Chapter Leadership Brief 6.16.2023

By CJ Orr,
Chief Operating Officer, Orr Group

Today marks another exciting chapter in our journey as AFP-NYC hosts the annual Fundraising Day in New York conference. With over 1000 attendees, 60+ speakers, 2 keynote speakers, roundtable sessions, mentorship sessions, and more than 30 sponsors, this conference is one of our most vibrant and enriching gatherings yet.

This conference is more than just a day of learning and networking. It's an opportunity to engage with industry leaders, share experiences, and gain insights that can propel your fundraising efforts forward. Each session has been carefully curated to ensure that it brings value to your work, and our keynote speakers (Wendy Sealy and Amy Freitag) are renowned figures who are sure to inspire us all. The roundtable sessions will provide a platform for in-depth discussions on pertinent topics, while our mentorship sessions offer a chance for personal and professional growth.

But let's not forget the true essence of this conference - the opportunity for us to come together as a community. We may all have our unique roles in the nonprofit sector, but we share the same commitment: to make the world a better place. Our past conferences have seen attendees become colleagues, and colleagues become friends. This year is no different. 

See you in the ballroom!

Best, CJ

Chapter Leadership Brief 6.2.2023

By Christa Orth
Co-Vice Chair of AFP-NYC’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Committee
Founder + CEO, Seaworthy Fundraising

LGBTQ+ Pride marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisings of 1969, led by a majority of trans women of color. Stonewall commemorates community resistance against state violence and discrimination. 

Pride season has an urgent meaning this year. 

This year, we are living through a time of unprecedented political backlash, with 530 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in legislatures around the U.S. so far in 2023. Seventy five percent of transgender youth in the South now live in a state where a ban on gender affirming care has passed.

LGBTQ+ fundraisers are going through a lot these days, especially those who have intersecting identities, like Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), immigrants, and people with disabilities.

As a white, queer, nonbinary fundraiser, it has been difficult to show up amidst the pain and fear of this targeted assault on LGBTQ+ communities, including me and my loved ones. The stripping of human rights and violence toward LGBTQ+ people is hitting close to home – it’s a really scary time. 

Fundraising for LGBTQ+ rights gives me hope.

Throughout my 25-year career I have had the privilege of fundraising for dozens of brilliant LGBTQ+ organizations, including those that fought for and won equal healthcare for people living with HIV/AIDS, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ+ adoption, gender affirming care for children and adults, human rights for trans migrants, and many more. It feels good to remember that LGBTQ+ communities and organizations have deep roots and the knowledge to ensure that we thrive, even in the face of oppressive laws and policies.  

During these turbulent times, it gives me hope to know LGBTQ+ communities and our allies continue to fight to live our lives on our own terms. As a fundraiser, right now I’m working closely with an organization that provides rapid response support to children, adults, and families in the South who are impacted by the anti-trans bans on gender affirming healthcare. I’m also working with a group that provides free legal services to trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people across the U.S. 

To be supporting this life-saving work for LGBTQ+ communities gives me a sense of belonging, and tremendous hope. Fundraising has been, and will always be, one of the critical ways that we will continue to care for one another: storytelling about the issues, raising critical funds for LGBTQ+ children, adults, and families, and giving everyone the opportunity to get involved in these growing human rights movements. 

I hope you will join me in supporting and celebrating LGBTQ+-led organizations and communities this Pride season.

Chapter Leadership Brief 05.19.2023

By Sunil Oommen, President, Oommen Consulting LLC

Between my consulting work and leadership on IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and access) for AFP-NYC, I have studied and practiced IDEA in fundraising for years. I was wise enough to know I wasn’t an expert on all things IDEA, but that became resoundingly clear when I met a fundraiser at an AFP-NYC event this past January who identifies as hard-of-hearing. She asked me how many people with disabilities are members of AFP-NYC. I did not know. Not even a ballpark figure. We set up a time to have lunch a few weeks later during which she generously shared some eye-opening insights and recounted the various microaggressions she experienced as a disabled person. I was shocked. Then I was shocked at my shock – why did I not know about this? Why am I shocked at this? Those encounters started my journey of reflecting on my knowledge (really, lack thereof) of issues affecting the disability community, about my own ableism, and how we often perpetuate ableism even while ostensibly doing IDEA-informed fundraising.

Since I imagine many of us could also benefit from understanding the issues that the disability community faces in the fundraising sector better, I decided when I was asked to write this week’s Leadership Brief to share the platform with the amazing disability rights advocate,Jen Bokoff, Director of Development at the Disability Rights Fund. I learned so much from our conversation, but as she rightfully counseled, it needs to be more than just learning. Learning and knowing something versus doing something about it are two completely different things.

So, after you read this, ask yourself – like I’m asking myself now – have you examined your own ableism? Try this Washington Post 7-question quiz to start. What did you discover? What can you do to make your organization’s work accessible? How can AFP truly live its IDEA values and be an inclusive and accessible space? What best practices have we championed with colleagues and clients that are actually closing the door on some in our community of fundraisers and philanthropists?  

As you read through this Q&A, I hope you will identify opportunities to apply Jen’s helpful guidance in your work starting right now. As a community of fundraisers who are working towards the public good, let’s commit ourselves to doing just that by taking the time to learn and unlearn, so we can be as inclusive as possible of everyone in our communities.

1. Jen, first, thank you so much for sharing your perspective with me. To start, let's talk about language because, I'm sure you'll agree, words matter. How should we talk about the disability community? What resources do you recommend people consult to learn this?

Words matter big time! Persons with disabilities, or disabled persons, are a global community representing over a billion people, or one in six. Persons with disabilities is called person-first language, and disabled persons is identity-first language. Country or regional context, disability type, and personal preference often affect what style of language is preferred. Across all contexts, it’s really important to use the word “disability” rather than euphemisms (e.g. handicapable, differently abled, etc.). Most important in identifying any specific person is to use the identity descriptions that they use—regardless of what might be perceived as correct by others. It’s also important to name that while there is a large mass of people who are disabled, not everyone identifies as disabled and that global community is not a monolith. There are a whole range of intersectional identities, lived experiences, politics, etc. within the disability community, and sometimes just speaking about a global community erases the power hierarchies and diversities that exist within. 

I love how Emily Ladau talks about language in her book, Demystifying Disability, and for philanthropoids, the resources provided by the Disability & Philanthropy Forum are excellent.

2. What do you wish your fellow fundraisers would know or take into account when working with their fundraising peers who have disabilities? 

We bring lived experiences to the table too, and many of those experiences are of exclusion within our community. For example, the AFP ICON conference in 2022 promised mandatory mask wearing in indoor spaces, which made it feel safer for people like me who are chronically ill and have faced big challenges with COVID-19. Not only was the mask mandate not enforced, but comments about the lack of enforcement were not taken seriously.

I also wish for greater awareness of accessibility within fundraising platforms and customer relationship management systems (CRMs). Vendors seem surprised when we ask detailed questions about this. If you don’t build your tech infrastructure accessibly, it affects who you will hire in the future, and also who can donate to organizations. Build for everyone.

Also, if you think you don’t know any fundraisers without disabilities, you’re mistaken. Plain and simple. Many people are not comfortable disclosing for any number of reasons. Reflect on how you can live values of inclusion every day in every way, and how you might be perpetuating ableism within your organization and in your peer communities. We’ve all done it. Recognizing it and moving forward inclusively is critical. Part of that means you will screw up, and that’s okay. Do it with humility and a learning mindset, and don’t be afraid to ask respectful, thoughtful questions to build your own understanding. I share more in this article that I co-authored with a truly incredible disability justice activist Sandy Ho.

3. For our donors and prospects who have disabilities, what advice or resources would you give so that those of us who are not familiar can work with them in the most respectful and responsible way possible?

Disability isn’t a monolith, so if you know of a particular disability that someone has, definitely ensure everything is accessible to them. But if we build our overall practices so that they meet higher levels of accessibility, it’s a good start to respectful and responsible inclusion. Some things I do:

1. In every meeting/event I schedule, I note what accessibility will be provided and ask if anyone needs anything else. You’d be surprised how many people appreciate this and share something I wouldn’t have known.
2. Provide any materials well in advance and check on the accessibility of those materials.
3. Enable auto captions as a default in virtual meetings (and recognize that this is not the same as live CART captioning, which is required for many people).
4. Don’t call on people randomly—if someone is going to speak, give them adequate heads up.
5. Make sure in-person meetings have physical accessibility to all spaces (don’t just use high-top tables, make sure there’s plenty of seating, make sure bathrooms are usable by all, microphones even for self-proclaimed loud people, etc.), and not just a “back door” entry for people who use wheelchairs (example: a service elevator by trash).
6. Use alt text on all images.
7. Send agendas/run of shows before events, especially multi-hour ones, so people know the scheduled break times accordingly.
8. Know your technology and its accessibility features.
9. Make sure your facilitators are briefed on strong accessibility practices, model it, and pause if something is not accessible to everyone.
10. Acknowledge when needed that some accessibility practices may conflict with each other, and that this is a tension that people may need to sit with and do our best to work around. 

4. Is there anything else you can share so our fundraising community can be more enlightened and take action to support our community of fundraisers and donors with disabilities?

Be in community with us. Read books featuring disabled people written by disabled authors. Follow disability activists on social media. Don’t talk about “DEI” or “IDEA” without genuinely including disability. Compensate us for our time and knowledge—there’s so much unpaid labor educating people about disability. Think about how to be intersectional and accessible in your work even if you are not disabled and your work isn’t explicitly about disability. At Disability Rights Fundand in the broader disability community, when we say “nothing about us without us”, we really mean “nothing without us”—we’re not here for your enlightenment, but to build toward a better future in our sector and world together.

Chapter Leadership Brief 5.5.2023

By Maoly Hernandez Rosario, Development Intern, Columbia University School of Social Work,
Angelie Singla, LMSW, Lecturer, Columbia University School of Social Work

Liliana Cepeda, Development Coordinator at Latinas on the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.), attended Fundraising Day in NY in 2022 as a Maurice Gurin Scholarship Recipient. She joined Angelie Singla and Maoly Hernandez on April 20, 2023 in a virtual meeting to discuss her participation in the Fundraising Day in NY Conference. Fundraising Day in NY is the largest single-day conference on philanthropy. There are over 1000 individuals present to share ideas, network and learn from each other through the amazing array of session topics covering every current and emerging aspect of fundraising. 

Liliana works at Latinas on the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.), a nonprofit organization partnering with NYC public schools to empower young Latinas through mentorship and health education targeted at mental, reproductive, and physical care as well as college readiness. At the same time, Liliana is an undergraduate student at Baruch College, majoring in Business Management under the Entrepreneurship track.

Liliana explained that she learned about the Maurice Gurin Scholarship after the Executive Director of L.O.V.E. shared the opportunity with her. No doubt, personal recommendations are a powerful endorsement. As a newly hired Development Coordinator, Liliana felt eager to take advantage of participating in the Conference, so she applied for the scholarship. 

With a contagious smile, Liliana admitted that when she arrived at Fundraising Day in NY, she felt inexperienced about fundraising and felt curious and excited about all the topics being presented.  At the Conference she most benefited from discussions explaining what large funders prioritize in their application reviews as well as learning new application processes resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Liliana emphasized that the Conference highlighted the importance of developing stories for funders and for other people outside of the organization, and this has been most valuable in her work as a Development Coordinator at L.O.V.E. For nearly all aspects of development, Liliana shared, storytelling plays a central role. She understands people “have always been touched by numbers that can be put in a story,” explaining outputs and long-term outcomes. 

Liliana also credits the Conference with helping her realize her skills for building long-lasting meaningful connections with funders and donors. These skills, she says, are needed to be successful in fundraising. At the Conference, she learned about the importance of connecting with people and of building long-lasting relationships that have to be nurtured over time. Liliana emphasized that it is important to engage people long-term. 

When asked if she found the Conference to be inclusive, Liliana responded that Fundraising Day in NY 2022 was very inclusive and represented people of different backgrounds, allowing for amplifying various perspectives on fundraising. 

Liliana’s advice to people who are considering applying for the Maurice Gurin Scholarship is, “Do not hesitate. Just do it.” Being able to attend Fundraising Day in NY with so many knowledgeable people in the room is an invaluable experience, she added. 

After she graduates from Baruch College, Liliana plans to continue working in development as she recognizes the importance of the work at Latinas on the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.).

Chapter Leadership Brief 04.21.2023

By Craig Shelley, CFRE
President-elect, AFP-NYC Chapter
Partner + Chief Growth Officer, Orr Group

I’m writing this just having flown home from AFP ICON in New Orleans (and boy are my arms tired!!), a gathering of nearly 3,000 fundraisers from across the globe.  I left armed with content from the great sessions I attended including those on fundraisers as leaders, the differences between successful and failing campaigns, how to communicate with donors, and a session on how I can be a better ally and advocate for my female colleagues.  I also left with a stack of business cards representing new friends, and lots of laughs with old friends, highlighted by “Jambalaya with President Jill” and several of our other chapter board members.

I loved it.  And I’m craving more.  Which makes me smile because I know we’re bringing all these same dynamic qualities to Fundraising Day in New York.  I’d argue we’ll have better content, thanks to my friends Lisa Keitges and Susan Sharer chairing the program committee, and the networking will be even more relevant as you’ll be surrounded by your local peers.  I hope you’ll be with us on Friday, June 16 at the New York Marriott Marquis.  T’ll be more than worth the investment of time and money.  For 10 hours each year, Time Square becomes THE convening spot for the best and most fun fundraisers in the world.

It's going to be fun.  I hope you’ll be there.  Sign-up here.

Chapter Leadership Brief 04.07.2023

By Jonah Nigh
Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement
The New School

“Oh! You were the diversity hire!”

 “Do you speak Mandarin?” (Spoiler alert: I do not. I am Korean and Japanese and adopted by a Russian Jew and a Texan.)

“Just so you know, I am not homophobic.”

“He’s exotic.” (Last spoiler alert: I grew up in Minnesota. It was not exotic.)

Not to get into a Misery Olympics with my fellow fundraisers out there, but I could go on and yes, these are pulled from real life moments throughout my 18 years in the business. And this is why the word “inclusion” does not give me the warm-fuzzies. Let me explain.

A couple of months ago I was on a panel at CASE presented by Aspen Leadership Group, where  I was asked, “What does inclusion mean to you?” I appreciated the question because this word–along with belonging, diversity, and equity–has been thrown around casually in the last few years. In fact, *82% of higher education institutions released statements after George Floyd’s murder, but 70% of statements with action items did not include measures of success, rendering them equivalent to a weak New Year’s resolution akin to “I will lose weight...some year.”

This is why I don’t trust DEI statements or organizations that are enthralled with their status quo; I trust actions. I want to see values, not hear or read about them on a website’s very bold and very hyperlinked diversity page.  

Every institution has to decide what these words mean as they relate to their specific context and, to go a step further, I believe every person in a leadership role has the responsibility to decide what these words mean on a personal level, recognize their positionality, and actively operationalize them. This will require standing in your personal principles, thinking critically, and making hard decisions daily. 

At The New School, diversity is a fact, equity is a choice, inclusion is an action, and belonging is a result. As a rare leader of color in our field, I think a lot about the fact that **83% of frontliners are white. I see inclusivity not as a warm and fuzzy come-one-come-all idea but through a more assertive lens–as an imperative to make a pathway for people of color. By pathway I do not just mean a seat at the table; I mean a voice, budget, and position of power. (Not incidentally, diversity in the driver’s seat attracts more diverse candidates for those who continue to blame the fake adversary known as “Weak Candidate Pool”).

I am as guilty of the field’s learned helplessness as anyone. When I was in my 20’s, I was once at a meeting of about 100 fundraisers. There was one other Asian person, and she and I clung together fast and assured ourselves the field would be more diverse in half a generation. Now in my 40’s, we have data to prove it isn’t.

But the good news is that we also have data and strategies to take this on, should we choose to avail ourselves of them. We know all too well what the barriers are: JDs that discourage out-of-industry talent, referrals from known networks, bias while screening resumes, microaggressions from hiring committees, racist workplaces, lack of career advancement, among other issues that are in plain sight. Do we have the grit to take these roadblocks on, or will we continue to be satisfied with Instagram-deep efforts?

I am hoping this is the beginning of a conversation that I can have with those of you who are as determined as I am to do this work. I can be reached directly at nighj@newschool.edu, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. In the meantime, I want to thank all of you who have advanced a culture of equity, inclusion, and social justice both at work and in your communities.

*Source: University of Redlands announcement; “What has higher education promised on anti-racism in 2020 and is it enough?” EAB; Advancement Forum Interviews and Analysis.

**Source: Data USA; Advancement forum interviews and analysis.

Chapter Leadership Brief 03.24.2023

By M. Angel Flores, AFP-NYC Secretary
Senior Vice President, CCS Fundraising

How is your relationship with money? That’s quite the personal question, isn’t it?! As fundraisers, we are constantly working in this intimate space with our donors. Yet, how many of us are comfortable with our own relationship to money?

My relationship to money is a work in progress. I recently joined a financial literacy and planning program specifically for women. As we near the end of Women’s History Month, I want to boldly elevate our collective fundraising efforts to fully embody the true meaning of philanthropy – love of humanity – for the expressed purpose of lifting up women by helping to build and increase their wealth. A woman’s wealth offers a view of her and her family’s overall financial health and how easily she can invest in her future, handle a financial emergency, and more. Sounds easy enough but first, let’s review the stats.

The Gender Pay Gap continues to be a problem despite the many studies and reports that exist on the topic. A woman earns, on average, $.82 per every $1 a man earns. Less talked about but much more damaging is the Gender Wealth Gap, where we define wealth as the value of assets minus debts, or how much women own, how much money they keep, etc. White women own $.32 for every $1 a white man owns. For women of color, it’s much worse: we own less than $.01 for every $1 of white male wealth.

Next, consider the Motherhood Wealth Tax. Two-thirds of moms are the sole or primary breadwinners, or co-breadwinners earning 25-50% as much as their partners, yet own only 20% of wealth compared to fathers. The problem starts with the leave time required to recover from childbirth and to enjoy those first few exhausting and exhilarating newborn months. We still do not mandate paid parental leave, so moms often see lower pay increases, slower (if not stalled) advancement, and other hits to their wealth because of motherhood. It continues as children grow and moms (still!) take on a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities, including time off when the kids get sick.

Moms of color face a triple wealth gap – gender, racial, and motherhood. Single moms would have to work until they are 93 to have enough wealth to retire. If you’re single mom of color, well, I’m sure you can imagine what that means.

Lastly, let’s not forget the Pink Tax – the artificially marked-up cost of items specifically because they are marketed for women.

Shockingly, the Gender Wealth Gap worsens with more education. Women are more likely to go to college and families are more likely to rely on her earnings than ever before. Yet, women are more likely to graduate with loans and earn less – there’s that pesky Gender Pay Gap again! To put a finer point on it, men with high school diplomas have, on average, $2,000 more wealth than women with the same degrees. At the graduate level, men have $51,000 more wealth than women.

If you’re feeling the situation is grim, you’re right. Because of these injustices, women are:

• Leaving school with more debt than men
• Taking jobs that pay them less than men
• Starting with a higher debt to income ratio than men
• Saving less than men
• Investing later and less often than men
• Therefore, twice as likely as men to retire in poverty.

The solution is for women to take it upon ourselves to build wealth despite this broken system. That is easier said than done.

You may be wondering where fundraising plays into all of this considering we ask for money.

We know that over 40% of donors first heard about how making a planned gift can benefit the donor – either by providing income for life, reducing taxes, or both. We also know that donors cannot make most planned gifts until they create an estate plan and will. And we know that most people would benefit from increased financial education.

Enter you and your nonprofit!

Here’s how you can help women build their wealth as part of a robust, holistic, compassionate fundraising program:

1. Offer Free Financial Literacy Workshops. Invite all donors and your entire community, especially if your organization has a direct service program component. Connect with local professional advisors – financial planners, tax advisors, estate planning attorneys – explain what you are doing, and invite them to participate.
2. Encourage Personal Finance Support. Create a list of the local professional advisors you connect with to share with women when they ask for guidance, and even if they don’t. Donor-centric fundraising means centering the donor’s needs as much as our organizations’.
3. Encourage Giving Circles. Often driven by women (but not always!), giving circles can deepen your relationship with your donors, build connections and community between donors, and provide additional benefit to your organization beyond financial support. Encourage giving circles to use your personal finance support resources. Now imagine women not only discussing how to give to your organization but also how to improve and secure their own financial future!
4. Proactively Offer Ways to Give with Benefits. Select planned giving vehicles can help a woman earn guaranteed income for life, lower her state, federal, and estate taxes, or both. Learn how different ways of giving provide these added benefits, ensure your organization can support donors to give these gifts, and share that information with all your women donors.

We work in the world of money every day. Let’s use our privileged position to improve substantively the lives of all the women we interact with. In doing so, we’ll also be supporting their families and their communities meaningfully and for the long-term. What could be more philanthropic than that?

Chapter Leadership Brief 03.10.2023

By Jennifer Moore, AFP-NYC Treasurer
Vice President of Development, DoSomething.org

Each year, March brings with it both a physical renewal in the environment and in my case a mental one as well. Perhaps it’s the combination of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day paired with the extended daylight hours, and more time outside, but I always get an extra boost of inspiration and motivation this time of year.

And even though we’re only a few days into the month, this year is no different.

I had the delight in participating in one of my favorite AFP-NYC activities this week-one of our Professional Advancement Committee meetings. We took a few moments to catch up with colleagues and meet a few new members of the committee before diving in together to examine the gaps in our field and how we can support fellow fundraisers on their career trajectories through our education programming. The inspiration from my fellow committee members comes both from the trust and vulnerability we share with each other and the impact we’re working to make in the world through our day jobs as fundraisers. While planning and brainstorming, challenges we’re facing on a daily basis and collective solutions trickle out and are sprinkled into the conversation. That energy is then infused in our program offerings and also back into our organizations and work. I know I can wax poetic for my love of the Professional Advancement Committee, but for the past 10 years that group has been a lynchpin to my creativity, inspiration and commitment to my work as a fundraiser.

March also seems to be the time of year when things really start to get into full swing at work (although there never does seem to be a slow season anymore) and leaning on the collective support and impact of my fellow fundraisers is what gets me through. Our work as fundraisers can be increasingly complex and nuanced and sometimes disheartening. However, I try to soak up every drop of motivation and community I can on the hard days. Whether or not joining an AFP-NYC Committee is what you need right now or not, I do encourage you to leverage your community for support. As the weather continues to give us more options for sunshine and daylight allow yourself some time in nature and think of it as part of your own spring and renewal!

Chapter Leadership Brief 02.24.2023

By Melissa A. Benjamin
Director of Development
Fiver Children’s Foundation

As we near the end of Black History month, I decided to revisit one of my favorite writers, Langston Hughes.  His poem, “Mother to Son” has always resonated with me, but in reflecting on the past fifteen years of my fundraising career, it feels even more poignant.  If you’re not familiar with this poem, see below:

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
 

If you ask anyone who does fundraising for a living, they will tell you that it isn’t easy.  The inherent challenges of convincing an individual, company, or foundation to give your organization money comes with many late nights, lots of writing and editing, crafting plans for board members, and so much more.  Even when you do your very best work, you still might not get the donations you are seeking.  However, over the course of my career, I have found that these experiences were just an added layer to much larger elephants in the room—imposter syndrome and difficult relationships with money, just to name a few.

I felt like I was the only person I knew who did fundraising for a living.

I spent most of my formative years as a working fundraising professional feeling alone.  None of my friends did what I did for a living, so when I would try to explain the challenges I encountered, they didn’t understand. Several even encouraged me to apply for different jobs in the for-profit sector. My family thought I should stop fundraising and try wedding planning or other kinds of event work instead of pursuing my master’s in public administration.  I didn’t have a network of fundraisers of any kind, let alone fundraisers who looked like me.

Organizations like AFP in theory seemed like the natural place to solve that issue, but the cost of membership meant that I couldn’t be a member unless my employer paid for me.   So, with little support from those around me, I forged ahead, attending grad school at night while working my full-time special events role at a nonprofit during the day. 

Fundraising Makes You Confront Your Own Relationship with Money.

There’s a challenging dynamic for many fundraisers of color when it comes to money.  For most of my career, the organizations I’ve worked for served Black and Brown communities here in New York City who have been systemically under-resourced in a variety of ways—from lack of access to educational resources, food insecurity, lack of access to legal representation, etc.  It was easy for me to identify with our clients because my family was one of those clients.  As an alum of a mentoring youth development organization myself, I am living proof of the positive impact organizations can have on a young person’s life.  The intervention of local nonprofits supported my single-parent household, and connected us to several resources as I applied for and got accepted to college. 

As a child of an immigrant mother, money was something we didn’t discuss often, and when we did it was because we lacked it oftentimes.  The taboo nature of money meant that for years I was afraid to discuss it and was uninformed on how to best manage it once I began working.  When I began fundraising, I was surrounded by and asking for the very thing I was raised to not ask questions about. 

Imposter Syndrome Interrupted My Confidence.

The wealth I was around at work was daunting at times.  Board members would host meetings to plan a gala in their palatial and well-appointed Upper East Side homes (I’d be there to take meeting minutes while my director led the agenda), and then I’d travel back to my cramped basement apartment deep in Brooklyn.  Neither space was bad, but one was certainly nicer.  I recall a time when the organization I worked for was comped two tickets to a foundation funder’s gala at The Plaza Hotel.  I had just paid rent, student loans, and utilities, and was told the event was black tie.  I probably should have told my manager I couldn’t attend, but I was embarrassed to admit I couldn’t afford to buy a dress for the event.  I went to JC Penney, bought a dress, and tucked in the tags.  For the entire night, I felt the tags scratch the inside of my arm, a reminder that the dress didn’t belong to me, and that I didn’t feel like I belonged in that space.

I don’t have an answer for how to not feel that way anymore.  Even as my salary has increased over time, I sometimes still feel that twinge of imposter syndrome reminding me that while I may be in a leadership role today, that somehow I’m still less than and inadequate.  

I’se still a climbin’.

I decided to share this lived experience because I know many fundraisers like me have had to battle with (and maybe still battle with) similar experiences in order to do this work.  I don’t share these experiences to seek pity or apologies, rather, I want to highlight these inequitable and at times painful experiences because this sector needs to be a lot better to the people who serve it and help to resource it, especially BIPOC/LGBTQ+ and other underestimated identities. 

I do see changes that make me feel encouraged.  I have worked for the past four and a half years at Fiver Children’s Foundation, where me and my colleagues’ professional development is a priority of my Executive Director.  And the same AFP chapter I couldn’t afford to join years ago is now a place I am starting to call home.  My organization sponsors my membership, and I am a member of the chapter’s board of directors, serving on the professional advancement and audit committees, and volunteering as a career mentor to a fellow fundraiser. My hope is that through my involvement, our chapter will continue to evolve and support all fundraisers, but especially those who look like me and come from similar backgrounds.  I no longer feel alone in my career and have made a personal commitment to supporting fundraisers who are new to the field so that they don’t feel the way I did when I started in 2007.

There’s still a lot that can be done, but I encourage anyone in the space of supporting fundraisers of color to listen, leverage your privilege where you can to advocate for equity and inclusion, and support efforts to spotlight the expertise and knowledge that exists in fundraisers like me.

Chapter Leadership Brief 2.10.2023

By Crystal Fields-Sam
Chair IDEA Committee
AFP NYC Board Member

The feeling that you get when you have told the right story to the right person at the right time is nirvana. That feeling is the perfect combination of knowledge, experience, skill, luck, and magic called Fundraising. Fundraising is the vehicle a worthy cause utilizes to traverse obstacles which would otherwise prevent it from being heard.  Black History Month, the creation and celebration of it, is such a cause and proof that a powerful story can change the world!

In 1915, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, Alexander L. Jackson, William B. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, and James E. Stamps told their story and changed the world by founding what has become Black History Month. It is well known in America that Black History month is celebrated for the entire month of February but, did you know it was created by a Fundraiser! 

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, with funding from several philanthropic foundations, told the story of African American history and the largely overlooked achievements of Black Americans which were not available to the public.  Now Black History month is celebrated all over the globe.  Every year African American History month has a new theme.  This year the theme is resistance. Defined as the refusal to accept or comply with something, this year's theme of resistance can apply to so much..too much.  

When you think about why everyone should celebrate Black History month and why rewriting history to exclude the African American's place in it is so perfidious, its founder said it best, "If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated." Carter G. Woodson. 

When thinking about how you can celebrate African American History month this month and throughout the year, remember that poet Toi Derricotte said, "Joy is an act of resistance."  I suggest you look to some literary greats who not only captured the relevance and significance of the African American life but lived extraordinary experiences themselves like, Ida B. Wells and Zora Neal Hurston.  Continue to get inspired by watching the movie Hidden Figures which features brilliant women like Dorothy Vaughn who used mathematical formulas to launch John Glenn into space.  Round your celebration out by listening to your favorite R&B, Rock, or Country song knowing that those genres were derived from the melodious sounds of Jazz.

Then, think about the direct service work you do with your organization.  Extrapolate how the actions I have outlined above may impact the way you write an appeal letter or organize a campaign. Last but not least, I offer you the opportunity to be inspired!  Come and join me and my colleagues on the AFP NYC IDEA Committee where we not only embrace inclusion, diversity, equity and access but we further these ideals within the Fundraising profession through planning, collaboration,  implementation, and of course…Joy.