Inspired by CCF’s 10 Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising, I have reflected on how I champion DEIB in my role, and wanted to share my strategies with other higher education Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) professionals.
The Hub
What “How to Build a Sex Room” can teach us about relationship-building
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?
The Ethical Rainmaker: How do you keep everyone happy? Creating culture change ft Rickesh Lakhani
Michelle sits with Rickesh Lakhani and discusses what it takes to build a beautiful workplace culture.
5 Things I Learned from Facilitating My Data Equity Workshops
My workshops to advance equity in data are built with this intention — to build collective knowledge around data collection and visualization in a way that allows us to appropriately challenge those places where data can lead to exclusion and alienation. I learned five lessons by offering these workshops to individuals from different roles, sectors, and data comfort that I want to share with you.
For professionals of color, bringing our whole selves to work shouldn’t mean reliving trauma for the benefit of white colleagues
“I’ve navigated a lot of spaces that have implicitly or explicitly not been for me. Over time, you learn what parts of yourself to bring forward and what parts to protect.”
The Ethical Rainmaker: Is Community-Centric Fundraising Still Working Two Years Later? ft Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos
Michelle sits with Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos to discuss where CCF is at today… and why it’s making itself at home because it’s here to stay.
9 ways to transition nonprofit leadership from performative to transformative
“To turn words and values into meaningful and impactful action, nonprofit leaders must transition our personal leadership and organizational strategy from performative to transformative.”
The Drizzle: Emotions That Sabotage Getting Money
In the third episode of the Drizzle Miniseries, The Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle talks with Stacy Nguyen about the emotions that can sabotage us when it comes to money! They discuss the impact of our personal narratives and family of origin stories — and how all of that shows up in how we run nonprofits and fundraising.
Why must the white cis nonprofit workers angry react to all my posts? Ep: “That’s just the way it is”
Apologies if you’ve heard this one before: imagine me — a queer, trans, triracial person — in a Zoom meeting with an all-white, all-cis Development Committee. A proposal for a pay-to-play fundraising scheme (a fundraiser that requires donors to pay to engage in an activity, in this case: an educational event) is on the table and I mention the equity issues of who can access this and how it doesn’t advance the mission…
The Drizzle: Three Mistakes I’ve Made As a Fundraiser
In the second episode of the Drizzle Miniseries, The Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares the three biggest mistakes she made as an in-house fundraiser, including themes on event extortion, process predicaments, and burn out blessings.
The Drizzle: How I Got Into Fundraising
In this inaugural episode of the Drizzle miniseries, the Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares her origin story, (with chapters that include bullying, Classical music, the CIA, fate, therapy, and more!)
Our Humanity Can’t Be Timeblocked
“Many companies and organizations have recognized that a 4-day workweek is a great idea but haven’t actually done it yet. When researching the concept, I felt as if there was a dearth of practical, logistical information about how companies can transition. I decided to journal about how the new policies were affecting my workflow and to track what happens when the rubber meets the road.”