Video · Pivoting in practice: Fundraising for social justice organizations
Photo: Nathan Dumlao for Unsplash
This fall, Aperio and the NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising convened a conversation among nonprofit leaders to discuss: What does ‘pivoting’ look like—in practice?
Months into the COVID crisis, we’ve all moved from talking (ad nauseum) about pivoting to doing it. In these panel discussions, we explored:
How does ‘pivoting’ play out in our daily lives as leaders and fundraisers?
How does it vary by sector?
What have we learned?
What has surprised us?
What will we carry forward?
In a conversation this spring, our panel of nonprofit leaders recognized early-on that this crisis is not a ‘blip’—or a pause from reality. It is a fundamental shift in the landscape that affects how we deliver and fund our work.
Our October 15th panel focused on fundraising for social justice and advocacy organizations and was moderated by Beth Katznelson, Principal-Contributing Factor Consultancy and Adjunct Faculty NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Program for Philanthropy. The panel included:
Klassie Alcine, President, KC Common Good
Chandler Bazemore, Senior Development Manager, OutRight Action International
John McCourt, Senior Director of Business Development& Integrated Marketing - GLAAD
Akilah Wallace, Executive Director, Faith in Texas
Connection in the age of social distancing
2020 may be the year of social distancing, but for organizations in the social justice & advocacy sector, it’s been a year of closer relationships than ever.
It has been a difficult year for organizations in the sector. The pandemic has hit vulnerable communities especially hard. The social justice movement has galvanized action, but systemic challenges remain—at great cost. Like other nonprofits, social justice organizations have had to pivot to stay afloat financially. At the same time, demands for their services and advocacy has never been higher.
Our panel agreed, the path to effective pivoting—in service delivery and in fundraising—is connection. Each organization set an intention to spend time (virtually!) with key stakeholders, loyal supporters, and donors looking for ways to step up in this challenging year. Throughout the year, supporters have provided more and more philanthropic support, especially when they felt that support would make a real difference.
At Faith in Texas, Akilah Johnson, has spent her year responding to a crisis within a crisis. They issued calls to action to local officials to establish a moratorium on all evictions and utility shut offs, passing an ordinance within a month. They also created the Luke 4:18 Bail Fund in May. Since then, more than 6,000 individual donors have contributed. Akilah’s team focused on their network of relationships with clergy: “We focused on increasing clergy organizing efforts to hear the concerns of pastors and priests and were then able to support them and their congregations. Many donations were made to the bail fund because it aligned with their prison outreach ministry.”
Chandler Bazemore says Outright International created an emergency fund by “being transparent and with our current donors by showing the impact on the community.” Having open dialogue with donors—explaining how their role can change from donor to true stakeholder—has deepened their investment.
Klassie Alcine says in Kansas City, organizations collaborated to meet needs and access funding. Her organization, KC Common Good, switched from “awareness to action”—quickly. They created a coordinated process to identify who had resources and how they could get those resources to people who needed them. They reached out to foundation partners to request additional funds. That outreach, in turn, showed those donors the impact of their donation—that, without their support, the work truly would not be possible.
For GLAAD, lockdown threatened cancellation of the organization’s largest fundraiser, the GLAAD media awards. John McCourt says the team chose change over cancellation. “We reached out to corporate partners and individual ticket buyers, as well as major donors,” he says, “seeking to have them convert their table/package ‘buys’ into donations.” The approach was successful. People were happy to help. “With parades and festivals moving virtual, we created a Pride Box Mailer Kit and approached 18 corporate donors to be part of the kit with merchandise from their prospective companies. Then in order to receive the mailer kit, donors had to make a monthly contribution of at least $19.” The outcome was not just a fun activity, but a new, sustainable stream of individual giving to build on into 2021.
Is increased awareness sustainable?
“The concern that racial and social justice will lose its mass appeal often crosses my mind,” shared Akilah—summarizing a concern keeping many leaders up at night.
Today, social justice is top-of-mind for grassroots donors, philanthropists, companies, and foundations, and organizations have been able to expand their advocacy and services. What happens tomorrow? How can organizations build on the current momentum, while also creating sustainability that will last for months and years to come?
Akilah’s strategy is to double-down on keeping her new, large base of donors engaged and connected to the work. “We launched an intimate donor series to current and prospective major donors where we shared grassroots organizing in response to COVID-19 and pressing social issues,” she says. Chandler has taken a similar approach, creating a ‘Diplomats Dialogue Circle’ that major donors can join to have deeper conversations. In addition, his team hosts quarterly half-hour webinars for new donors to help them get to know the organization and ways to get involved.
At GLAAD, John has shifted to encouraging participation and education—and not just during pride months. “We empowered corporate partners with other opportunities and heavily encouraged them to represent and speak out on issues that affect LGBTQ communities year-round,” he shared. They’ve also created a Corporate Summit, which educates and empowers corporate donors during the month of October as they celebrate LGBTQ history.
Klassie is focusing on the future in her conversations with donors. She’s asking: “How can you support us for 5 years? I am not having 1-year conversations because if we are to see shifts and incremental changes, I want to know that for 5 years I can do my job effectively.” People may support Black Lives Matter and may understand social justice, but it is personal work. We need to educate the public in multi-channel ways.
Looking ahead
It’s hard to have a conversation with nonprofit professionals these days without talking about: What do you think 2021 will bring? Are you going back to 2019 strategies, are you continuing with the pivots of 2020, or are you striving for something altogether new?
“The landscape has truly changed,” says Chandler. “We in the development nonprofit world need to adjust and understand that business-as-usual is no longer that. We must be nimble and rise to the challenge of things looking different and executing things in a different way.
“A lot of adjustments need to happen and one thing I love about our community is that we are resilient, we are creative and I know we will rise to the challenge and figure out this new way of existing,” he says. That tipping point, he believes, extends to social justice: “We can no longer ignore other movements. Social justice movements occupied a lot of space this summer.”
John agrees. In his conversations with companies, he says, “We are getting a lot more conversations with the diversity, equity, and inclusion team, who are more empowered than before.” Internal resources and workforce organizations are partnering with their social impact teams to take action. The key, he believes, is to keep having the conversation. “For every success we have had, there have been other pitches that have not gone as successfully. Just because you see headlines of success from one particular initiative there is usually a few that have been a lot of work from really talented people that didn’t quite get the attention they deserve.”
“What inspires me—and gets me through every day,” Klassie says, “is hope. Understanding that the stakes are extremely high, but we can be co-owners in the solution. It’s time to be bold, it’s time to demand action, rather than be a bystander on issues.”
