Big news! A Letter from Morgan Berman on the Future of MilkCrate
It has been a time of major changes in all of our lives. In the last two years I got married, moved MilkCrate to be fully remote, and became a mother. At work we tripled the number of nonprofits we serve, expanded our team, and hired an incredible COO in Darryl Moser. And of course I couldn’t help myself and also launched a new startup to tackle street litter, Glitter (an app powered by MilkCrate’s platform no less!). I’ve been so proud to be the spark that brought all this energy together and amassed three teams (MilkCrate, Glitter and my new family) that can do so much more than I could ever do alone. In fact I started to feel a bit despondent - like, now what?
Then something changed. It was at the beginning of this year, when I reached out to a few hundred foundations in a cold email campaign for MilkCrate that my energy renewed. Not because of a strong positive reaction, but rather the exact opposite. I mean, come on funders! MilkCrate launched an app in 3 weeks that saves a COVID response organization $40K a year in staff time managing a food delivery volunteer program. How amazing is that? This is just one of dozens of impact stories with hard facts we can point to. Yet the funders didn’t want to partner with us because standardized metrics or tools were things that didn’t resonate, especially from an unknown for-profit vendor. I had that same fire in the belly feeling before I started MilkCrate and Glitter - that feeling that something big needed to change and I was going to be a part of that change.
I was then made aware of a leadership role with an organization - a funding entity no less - that was data driven, wanted to help solve real social problems and prove it. I saw this opportunity as the next phase in my journey to help mission-driven organizations methodically and transparently use technology and strategy to achieve their impact goals.
All that to say, I’m proud to share that I will be moving from MilkCrate’s CEO to Board Chair in order to take on my new professional role as Executive Director at Life Science Cares Philadelphia. The whole team and I are so excited to congratulate Darryl Moser on his promotion from COO to our new CEO. A social entrepreneur, software engineer, and nonprofit partnership builder he is perfectly positioned to take MilkCrate into our next phase. I have witnessed over the last almost year how incredibly capable Darryl is at leading our team. In his former roles he scaled a hugely successful software company, led partnerships at DonorPerfect, and is now ready to take on growing MilkCrate to its full potential.
Morgan Berman, MilkCrate’s Founding CEO and new Board Chair
Darryl Moser, MilkCrate’s former COO and new CEO
It has been an incredible journey with MilkCrate, one that started exactly 8 years ago (almost to the day) when I first started scribbling in my graduate school notebook about “a social impact app” and now, after many iterations, teammates, investors, customers and lines of code - the world has it’s first, only, and best mobile app building platform for nonprofit programs. I owe an impossible gratitude to the people who have gotten us here, but especially and in no particular order (and I realize it was a huge risk making a list because I’m sure I’m leaving off people who helped big and small, but I’d rather acknowledge as many of the people who deserve it as I can and apologize and add on for the folks I forgot):
Jason Cox: The first person to write a line of MilkCrate code
Miranda Essig: Our product maven like no other!
Mo Manklang: For writing the first press story on MilkCrate, ever.
Caitlin Honan: The one who stuck by me through so much. A true friend and partner.
Sebastian Fratini: The guy making the magic happen behind the screen.
Michael Norris: our first nonprofit client ever!
John Moore and Sid Amster: Who planted the seeds that got us that first big check
Morgan Churchman: Who supported me over and over, and truly cares about the potential impact of philanthropy and entrepreneurship.
Anastasia Bottos: For being a boss role model.
Nick Valeriano: For being our last investor before we started to run on our own revenue!
Pooja Ganesan: For being our first investor ever, and a woman of color to boot!
Stephen Spinelli, Tom Balderston, Allen Fogel, Laura Kind McKenna, Liz & Henry Harris: For their generous support and patience as we tested, learned and grew.
Terrill Haigler: For helping make my second startup come to life and sharing my vision of a litter-free Philadelphia.
Adam Stamm: For being my SEO, web, campaign and general outreach guru and friend.
Kim & Will Whetzel & Nick Pearson: For all their support and kindness over the years.
Weston Colby: For his hard work and energy growing the new (new) MilkCrate.
Jim Blanchet: For helping navigate choppy waters for the greater good.
Rob Fleming: Where to begin? That was where it began!
Danielle Scott and the Pincus Family Foundation: For their openness to innovation!
David Cohen, Susan Jin Davis and Dalila Wilson Scott: For opening doors to impact.
Anne Kennedy & Matthew Grande & Ivy Silver & Richard Binswanger: For their hours of wisdom and support over the years as dedicated advisors.
Amy Hersch & Yasmine Mustafa: For walking this crazy journey together.
Cory Donovan & ImpactPHL: For building out the impact ecosystem
Darryl Moser: For being exactly what MilkCrate needs and taking on this role.
The LSC PHL Board, especially Vin, Jeff and Donna: For inviting me to lead and share in their incredible mission.
And finally my parents Marvin & Nancy Berman (for everything), and my incredibly supportive husband Edward Drakhlis.
I hope you will take a moment to congratulate Darryl, share a MilkCrate memory, or tag a nonprofit or funder that needs to know about what we do - and of course share in my enthusiasm for MilkCrate moving forward in this new phase. Thank you all for the support over the years and I wish you all luck as you navigate whatever changes are coming your way.