Sonja Phillips Nichols, a FAMU DRS & FAMU SBI graduate, is the volunteer President and CEO of Good Friends Charlotte, a women’s non-profit organization that supports local individuals and families with financial resources to improve lives and inspire hope. Nichols, who earned a B.S. in Accounting and an MBA in Marketing and Computer Information Systems from FAMU, earns her living as CEO and President of Nicholant Enterprises, a private protective services company staffed almost entirely by U.S. Military Veterans.
Since, 1978 Good Friends has raised more than $5.2 million to help those who need help and have exhausted all other agencies and resources. Good Friends works with 80 community partners that refer clients to them. The organization says it gets 91 requests a day for assistance and 3,258 applications for funds a year.
Good Friends’ signature fundraising program is a holiday luncheon, which is free and open to the public, but those who attend are expected to give and give until it hurts. “The luncheon is the culmination of twelve months and many, many hours of planning and providing critical support to those in need,” said Mrs. Nichols.
This past Thursday, more than 1,800 individuals attended the Good Friends luncheon and the organization raised more than $500,000.