President and CEO, CARE of Southeastern Michigan, Fraser
Budget: $2.7 million // Employees: 75
After receiving degrees from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids and Marygrove College in Detroit, Monique Stanton worked with homeless youth in Portland, near Lansing, and spent time as director of a family learning center in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood before being named president and CEO of CARE of Southeastern Michigan last year. The nonprofit serves more than 20,000 children and adults each year, focusing largely on substance abuse prevention and treatment as well as providing grief counseling and family support, helping families cope with loss and divorce, teaching parenting skills, and developing re-entry plans for prisoners. “We provide services to the most desperate in our community,” Stanton says. “Our education programs give people the tools they need to prevent negative situations from happening in their lives, and to help their children grow into healthy adults. CARE also consults with businesses on workplace issues such as sexual harassment and techniques that foster improved communication, trust, and accountability.” Lately, Stanton has been concentrating on increasing the group’s brand awareness and fundraising. Today, funding comes from the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance, the Michigan Department of Human Services, the Macomb/St. Clair Workforce Development Board, and the United Way. “Since we brought on our full-time fund development manager in 2012, we’ve almost doubled the amount of individual and business donations,” she says. — Tom Beaman
