Welcome to Cultivating Generosity,

a Rad Philanthropy Newsletter

Welcome to Cultivating Generosity, the newsletter to help you create a values-driven, joyful, and intentional giving plan. Here you'll learn about ways to give, you'll receive prompts to help you hone in on your giving philosophy, I'll keep you up to date about news and trends in giving, and we'll have a fun time while we're at it.

Hi party people! It's Spring somehow. Sheesh. I hope you're hanging in there if life is taking you for a ride right now.

Today's topic is Community-Centric Fundraising. CCF is a movement and an org looking to change some of the places where people (myself included) think fundraising and nonprofit have gone wrong. Many people have argued that the social sector doesn't actually exist to change the world for the better, but is really a nonprofit industrial complex aimed at retaining the status quo for the powerful. This movement calls upon nonprofit professionals, institutional funders, and individual donors to unlearn and rethink our work in a way that doesn't cause harm, unites us in community, and still makes the impact we want to see in the world. I have been involved with this work and community since it launched, and it has been an incredibly profound and special place to be a part of.

As someone who gives, learning about this movement can continue to enhance your ever-growing perspective on giving and shed new light on how you show up to help others.

Learn Community-Centric Fundraising

As as movement and and organization, there's a lot to learn about CCF.  They have ten organizing principles and I'll share more about a few of them.

Principle 4: All who engage in strengthening the community are equally valued, whether volunteer, staff, donor, or board member.

Principle 6: We treat donors as partners, and this means that we are transparent, and occasionally have difficult conversations.

Principle 10: We recognize that healing and liberation requires a commitment to economic justice.

Together, these principles show that we don't have buy into the ideology that donors know better or should be the ones who own power and decision-making in nonprofits. These principles also show awareness that the conditions we seek to improve via nonprofit exist for a reason and that systems change are required to fix them. If these principles sound intriguing to you, I highly recommend visiting The Hub over at CCF to learn more about this movement and how to incorporate its principles into your work and giving.  

Rad Reflections Giving Motivations

As fundraisers, many of us were taught to use the "best practices" of treating donors like the hero, using "you" in our communications about problems they can help solve, and being donor-centric - yes, making donors the focus of our work.

But...does that fit with why you started giving? Yes, many people give to feel good...but do you give to be the focus of a nonprofit? For its communications to be centered around how you've been a savior to people who are just so different than you?

Sit with this when you receive communications from nonprofits you give to. Reflect on how they talk about donors versus those who are affected by their work. As you think about what kinds of causes you want to support, evaluating these behaviors and their alignment with your values can help you identify the "best" and not so great orgs for you to be in community with as a donor.

Vu Le, a founder of CCF, is hilarious and insightful about all things nonprofit - and you can read more about the foils of donor-centrism at his blog.

Playtime with Perry

Did this newsletter leave you with any burning questions about your giving? Drop me a line at perry@radphilanthropy.com and I'll help you out.

NEW! Interested in working with me? Book a session with my brand new Calendly link.

You can also find past issues here.