TV celeb and James Beard Award-winning chef, Tomme Beevas talks with Michelle about how the lynching of George Floyd – less than two miles from his restaurant, played out in the creation of Pimento Relief Services, a truly community-centered organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Learn about liberation in action through this inspiring story!
The 2021 CCF big ol’ rewind mega round-up
We’re closing out our second year of posting content to the Community-Centric Fundraising content hub. We feel incredibly lucky and honored to have worked with so many talented and passionate folks this year to expand our collective knowledge.
Here’s an anthology of everything that was published in 2021, organized by theme (and in order of date they were first published).
How NOT to treat folx with less privilege who understand oppression better
By Krystal Kavita Jagoo, MSW, RSW
Let me ask you a question: Has everyone had a career that has often meant ensuring ethical treatment for folx with less privilege, regardless of their personal feelings?
I know the answer is no, not everyone has — but white leaders are particularly bad at it.
The Ethical Rainmaker: The Metric of Love with Oregon Food Bank
How can love be a metric and what does it look like to measure that instead of fundraising goals? The Oregon food bank surprised many folks in the nonprofit community when they revealed a new concept, measuring love instead of fundraising. In this episode, Nathan Harris and Vivien Trinh of the Oregon Food Bank, describe the thinking and process around how they changed the practices of the Oregon Food Bank to center love!
The worst pieces of work advice I ever received
If asked, many women of colour (WOC) can tell horror stories of the advice they received early in their careers. Most of us have heard versions of, “You should use an “English name on your resume,” (something I personally first heard from a career counsellor when I was an undergraduate at a Canadian university, ironically directed at a room of 5 ethnically diverse faces attending a career workshop). Or perhaps, like me, you’ve been told to dress “professionally,” that is, with no overly bright colours (which of course means to never dress in a way that might identify your ethnic heritage). A temp agency staff member offered me that gem.
These types of advice continue to pop up throughout the careers of women of colour. These pieces of advice are tropes bandied around — microaggressions wrapped in helpfulness and presented with a smile.
Seasonal Nonprofit Burnout Disorder: You may be entitled to compensation
If you often feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or anxious at work, you’re certainly not alone. I’ve heard from many colleagues in the nonprofit sector who feel the same way. In fact, this is the very reason I felt compelled to talk about this issue.
I’ve come to believe that burnout culture is the ultimate unspoken truth of the nonprofit sector. Now, don’t get me wrong. When I say unspoken, I don’t literally mean unspoken. In truth, we talk and joke about burnout all the time. The problem is no one takes it seriously. And more importantly, I think we’re neglecting some key factors from the burnout equation.
Use informed consent to build trust and answer that damn demographics survey on grant applications
Imagine this: It’s grant deadline day. You get on the grant portal to submit your materials. Proposal, check. Project budget, check.
You scroll down the list of required attachments. Wait a second, what’s this? Staff and board demographics… you must’ve forgotten, darn it.
So in a rush, you scroll through the current staff and board rosters and hastily assign demographics to them “to the best of your knowledge” according to the survey categories. Save and submit. Phew!
The Ethical Rainmaker: Raci$$$m with Phillip Chavira
Phillip Chavira talks about why Capitalism is trash, how money is a tool for and against the movement and where we have power to make decisions that center our communities and our values.
America’s charitable problem extends far beyond Giving Tuesday, and the Global South is bearing the consequences
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has become a charity free-for-all, with pleading subject lines vying for attention as they flood mailboxes. Nonprofit organizations have seized onto Giving Tuesday as an opportunity to reap a kind of fiscal penance after the indulgences of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
After spending one day feasting and feeling thankful for all we have, and spending the next days consuming even more, it is difficult to turn away from societal injustices like homelessness and hunger.
The annual report that never was …
By Marisa DeSalles and Michelle Flores Vryn
As DEI professionals will tell you, one way to assess the authenticity of your workplace culture is to take stock of the types of messaging that circulate around the office. Are they overwhelmingly positive? (“We received this grant!” “Enrollment goals were exceeded!” “We can make payroll!”)
Seriously though, consider whether you are perpetuating a tone of toxic positivity. If you are, it likely flows over into your external messaging. Like your annual report.
The Ethical Rainmaker: Shattering Fragility with Liz LeClair
Controversial. Polarizing. Divisive. Liz LeClair has gained a reputation for her famous call outs of both sexual assault and racism within the nonprofit world. In S3:E1, Michelle interviews this writer, fundraiser and badass who talks about calling out white fundraisers for their racism, taking responsibility for being part of the problem, and her experience speaking out about sexual harassment in the fundraising space, including cofounding the National Day of Conversation in Canada. “Every generation you either change and evolve or you become irrelevant.” You are going to love this episode.
BIPOC nonprofit professionals need and want support
A group of BIPOC fundraisers and nonprofit professionals began a collaboration to build a movement for racial and economic justice, sharing dreams of a world beyond capitalism and the nonprofit industrial complex. To gauge perceptions of nonprofit fundraising, this group distributed a survey in May 2019. Intended to highlight the thoughts and experiences of fundraisers and presented through a series of infographics, here are some findings from over 2,000 fundraisers and nonprofit professionals surveyed.