We Need More Leaders of Color

We Need More Leaders of Color

Devika Gopal Agge shares her journey with us on career transitions, navigating a job search, and stepping into a new leadership role. By Felicia Garcia-Hartstein, Aspen Leadership Group As a woman of color, when I joined the development profession, I…

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Rethinking “Cultural Fit” In Advancement Recruitment

The success of advancement work depends on engaging all potential constituents as fully as possible. Most nonprofits would benefit from increased cultural competency—the ability to understand, appreciate, and interact with people with cultural backgrounds different from one’s own—in order to engage more constituents more fully. A more diverse workforce has a greater capacity to strengthen a team’s and organization’s overall cultural competency.

If you’ve been involved in hiring, chances are you’ve heard a colleague use the term “cultural fit” when evaluating a candidate. Authors Steven Wallace and Ron Schiller suggest rethinking the notion of “fit” in order to minimize bias in recruitment, think more expansively about what is needed for the team’s overall cultural competency, and produce better outcomes for the organization.

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As Women Surge in Leadership and Philanthropy, Are They Among Your Top Fundraising Priorities?

Women’s new political influence is no surprise. With more education and earnings come increased philanthropy to achieve the change they want to see in this world. Are women among your top priorities as you set your fundraising goals for the coming year?

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Effective Recruitment Depends on Viewing Diversity as an Engagement and Fundraising Imperative

Diverse pools are a means to an end. Building diverse teams, while involving more intention than building diverse pools, is also only a means to an end. It takes diverse teams, working in an inclusive culture, and making the diversity of the team count, to engage more stakeholders and raise more money. Diversity is not only a moral imperative—the “right thing to do”—it is a business imperative for everyone involved in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy: boards, volunteers, CEOs, C-suite leaders, and engagement and fundraising professionals. Until everyone involved in the recruitment process understands and can articulate diversity as essential to stakeholder engagement and fundraising outcomes, recruitment efforts will fall short.

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New Book – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Advancement: A Guide to Strengthening Engagement and Fundraising Through Inclusion

Progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of philanthropy is long overdue. To help move the needle, Angelique Grant and Ron Schiller have authored the first comprehensive book on DEI specifically for nonprofits and advancement teams. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Guide to Strengthening Engagement and Fundraising Through Inclusion is now live in the CASE Bookstore. The book offers a guide for building inclusive cultures and teams. It explores how to implement a culture of DEI, recruit, onboard, and retain diverse staff, and integrate DEI into fundraising campaigns. ALG looks forward to sharing this new resource with our partners to create sustained behavioral change in the field of advancement.

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From Commitment to Action: Applying an Inclusive Lens to Advancement

More fundraising leaders are embracing inclusion and want to train their teams on diversity, equity and inclusion. But are we adapting our actions by applying a DE&I lens to our advancement practices? Williams College and William & Mary demonstrated success when they adopted inclusive fundraising strategies. Now the philanthropy sector must develop new skills and change behaviors to achieve similar long-term results.

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Women’s Philanthropy: A Sector-Wide Journey to Inclusion

The movement to grow women’s philanthropy is not meant to focus only on one profile of women who give. Women’s philanthropy includes ALL those who identify as women. It is intended to be inclusive. Yet current language and actions by those who identify as white cisgender women leaders in this movement – including myself – may not be making inclusivity clear. We unconsciously may be perpetuating a system of racism and gender inequity.

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All Voices at the Table

It is on us to create diverse women’s philanthropy councils. Now. Women of color are the most underrepresented of all groups on boards. Women of color and women of different generations have voices and perspectives to add regarding how they give and want to be engaged. By including men on our councils, they can leverage their platforms and share their power, making them valuable contributors and allies to grow women’s philanthropy. Wider diversity will help our councils make better decisions and grow philanthropy. This takes attention, intention, asking stakeholders for help, and adapting your model when needed, to be successful.

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