Spartans Doing Well and Doing Good...

Though Julian Posada led seven different companies over his professional life and served on numerous nonprofit boards, the East Lansing native had not yet achieved his most daring objective: to combine the two in a single effort.

January 15, 2021

“I wanted to do well and do good,” Posada said.

In 2016, Posada departed his post as executive vice president of marketing and

strategy at the Chicago Sun-Times to serve as chief operating officer of The Resurrection Project (TRP), a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides affordable housing, financial education and immigration legal services. Yet that move only forecast a much greater plan: incubating LiftUp Enterprises, TRP’s scalable, for-profit social enterprise that has allowed Posada to fulfill his ambitious personal mission.

LiftUp provides cleaning, landscaping and painting services, albeit with a shared focus on accelerating the stability and mobility of individuals in low-income communities across Chicago, where

Posada noted that households making less than $53,000 annually are “functionally poor”—that is, living paycheck to paycheck. The thoughtfully designed business pays its employees weekly, offers career-building opportunities, provides an employer-sponsored emergency loan fund, and partners with wraparound services such as legal and medical to support the overall well-being of its employees.

“Throughout my career, doing well and doing good were separate parts of my life, but I always believed you could do both simultaneously,” said Posada.

Posada, who honed his project management skills while working at MSU’s

Union Activities Board, is now actively working to capitalize LiftUp and optimize its social outputs as well as its business performance to create inspiration and aspiration for Chicago’s next generation.

“My best work is still in front of me,” Posada said.