Community-Centric Fundraising Is Here, Literally Right Here
Recently, I was helping a client develop strategies for building their “culture of philanthropy.” One of the tips I came across was the idea of more regularly celebrating fundraising victories. My jaded brain rolled its internal eyes - in the past 2 years, I think I’ve forgotten how to celebrate much of anything.
But you know what? There have been so many victories. And by fundraising victories, I don’t necessarily mean the grants won or the annual appeal goals met. As Community-Centric Fundraising turns the traditional fundraising model on its head, there are organizations right in our backyard really innovating their approaches to development. Whether it’s a tiny change in language or a big overhaul in practices, they’re doing it. These are the victories - these revised strategies represent enormous steps on the path to grounding fundraising in race, equity, and justice.
Full Plates Full Potential, Brunswick, ME
On Giving Tuesday, Full Plates Full Potential, an organization dedicated to ending child hunger, issued a typical request for funds via their social media platforms. A few hours later, their Executive Director reflected on the competitive nature of Giving Tuesday and its potentially harmful effect on the sector. They pivoted slightly and posted again, this time encouraging their audience to support other organizations. “One of our core beliefs is that ending childhood hunger is only possible through collective action. In that spirit, we’d like to use our platform to spotlight some other great organizations that you might not be aware of - many of the BIPOC-led - that are working to end this fight.” We love how they changed course during their own moment of learning to embody the CCF principle that individual organization missions are not as important as the collective community.
Lovering Health Center, Greenland, NH
As part of its year-end campaign, the Lovering Health Center, a sexual and reproductive health center, encouraged its audiences to join them as “Champions for Choice.” During a time of year when 99.9% of nonprofits are doing their most hardcore fundraising, the Lovering took a unique approach. “Being a supporter doesn’t always mean writing a large check. It includes advocacy work, solidarity, and community partnership. Here’s how you can help:
Use our services
Share social media posts
Vote for pro-choice candidates
Talk to your friends/fam about abortion
Attend our events
Reach out about volunteer or collaboration opportunities.”
Each of these options supports the success of the field and the health of the full community, not just the organization’s ability to provide crucial services. And they hit the nail on the head around how expanding what it means to be a “donor” is key to making fundraising more inclusive.
The Krempels Center, Portsmouth, NH
Finally, even tiny changes can make a big difference. After years of publishing a traditional annual report, The Krempels Center, a NH organization helping survivors of brain injuries, wanted to shift how it acknowledged its donors. Instead of including giving levels in their listing, they lumped all donors together and emphasized a humungous thank you to the entire community that supported their constituents over the past year. As Nonprofit AF author and Community Centric Fundraising Co-founder Vu Le mentions, “Whenever we recognize donors by financial segmentation levels, with the highest levels listed first, it sends these messages, whether we like it or not:
Money is the most important contribution anyone can give,
The more money someone gives, the more they’re helping a cause
Those who give more money deserve special praise, acknowledgement, and treatment
Those who give less money should be thanked, but they’re just not as important.”
I think most organizations would agree that those are not the messages they want to relay. Instead, focusing on the many ways myriad parts of the community made their impact possible is the way to go.
It isn’t easy, but it also may not be as hard as we think. As you set to work making changes like those above, revisit CCF’s Guiding Principles and dig into their Aligned Actions List for concrete ideas. Commit to learning about it, talking about it, tackling it, and finding victories. We will too.