Giving equity

Philanthropy, at its core, is “the love of humankind,” i.e., doing the greatest good for those in the most need. In the U.S., philanthropic practices and public policy around charitable giving have been driven by people holding wealth and if asked, most people don’t associate philanthropy with love, they associate it with wealth. The history and legacy of philanthropy and its practice in the United States is complex and unfortunately, has regularly excluded communities of color and other marginalized groups.

If we desire to embrace the core meaning of philanthropy, we must consider how equity enters our equation. Bringing equitable considerations to charitable giving focuses on those who have the greatest need, and meeting them. For charitable giving to be equitable, philanthropy must shift from its conventionally established roots and take a more inclusive look at those impacted, as well as those doing the giving.

Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) is a philanthropic movement built around a set of core principles that seek to bring equity and justice to fundraising and philanthropy. . The 10 core principles of CCF are guidelines to making more equitable decisions in fundraising. They are:

1. Fundraising must be grounded in race, equity, and social justice.

2. Individual organizational missions are not as important as the collective community.

3. Nonprofits are generous with and mutually supportive of one another.

4. All who engage in strengthening the community are equally valued, whether volunteer, staff, donor or board member.

5. Time is valued equally as money.

6. We treat donors as partners, and this means that we are transparent, and occasionally have difficult conversations.

7. We foster a sense of belonging, not othering.

8. We promote the understanding that everyone (donors, staff, funders, board members, volunteers) personally benefits from engaging in the work of social justice, it’s not just charity and compassion.

9. We see the work of social justice as holistic and transformative, not transactional.

10. We recognize that healing and liberation requires a commitment to economic justice.

The CCF movement encourages a necessary dialogue among nonprofit professionals, communities, and donors. The phrase “Nothing About Us, Without Us,” focuses on the classes of individuals that were marginalized by policy change. However, this same phrase is often used in the philanthropic sector when discussing community centered fundraising and making sure those who need to be, are, indeed, the focal point.

It’s critical to address equity in giving. The movement is not meant to vilify those who participate in the traditional form of philanthropy, donor-centric fundraising, but actually to start a conversation, create opportunities to learn, and recognize the challenges of fundraisers of color who do the work to support the marginalized communities that share ethnic, geographical, socio-economic, and/or racial background.

Here are ways that both fundraisers and donors can implement CCF into practice:

Have the hard conversations:

As a person of color, my lived experience helps me to connect with the people for whom I fundraise. However, I am hyper-conscious of the oppressive systems I navigate to ensure I am not perpetuating harm within them. Fundraisers, of color or not, are required to have difficult conversations to be aware of potential harm that their fundraising strategy could cause. These uncomfortable conversations give opportunity for collaborative change. Please remember it is not a person of color’s responsibility to teach their white counterparts about harm reduction. Rather, white philanthropists (and all humans, really) should engage in lifelong learning of how to dismantle their implicit biases and internalized racism.

Teach, encourage, and give, unrestricted gifts:

Often, donors specify which program or group their funding should support. To use CCF principles, donors can put trust in the organization to use funds as they best serve the communities by making this donation unrestricted (i.e., not tied to a certain program or initiative). Restricted funding takes more human administrative resources through accounting and reporting that, in the end, is less than profitable for moving the organization’s mission forward. It also, often, does not allow for organizations to use funds to most accurately serve the organization’s budget.

Consider the recipient organization’s community reflection:

Furthermore, donors can look for organizations to support where the leadership represents the community they are impacting. If the racial makeup of the leadership team looks vastly different from those being served, the donor should ask the question, why? Why does the leadership team not look like the ones supported by their efforts?

Fund efforts that demand systemic change:

Many nonprofits exist to fill in the gap of social issues. Marginalized communities that have been systemically oppressed need more than social change. They need systems change. Using an equity lens when examining the needs of a community can help you see the greater need for long-term change. The real work starts upstream, so that communities can reap the benefits of the changes that flow from the work that's shifting systems, not situations. Donors should not only fund the organizations doing the work for the people, but also fund the organizations that help build and advocate for sustainable change.

At the end of the day, we have a choice to implement these principles into our philanthropy practices or not. We should not be so set in our opinions or ways of being that it blurs our ability to see the inequities in the things that first shaped them. CCF offers us the opportunity to bring our donors along and creates a path where we can begin to shift systems through change and advocacy for social justice together.

You can find these principles — and more information about the CCF movement, on its website, http://communitycentricfundraising.org. National Philanthropy Day is Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Demetria Jackson, MBA, will be among the presenters on Nov. 15 for Bringing Equity to Resource Development at the National Philanthropy Day event hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.