Leadership – Kathleen Provost
By Kathleen A. Provost, CFRE, MAdEd
As a professional fundraiser, I believe we are in the “business” of building relationships, so I always seek to better understand how to improve these human relationships. Over the last few years, I have journeyed, as many of you, through numerous political and socio-economic factors that have impacted philanthropic relationships.
Today, I think we need to give priority to relationships and collaborations in an effort to co-produce learning and evaluations that can be shared and managed by fundraisers and donors. More importantly, I believe we need to commit to understand how each of our actions and strategy developments can result in furthering our mutual trust and accountability towards one another. This will ensure a healthy relationship by, maybe, giving our relationships a more “human touch”.
Responding in a different manner
In her January 12, 2023 Blog, entitled Hopes, Fears and A Wild Guess for 2023, Hilary Pearson caused me to reflect on key fundamentals of relationship building between donors and the charity they support. Pearson agrees with Phil Buchanan of the Centre for Effective Philanthropy when he said, “there is no dichotomy between strategy, assessment, evidence, and learning on the one hand, and trust, listening and flexible support on the other”. In my opinion, this illustrates a natural evolution in the philanthropic relationship from a “business transaction” to a more “humanistic rapport” between donors and charities.
In Canada, the overlying challenges of recent years have forced philanthropic relationships to be more trusting, more flexible, and more responsive. This behaviour is also seen south of the border in the USA. Mackenzie Scott, American billionaire philanthropist and novelist exemplifies this trend towards more trustful relationships by donating more than $14 billion to some 1,600 non-profit organizations without any formal application process and no strings attached.
Looking at the two sides of the relationship
Current donors are placing a greater importance on developing mutual trust and embracing accountability. A number of charities and non-profits have demonstrated their ability to pivot in an attempt to address some of the problems that arose during the pandemic. Some charities and non-profits have both knowledge and expertise on key issues in our sector. With these new perspectives, we find ourselves in a new era of human interaction.
The human perspective of the donor
Donors generously make donations to solve problems. They want to feel their donation will make a difference because it gives them hope. Shared values in the philanthropic relationship will motivate donors to give. Hence, as we develop our relationship with a donor, it is imperative for us, the fundraiser, to explain the problem we are addressing as well as a proposed solution. By clearly conveying the impact the gift will make, it is possible to further develop accountability.
This later statement may sound obvious; however, the data says differently. In a November 2022 report, entitled 20 for ’23, Blakely and Leger along with Google conducted a research in an attempt to discover emerging trends in the charitable sector between 2019 and 2022. They surveyed both Canadian & American donors. Blakely’s findings highlighted the need for charities to be explicit when proposing solutions to donors, so as to ensure trust is built. Many of these donors have also pivoted and continued to donate to charities during the pandemic and are now wondering: “What’s next?”
In their research, Blakely stated that “Eight in 10 donors feel charities will be important in solving some problems arising from the pandemic over the next few years.” Additionally, to building a trustful relationship, it is imperative to be accountable to these donors. Donors have agreed to be more flexible, or less controlling with their philanthropy in response to the pandemic, a behaviour sometimes referred to as the “bridge process”. Now these donors want to assess if their funds are addressing key issues which emerged during the pandemic. However, according the 20 for ’23 report, “49 percent of donors generally understand the problem, but not what the donation will solve. And 46 percent generally understand the problem and the solution but are unclear as to what the donation will be used for”.
The human perspective of the charity
The philanthropic sector is facing an unprecedented demand for services, financial vulnerabilities, and a human resources crisis. Paired with current inflation rates and an eminent recession, we now find ourselves in the post-pandemic era in which we need to develop news rules of engagement as we build our relationships. As our country reopens and we are heading towards a promise of normalcy, whatever the new normal looks like, I have concerns about how this period of intense stress has affected a charitable sector already dealing with high levels of stress and burnout.
On January 10, 2023 in The Philanthropist Journal, Surabhi Jain, Executive Director of the Workforce Funder Collaborative, said: “the non-profit community, on the whole, needs to step up its game because the sector is failing to invest in the career development of its staff”. As a fundraiser, I am very much aware of the impact this pandemic has had in changing my relationship with donors. Given that our cultivation strategies with donors needed to adapt, I question if our sector also adapted. In my opinion, there are two specific areas of the charitable sector that needs attention.
First, I question if the individuals who work in this sector are being well equipped to do their work. We hear conversations about resilience, seen as a process of successfully adapting to challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility in an effort to adjust to external and internal demands. So, if we are to build relationships with donors, I wonder if all of us involved in the charitable sector, fundraisers, front liners, volunteers and other individuals have what we need to build our own resiliency? In an effort to work on my resiliency for instance, I started to paint. I do not think I will ever become an artist, but this activity has forced me to pause the “logistical side of my brain” in favour of using the “creative side of my brain”. It has helped me “re-energize” at times when I most needed it.
Second, I question if we are marginalizing certain groups within our charitable sector workforce. A recent Imagine Canada report, Diversity Is Our Strength, reveals that women make up more than 75 percent of the non-profit workforce. The report also states that non-profit workers are more highly educated than those in the broader economy. However, those working in community-based agencies earn an average annual salary of $38,716 compared to $57,137 economy-wide. This makes me question if our own sector continues to marginalize women. This argument could also be made for immigrants, Black, Indigenous, racialized, and older workers. If aligned values between donors and charities are a key motivator for donors, then aligned values like pride and hope will influence the relationships we are trying to build.
Providing a bit of optimism
Albeit all these factors I just mentioned, I remain optimistic for our sector. Like many of us over the past few years, Laura Frye, Senior Major Gifts Officer at “From the Top,” a non-profit NPR program nurturing the talent of young classically trained musicians, illustrated what happened when she said, “the pandemic forced the group to cancel or adapt much of its in-person programming but also proved the resilience of From the Top’s team and donors”.
Amid the uncertainty ahead, and by focusing on the human values we have honed over the last few years we can get through some of the post pandemic related uncertainty. Active listening will help us through these challenges, so listening to our donors, continuously, adapting to donors’ preferences, and asking donors about their individual circumstances may enable us to incorporate trust and accountability into our relationships towards one another. This is also true for our working relationships with the charitable sector.
Maybe this means having a more “human touch” in our relationships.
My final thoughts
The charitable sector continues to face stress every day, but the unprecedented experiences we have had in the last years have taught us to shift into neutral and take a moment to “check-in” and understand what’s happening. This new era is forcing our sector to be a little more “human” with regards to relationship building, which is at the core of our philanthropic activities. Building trust and accountability leads to “success” for individuals involved in making a donation as well as those involved in problem-solving.
As Nancy Pole mentioned in her article entitled Measuring and accounting for ‘success’ in the charitable and non-profit sector: “changes are underway in the non-profit and charitable sectors and in their relationships with partners and communities. In the last few years, the needs, aspirations, and calls for justice of equity-seeking communities have begun to receive long-overdue attention”. Pole talks about working in an increasingly complex funding ecosystem of delicate relationships with ongoing tension.
We are attempting to satisfy individual and social needs while developing new rules of engagement. As a result, it will be possible for charitable organizations and non-profits, and their allies to build healthy relationships in a way to reconcile different stakeholders’ needs. Maybe, by adding a little human touch, we can aspire to build healthy relationships based on trust and accountability.
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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