The Way Forward: Community-Centric Fundraising (Donor-Centrism Evolved)

Anyone with a pulse working within the field of philanthropy (which by my definition includes fundraising/nonprofits, in addition to those who give funding) has surely heard the controversy and debates, over the past few years, about Donor-Centric vs. Community-Centric Fundraising.

Let me just be clear now:

I believe it’s all much ado about nothing.

There is only one way forward, the more evolved way to do this work: Community-Centric Fundraising.

And, like most every form of evolution on our planet, it encompasses and continues much of what is good about the former iteration, while correcting for all of the ways the earlier version had weaknesses and/or caused harm.

No Need for a Fight

In this debate, SO many words have been spoken and written. SO many strong emotions have been felt. SO many conversations and/or controversies and/or fights have arisen between us.

And in the end, there really is no fight.

There is only one way forward.

The Community-Centric Fundraising of today is what the Donor-Centric Fundraising of yesterday was — a sea change that will completely change how fundraising happens, what is accepted as best practice, what the “experts” do.

And here is why it’s the evolution of what was — or, in other words, a transformed model that corrects for the problems, weak spots, risks, harms created by the older version: Community-Centric Fundraising is a more honest and equitable and just and healing and loving version of the Donor-Centric Fundraising we’ve been doing for decades now.

The weaknesses and harmfulness of that older version demanded that evolution happen — and happen it did.

Do we want to evolve?

Do we want to be more honest?

More equitable?

More just, more healing, more loving within our fundraising?

If we say “yes” to these questions, then Community-Centric Fundraising is the way we need to do this work, going forward.

How Did We Get Here?

I’m going to over-simplify this, because I think that will help us zoom out to see the bigger picture of this field we’re in.

Philanthropy first began in very simple ways.

People lived very closely together, in community.

Life felt very precarious, and people were often at risk for death or starvation or other maladies — so to increase their sense of well-being and security, they were all there for each other.

When one person or family had an acute situation of need, the others gathered around them to help. And then, when those others had their own needs, those who they had helped before turned around and helped them.

Philanthropy, as we’ve discussed here, literally means love of humanity; it has been about love and care for our fellow humans since its beginning.

Yet, over time, we’ve developed this impulse into an entire “industry”… involving building whole organizations that function as a form of business… with departments and programs and PTO policies and 401k plans and employees.

Along with all of that infrastructure came the need for serious money… to make all of the mission-focused work through that organization possible.

And little by little… bit by bit… the money, and considerations about and for the money, started crowding out every other consideration.

At the time, of course, the pre-existing models for generating revenue for an organization were those dedicated to for-profit businesses.

So these new types of organizations, which we called nonprofits, adapted the for-profit models. But rather than marketing a product, they learned to market a feeling of doing good and being good.

They also were wont to talk a lot about their work and how important their missions were (because of course they were!)… without much true engagement with, or genuine care about, the people who were helping to fund the work and thus make it possible. You know, kind of like the person you meet at a party who just talks about themself and never asks you any questions?

In response to these realities, people like Ken Burnett and Penelope Burk led the field to focus on relationships — to see developing true relationships with donors as one of their most important goals.

That was an improvement, yes?

They were certainly aiming to bring more humanity back into the whole process. And the ways the field changed, in response to their teachings, were largely positive.

Yet, the continued influence of the for-profit realm, and the fact that we continued to exist within an over-arching reality of a capitalistic society, meant that Donor-Centrism started to become something much more like Customer-Centrism.

Marketing to donors… started to take its cues from the playbook of marketing to customers. Communicating with donors… same. People started openly talking about how so-called “major gifts” development was actually sales. And that old trope about the customer is always right? That became the donor is always right.

So.

Where we find ourselves now is in a reality where…

—> organizations allow donors to sexually harass fundraisers (more than three-quarters of fundraisers report experiencing harassment on the job)…

—> donors with the most money usually have the most power to dictate which direction an organization goes in, and how it does its work… and, because of the structurally racist system we live in, that power is almost entirely given to White people, while the people without power having to live with those decisions are most times neither wealthy nor White, thus completely reinforcing within an organization claiming to “do good” the most harmful dynamics of White Supremacy within our wider society…

—> organizations, enamored with the money they will receive, don’t properly vet donors, or turn a blind eye to the truly destructive things donors have done to harm the larger community…

—> we’ve trained donors accustomed to making “good buys” in commerce to look for low overhead as the sign of a good nonprofit, which is actually not true, and which ends up causing the people working within nonprofits to constantly struggle to do more with less; to lack the resources they need to do their jobs well or, often, to even live their own lives well; and to burn themselves out and make themselves sick — which, again, is harming our larger community and all the humans within it…

… and more.

The above examples are just a taste of all the problems we’ve been creating because of the Donor-Centered Fundraising we’ve been doing.

Our communities are being harmed, in SO many ways, by the work we keep selling as “helping” the community.

So in other words:

We are being dishonest.

And we need to stop creating so much harm.

How?

Community-Centric Fundraising.

Donor-Centrism Needed to Evolve

I think it’s telling that Community-Centric Fundraising came out of, and has been led from the beginning by, communities of color — especially women of color.

Think about it.

How did we get to where we are?

What are the larger societal forces influencing and shaping our world — and thus shaping the fundraising we’ve been doing?

Exploitative Capitalism.

Patriarchy.

Paternalism.

Racism.

White Supremacy.

And many more harmful dynamics….

And because we have not acknowledged, and corrected for, these larger dynamics within our fundraising, we’ve been perpetuating them — and worsening them — through our fundraising.

And who is most likely to be harmed by these realities?

Communities of color.

And especially women of color.

To use a phrase often spoken within the field of philanthropy, but seldom actually enacted in practice, the people closest to a problem (a.k.a. those most affected by it) are best-suited to solve it.

The ones most harmed are the ones most likely to see the way out of the dark and mangled forest we find ourselves in.

What is the essence of this way out that they’ve shown us?

Centering our humanity. Everyone’s humanity. Everyone involved in the entire process of bettering our communities.

Donors, yes. But not just donors. Staff too. Volunteers too. Those being helped by our organization. Those being helped by other organizations. The people volunteering and working within, and donating to, those other organizations.

Everyone.

And what are the specifics of this way out that they’ve shown us?

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.

Look at how much we’ve shifted the aimed-for outcomes of our work, here!

Equity.

Justice.

Mutuality.

Solidarity.

Belonging.

Healing.

Liberation.

Transformation.

Community.

Where do I sign up?!

No more Donor-Centrism.

How narrow!

The most evolved way forward for us all is Community-Centrism: a way to prioritize the whole community and ensure that no one is being trampled over, no one is being harmed, no one has to martyr themselves — in short, no person or community is being de-humanized — in the process of philanthropy.

If we follow this path forward together, philanthropy can become again what it was in its beginning — truly a love for humanity, with love, and our shared humanity, in the center of it all.

There is no controversy, here, as I’ve written before.

There is really only one way forward.

Community-Centric Fundraising.

Are you in?

Join the conversation and community at For the Love of Humanity, where this was originally published. Check out other articles, the upcoming podcast, and all the offerings... and subscribe today to receive Loveletters in your email inbox!