By Kathleen A. Provost, CFRE, MAdEd
As a professional fundraiser I always ask myself how I can share some of my learnings with other professionals. Since 2019, I have chosen to write this column, expressing my opinion and observations on our ever-evolving sector. For 2025, I thought I would add to my voice — by speaking with colleagues, friends, and other experts to provide additional perspectives.
Meet Jenny Mitchell
A few weeks ago, I called my friend Jenny, executive coach and fundraising professional, to ask what she was noticing about leaders in the charitable sector. After all, she’d just edited and co-authored “Embracing Ambition”, a collection of women CEOs’ voices from across North America, who shared their experiences of what it feels like to lead in this current environment.
When I think of Jenny, “building relationships” always comes to mind and in our recent chat, Jenny and I discussed the pandemic and its impact on setting up new rules of engagement between fundraisers and their stakeholders. It is today’s new social milieu, and the pressure people are experiencing, that led Jenny to observe that people in our sector are questioning the “why” of fundraising. Jenny shared the example of a major gift officer who questioned the need to raise funds for scholarships, if socially, we believe education is to be accessible to all!
We explored the role leadership plays in shaping our charitable sector and concluded that questioning the “why” of fundraising illuminates a generational difference between individual leaders and their approach to fundraising. Currently, it would seem that there is a transition between two worlds of leaders, and the transference of knowledge, or sharing best practices is not “cookie cutter”. As Jenny stated, today’s leaders need more appreciative inquiry and coaching to be able to answer “why” we fundraise.
Evolving leadership
Jenny and I were in agreement that the hierarchical structures we have come to know need to be blown apart. Jenny’s recent newsletter “A paradigm for leadership”, offers a perspective on different leadership styles. I share Jenny’s observation that, “a leader must know and see the other person deeply, valuing the relationship, not just the role they are completing”.
The fact that our social milieu, and our charitable sector are experiencing pressures, means we must take the time to reassess how today’s leaders need to evolve to prepare tomorrow’s leaders. In the January issue of Philanthropist Journal, Sherlyn Assam, Canadian freelance writer and editor based in the UK, said, “It becomes challenging to navigate the day-to-day demands of the work while still envisioning and working toward transformative new ways of doing this work”.
The current model we use to bring together a group of well-intended volunteers as expert leaders — such as a Board, a Cabinet or a Committee — to guide our fundraising process does not provide a forum to answer “why” we do what we do. Leadership today is expressed by bringing together talented people to solve problems; to get things done. Perhaps further reflection is required. What if onboarding practices were seen as an opportunity to deepen our understanding and develop a shared vision for the purpose of fundraising that goes beyond raising dollars.
Assam also asked, “Do we still need women’s leadership programs? In that same issue of the Philanthropist Journal, Suzanne Duncan, vice president of philanthropy at the Canadian Women’s Foundation clarified, “We need very tangible support, along with creative development of new solutions and new ways of approaching leadership. It therefore becomes difficult to mandate change, inclusion or transformation in an organization if you don’t have leadership buy-in”.
An evolution
To ensure transformation at many levels, we need current leaders: CEOs, volunteer leaders, Board or Committee members, and the next generation of leaders to work together. We are witnessing a healthy trend — questioning and challenging existing rules, methods and processes. However, to enable new fundraising approaches to emerge, we may need to evolve our leadership models.
In February 2024, Sharon Riley asked, via the Philanthropist Journal, what was “top of mind” for leaders in the charitable and nonprofit sector”? Paul Nazareth responded that “creativity and generosity is alive and well, but there’s a disconnect between fundraising, philanthropy, and generosity”. According to Paul, we need philanthropy to be focused on people’s humanity. This means we must make time to re-think the purpose of fundraising and its correlation to building relationships within our own teams and eventually with all of our stakeholders. This is how we will evolve towards a new iteration of philanthropy.
The answer may lie in the communities we build. When we bring individuals together (as a Board or other advisory group), they are confident about the expertise they bring to the community — they offer leadership. This community’s amalgamated expertise will help to inform our decisions. However, even if someone lacks an area of expertise (because we cannot be experts in everything), they may feel compelled as a “leader” to offer solutions too quickly. We see this too often in the fundraising sector. Everyone has an opinion and a solution to offer.
Being aware of personal expertise, enables you to develop trust and confidence. When you also take the time to understand areas needing professional growth, you build responsiveness. Both are necessary to deepen relationships and allows for dialogue to be more open and inspirational. This supports a successful exchange of knowledge between current leaders and the next generation. This dialogue is sometimes referred to as “Community Base Fundraising” versus “Donor Base Fundraising”. It is when we come together and discuss “why” we need to do what we are currently doing, or why what we are currently doing needs to change.
Final thoughts
The way by which we bring leaders together, and the mandate we expect them to deliver, needs to allow for creativity. Furthermore, assessing the approach we use to work with leaders (those within our organizations, volunteer leaders, or community leaders) allows us to evolve our approach to leadership.
At the end of our conversation, Jenny and I both concluded that something is broken in the social sector but I say, if something is broken — let’s fix it! By shifting to a new model of philanthropy, as Nazareth called it — a model of generosity, leadership conversations between generations will expand and new, innovative fundraising approaches will develop.
Author’s Note: Jenny offers more leadership tips in her podcast, Underdog Leadership. I invite you to listen to her series.
Kathleen A. Provost is the Vice President, Philanthropy and Communications at United for Literacy (previously Frontier College), a national organization working in partnerships with communities across Canada, offering free tutoring and mentoring to adults, youth, and children who are looking for literacy and numeracy support. Kathleen has over 30 years of experience in the charitable sector. She has been a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) since 2007 and a long-time member and volunteer for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). She has received numerous recognitions during her career, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the charitable sector and was recognized as 2021 Fundraiser of the Year in Nova Scotia. She writes this column exclusively for each issue of Foundation Magazine.
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