Leadership – Kathleen Provost
By Kathleen A. Provost, CFRE, MAdEd
As a professional fundraiser, I sometimes wonder what does it take to evolve and remain responsive in our sector? Can we grow as professionals by working together in partnership with other individuals, groups or organizations? And can we be inspired by partnerships to help inform our own evolution, to shape and transform the way we raise funds?
Julian Baggini says of the Appetite Paradox: “Appetite needed to evolve to tell us how much to eat reliably, but we cannot rely on appetite to tell us what we need to eat today.” If we follow this reasoning, the partnership paradox could mean that philanthropy needs to evolve to inform how we partner, yet we cannot solely rely on these partnerships to shape our philanthropy.
If we have learnt anything from a global pandemic is that no one in the profession of fundraising can work in isolation in order to survive, more so if we want to evolve. The second decade of this century has brought to light deeply rooted social and economic issues that now inform how we practice fundraising. So maybe, we need to be inspired to challenge traditional philanthropic practices in order to evolve.
Inspired by learning
Is it possible that we may be inspired by experiential learning? One such example of this learning is the Trust Collective, a gender-based philanthropy established in 2018 to respond to issues such as the MeToo movement and a push for gender equality. In her March 6, 2023 article in The Philanthropist Journal, Nicola Hives, Director of Growth Strategy at Toronto Foundation and program lead of the Trust Collective reflected on the learning in this first donor journey rooted in equity and diversity.
The objective of the Trust Collective was to foster a community of informed and engaged philanthropists who could accelerate meaningful change not just by alleviating people’s needs, but also in an effort to address the root causes of those inequities. However in Hives words: “We made a lot of mistakes.”
Hives cites some of the key learning from this experience:
“We rushed to execute what we believed was a solution to a timely problem without consulting community. We also struggled with the historic tendency to serve donors and thought our intentions were good; however, when we tried to adapt, we could not please everyone. Additionally, we realized we could not let our ambition to make a difference get the better of us. Thoughtfulness and partnering with community are everything. Just because we think we’re doing good didn’t mean we were.”
It takes a lot of maturity to assess our own mistakes and to learn from them, but if we can be humble enough to take stock and learn from a donor journey, as is the case here, it is possible for philanthropic partnerships to deepen our relationships with communities. It may even be possible that these partnerships make us evolve as professional fundraisers within our charitable work.
Inspired by listening
There are times when we get all caught up in our own charities’ needs and don’t quite listen to our donors’ needs. Our donors, those directly involve in philanthropy, are our best teachers. Actively listening to donors needs can help inform and even shape the charitable sector as we know it. We are all impacted by the current economic situation. Charities face a delicate balance between rising costs and increased demand for their services. However, are we sensitive towards the financial difficulties of our donor base?
In the February 2023 edition of Charity Digital, Laura Stanley attempted to predict some donor behaviours whilst they responded to the economic and social challenges. She said that according to the International Monetary Fund, the UK economy will shrink over the next 12 months, while the cost-of-living crisis will continue to affect households with little sign of abating soon. The same could be said about the economic outlook in the United States and here in Canada.
According to Stanley, it is essential that charities do what they can to make donating easier, by better understanding donors’ preferences and motivations. Quoting a recent Blackbaud report, Stanley highlighted certain donors’ trends as follows: Donors prefer to make cash donations, additionally, because donors want flexibility one-time donations are more popular than multi-year commitments, and lastly donors remain generous and will find ways to continue to support their charities of choice.
The following donor behaviour is unusual and illustrates why we must actively listen to a donor’s intent. In 2022, American Airbnb co-founder and billionaire Brian Chesky chose to make the biggest single gift of his fledgling philanthropic career: a $100 million contribution to the Obama Foundation. Chesky said “He enjoys meeting scholarship recipients and experiencing an immediate feedback and he hoped his commitment would inspire others his age.”
Inspired by action
South of the Canadian border, it was Eileen R. Heisman, President and CEO: National Philanthropic Trust who drew our attention to the manner in which the nonprofit sector is discussing racial equity and power dynamics. She points to our charitable work as the new possible “public discourse” in solving deeply rooted issues. She states that charities must support key actions by providing more accountability and transparency.
With her 2023 prediction, Heisman introduce two terms for donor behaviour:
First, Heisman refers to the term “rage giving” which follows moments of social or political upheaval. Charitable giving is one tool donors can utilize to take action. However, she cautions us to this short-term philanthropic strategy and states that loyal donors can help charities be more sustainable with actions that may have a greater impact.
Heisman also references a donor behaviour as “effective altruism”, which she defines as a distinction between donors’ philanthropy guided by emotions on key issues, versus those who place a premium on exclusively giving by metrics.” However, Heisman cautions us not to rely exclusively on data to inform our charitable giving.
Hence, as fundraisers, we may find ourselves needing to build trust and transparency with stakeholders in an effort to change philanthropy. The very act of giving may evolve from an action of generosity to an action for change.
Maureen Bell, a Canadian philanthropist in the Trust Collection said this about her experience. “I’ll be honest, I spent most of my career in banking, where measures of impact are in direct conflict with trust-based philanthropy. I’ve learned to let go of my personal conditioning with reporting and instead embraced giving with no strings attached.”
My final thoughts
In my pursuit to better understand how I can evolve as a professional and how best respond to the ever-changing needs of our sector, I looked for inspirations that can help us profoundly shape our philanthropy today. In my opinion, the previously mentioned author’ examples illustrate how we must remain responsive to key contributors as we develop partnerships because each contributor has the potential to influence fundamentally the work we do in the charitable sector. If the profession of fundraising is to evolve, we need to seek inspiration through various partnerships to succeed.
Three different women, reviewing donor behaviours in different countries each illustrated current challenges as well as ways these challenges can inspire us. E.R. Heisman (USA), N. Hives (Canada) and L. Stanley (UK) all provide great insight for us to use partnerships to help challenge traditional philanthropic practices and evolve.
I must agree with Jean-Marc Mangin president and CEO of Philanthropic Foundations Canada who said: “In the midst of every crisis, there are opportunities.”
Kathleen A. Provost, CFRE is currently the Director, Campaign Initiatives at St. Francis Xavier University, in Antigonish, NS. She brings over 25 years of fundraising experience within 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). As a recognized leader, Kathleen has tailored presentations and workshops for French and English audiences at various events including AFP-Nova Scotia, AFP-Ottawa, AFP-National Congress, Coady International Institute and the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education. Kathleen is a McGill University graduate and holds a Master, Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University. She has received numerous recognitions during her career, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the charitable sector and 2021 Fundraiser of the Year in Nova Scotia. She writes this column exclusively for each issue of Foundation Magazine.
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