director.

“(HandUp) sounded like a pretty amazing project,” Glick says, “and a great opportunity to take the work I was doing before —fund-raising — and do it with a completely different spin, going from an annual campaign model to an online crowd-funding-focused platform.”

Currently residing in Ann Arbor, the metro Detroit native is excited to return to the area. The move will bring him closer to family, especially his two-year-old twin nephews, Jack and Henry.

“I FaceTime with them all the time and it’s just not the same,” says Glick, who’s known as the fun uncle. “It will be nice to spend more time with them.”

Although new to SOS, Glick certainly is no stranger to the housing challenges many face. He’s worked with many people across the state dealing with housing insecurity. With a Bachelor’s degree in public policy and communications and a Master’s in social work, Glick’s career path has been driven by an altruistic mission.

“For me, a lot of it is saying, ‘What is the skill set that I have and how can I use for the best possible purpose?’” he said. HandUp “is an opportunity … whether it’s $25 for somebody to get a copy of their birth certificate or $1,000 for a security deposit on an apartment, I feel like this is a unique opportunity to be able to [raise funds] and have a positive influence.”

Glick has big plans for HandUp. The goal, he says, is to build on the platform’s success (nearly $3 million has been raised since it launched in 2013) and extend its reach far and wide.

“It’s amazing what’s been done so far and to see what the potential of it could be,” says Glick, who’d like to have HandUp grow its nationwide presence and become a household name.

“Homelessness is not an issue in just one state,” he says. “Every state experiences it in different ways. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to keep adding partners wherever those needs may be.”

But before that happens, Glick plans to reach out to HandUp’s partner organizations for their feedback. Understanding the user experience and developing best practices, he says, are crucial to HandUp’s future growth.

“It is a really valuable resource in a space that can be incredibly competitive,” Glick says, but “HandUp is different because 100 percent goes right to the person whose profile you’re donating to, through projects that are vetted by organizations people can trust. You also don’t have to be limited by geographic area.”

“You can be in Michigan and support somebody in San Francisco or the other way around.”

To learn more about HandUp and to find way to support the platform, please visit www.HandUp.org.