By Esther Saehyun Lee & Maria Rio
Young fundraisers of color join organizations because they know the harms the sector causes and want to make a difference. When they first arrive, they are optimistic and pour their energy into the mission they believe in. However, often, they find out that the greatest challenges to ethical practices are not external but internal.
There’s something about these organizations grounded in equity, driven by justice, and shifting power to community-rooted solutions. Does the work of dismantling oppressive systems inherently prioritize staff? In my experience, yes — and a bias for action, learning, and adaptability attract this inclination for intra-organizational alignment.
In this episode, Monique and Valerie discuss the various aspects of Fundraising, how to move the practice forward, how to be more community-centric in your efforts, and how to educate donors throughout the process.
Charles Dickens’s novella a Christmas Carol is a timeless classic. It was first published in 1843 and has never gone out of print. But 1843 is nearly 180 years ago. It’s time for us to update the story to be more relevant to our times.
One of the core values of the Community-Centric Fundraising movement is that of Courage. We must challenge the way things are done and take bold action if we want to see the change that is needed to create equitable fundraising practices. For this reason, we support efforts which advocates for safe and healthy environments for fundraisers to do good work.
Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) is a movement founded by fundraising professionals — but its success will not be realized if we do not cast a wider net to others impacted by the ineffective and inequitable realities of the nonprofit sector.
“Why are fundraisers in electoral and advocacy spaces doing the same old nonprofit-y donor-centric scarcity mindset sense of urgency nonsense? Aren’t politicians and community organizers supposed to challenge and transform the status quo?”
Since fundraising is almost entirely built on relationships, what can we learn about relationship building from “How to Build a Sex Room”? And what would it look like to apply these lessons to fundraising?