Diahann Billings-Burford

April celebrates Black Women History Month, and with it, the latest Nonprofit Quarterly publication—a detailed guide spotlighting the unique challenges faced by Black women leaders in the non-profit sector. Spanning over 100 pages, this publication courageously addresses the often-ignored realities: excessive scrutiny, extreme micromanagement, and a myriad of barriers that constrict our freedom to evolve, prosper, and lead authentically. Yet, this quarterly publication is more than a chronicle of adversity; it’s a manifesto of bravery, resilience, and metamorphosis. It affirms the indomitable spirit and transformative capacity of Black women. This publication goes beyond a simple report; it’s a declaration of our lasting presence, our entitlement to lead with dignity, and our position at the forefront of ushering in an era of leadership that truly prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion. This approach enhances creativity, drives innovation, and generates positive outcomes both for our bottom line and the communities in which we come. I invite you to join this critical journey toward a future where Black women leaders are acknowledged, uplifted, and esteemed for their essential contributions. Together, we need environments that not only recognize our worth but also foster conditions under which we can drive non-profit organizations to unprecedented achievements. What’s your contribution?

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On Wednesdays we wear pink 💅🏼 Well, at least when you join a group of Susan G. Komen fundraisers for a Donor Advised Fund training, you wear pink! 💖 Thank you to Trish Davis, CFRE and Kate Watt for inviting me to present to your frontline fundraisers around the country about the massive opportunity with DAFs 💰 The session focused on: 1️⃣ Better understanding the DAF market - and why everyone seems to be talking about DAFs! 🗣️ 2️⃣ The biggest challenges DAFs present for donors & fundraisers 😫 3️⃣ The best strategies for increasing DAF gifts - especially in the context of Peer to Peer, Individual Giving & Major Gifts 📈 4️⃣ How DAFpay unlocks huge benefits to DAF donors and nonprofits - embedding 3-click DAF giving directly into donation forms makes giving & receiving DAF gifts a breeze 🌬️ 5️⃣ Specific examples of leading nonprofits having the post DAF success - and why! 🚲 We are so excited Komen will have DAFpay enabled across hundreds of fundraising events around the country this year 🙌🏾 and I love that they’re taking the critical next step to maximize their success - making sure fundraisers, event participants and donors know about DAFs & DAFpay too ✅ If you’re part of a chapter based or federated organization, I’d love to do a similar training for your fundraisers 😊 I have a version that’s for current DAFpay users and a version that’s more general education on DAFs for folks not yet leveraging DAFpay 👍🏼 Both are extremely helpful as nonprofit fundraisers grapple with this seismic shift of DAFs - now almost 20% of philanthropy comes through a DAF 😯 And I can even dress in theme - when Trish told me about the pink, I realized I had no pink in my closet and ran to a souvenir shop in midtown for this Komen pink “I ❤️ NY” t shirt 😅 Shoot me a DM and we discuss more! #fundraising #nonprofit #philanthropy

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*The 2024 Racial Equity Policy Intensive begins April 26th!* If you are wanting to begin or continue leading your organization towards developing and implementing a formal Racial Harm Policy, we hope you will consider joining our 2024 Racial Equity Policy Intensive! Through 8 collaborative work sessions, participants will develop an organizational racial harm policy, protocol & implementation plan tailored to their organizational context. The intensive will also provide expert guidance from Subduction Consulting’s senior consultants, peer support from past participants, and the opportunity to: Learn best practices for identifying, mitigating and repairing racialized harm in your workplace. --> Hone your tools and skills for advancing racial equity in your organization through (and beyond) formal policy. --> Strengthen your policy crafting skills. --> Develop strategies for incorporating community and stakeholder engagement in the policy revision process. --> Develop strategies for leveraging support & minimizing resistance to policy implementation. --> Expand your professional network & build community. Sessions will run every Friday from 9AM - 12PM Pacific, April 26 - June 14, on Zoom. Click the link to learn more!

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Speaks for itself

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Learn how taking a REAL Essentials course can benefit you. Whether you’re an elected leader or a senior city staff member, REAL Essentials courses are designed with you and your learning in mind. These online courses give you the latest techniques and insights on how to be an effective champion for racial equity. Classes begin in early May, so register today! https://lnkd.in/gsV_chPj

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Media coverage of campus clashes misses a critical backstory ... the tireless efforts of organizations like BridgeUSA, Braver Angels, Constructive Dialogue Institute, Interfaith America , Institute for Citizens & Scholars and others to create space for civil dialogue and civic learning on America's college campuses. Thank you to these orgs, and their funders, for helping administrators, faculty, and students to navigate difficult times. Manu's editorial in Philanthropy Today is behind a paywall, so I'll quote him here: "Once we at BridgeUSA looked past the temperamental extremists, we found that, honestly, most students — what I would call the 'temperamental moderates' — are ideologically diverse, want to freely debate the difficult issues of our time, and disagree productively. "Time and time again, young people have demonstrated a unique capacity to influence culture through activism. My experience has shown me that students can turn pluralism and dialogue into exciting and revolutionary ideas that have the same cultural resonance as issue-based activism. "If we want to prevent the next firestorm on campus and strengthen higher education, it’s time to support student-led bridging efforts across the country. If we don’t do it for campus culture, let’s do it for the sake of our democracy, which rests on the notion that we thrive because of our differences." Manu Meel John Wood, Jr. April Lawson Audra Watson Caroline Mehl Jonathan Haidt Thomas Schnaubelt Grande Lum

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Hot take -- the future of #nonprofit work hinges upon leaders understanding how to best engage the next generation of contributors Those 18-25 in age are entering social change orgs with enthusiasm and skills in: ✅ Influencer collaborations ✅ AI-powered fundraising initiatives ✅ Design of creative community building ✅ Digital campaigns to reach global audiences ✅ Leveraging platforms like TikTok for creative revenue generation ... #nonprofits need that entrepreneurial spirit! Are we ready? 🤔 ______________ #futureofwork #charity #fundraising

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Discover the Core Practices of Innovation in ‘The Responsive Nonprofit’, a new book by Gabe Cooper 1. Human-Centered Design: How building empathy with your donors and community can accelerate giving and impact. 2. Dismantling Team Silos and Increasing Transparency: How increased team collaboration and shared data insights can save time and help you discover opportunities to increase growth. 3. The Agile Methodology: How working in two-week sprints and prototyping ideas can de-risk innovation and help your organization quickly pivot based on real data and community feedback. 4. Metrics and Goal Setting: How aligning your team to common shared goals can create clarity, improve results, and empower team creativity. 5. Change Management: How effectively navigating the people and process challenges associated with change can be your secret weapon for growth. 6. Building a Culture of Innovation: How empowering your team, encouraging transparency, and focusing on a bottom-up approach to leadership can help you attract and retain the most innovative talent. 7. Storytelling and Community: How activating ambassadors for your cause can exponentially increase your team’s ability to move quickly and accelerate new ideas. 8. Generosity Operations: How a new kind of nonprofit team can help foster innovation, surface data insights, and be a catalyst for growth within your organization. The tactics and mindsets associated with these eight practices have the ability to transform your nonprofit into an innovative juggernaut capable of producing outsized generosity and impact. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ex9eZTRm

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Take a listen to Manuel Campbell, one of our past cohort members, as he shares a little about his B-SCI experience. At B-SCI, we are dedicated to empowering Black leaders and nurturing their growth to create positive change in our communities. Our programs are designed to unlock potential, amplify voices, and pave the way for impactful leadership. #BSCIFamily #BlackLeadersMatter #Empowerment #LeadershipDevelopment #CommunityImpact #BlackLeadershipDevelopment #NonprofitLeadership #BlackNonprofitLeaders

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Thoughtful Stewardship Motivates Other Donors As seasoned fundraisers will attest, many major donors will, upon making a gift commitment, say they want no recognition and a surprising number say they would prefer to remain anonymous. I don't know how many say that because it's how they feel or because they think that is what they should say. It doesn't really matter. My standard response was "We need your example." Example is important in philanthropy and fundraising. I wanted to afford my donors recognition because I knew it would be inspiring and motivating to others - if we told their story in the right way. All too often we squander the opportunity of example. We announce the amount someone has given and make some banal statements about the transformative effect it will have but rarely do we follow up and demonstrate the actual transformational impact years down the road. Even sadder, we don't do enough to publicize why the donor gave or highlight the values that underpinned and motivated their giving. Yet, the story of why one donor gave can be highly motivating to other current and potential donors. We seem to forget that many of us spend our lives trying to become better people. We seek to liberate our big and altruistic side from our small, selfish and self-protective side. We don't always know how to do that but we try. It's why we look to the examples of others, why we look for people we can admire and emulate. It's not how much someone gave but why. When we hear about someone giving because they want to spare others from the loss or pain visited on them or their loved ones, we revisit our pain and loss and ask ourselves if we have done enough to spare others. When we hear about someone giving to return what they think was a good done for them years ago, we go back to our past and ourselves if we have paid due credit to those who were most helpful in our formative years. When we hear someone giving because they felt fortune smiled on them, we think more about our good fortune and how we might share it. The more we seize on the power of example through effective storytelling, we help others reflect and say to themselves: That's who I want to be like. That's how I could give more meaning to my life. That's how I can become a better person. It's not the size of the gift we celebrate, it's the examples of how people turn to philanthropy to forgive, to convert struggle and loss to purpose, to remember and honor those that shaped their lives, to chip away at injustices visited on them, to provide others opportunities they never had, and to bequeath more to the future than they inherited from the past. We need these examples and these stories. We want to be in the presence of people striving to do good with their lives. We look for ways to be better people. The more thoughtfully we steward and share each donor's story, the more we widen the philanthropic path.

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Thanks to Amy McIsaac from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) for capturing in her recap this thought-provoking comment during the recent Council on Foundations bridging gathering: “Throughout the conference, there was a really important conversation about the relationship between pluralism and racial equity, which is a topic that rears its head pretty consistently in PACE’s work. And for good reason–many consider these two things to be in tension. I loved how one fellow conference attendee shared how she thinks about it (paraphrased): ‘It’s like the body. The eyes don’t get mad at the ears for doing what the eyes do. The liver doesn’t get mad at the lungs for breathing. It’s a cohesive organism that needs all the parts to keep going, and if there is not cohesion, there is unease. But when you break an arm, and more care, attention, and energy needs to go there to repair, the leg isn’t mad that I’m putting a cast on my arm. It knows that it can still do what the leg does, and that in this moment, the arm needs my attention. But it’s annoying when you have a broken arm and then everyone is like ‘let’s talk about the holistic being.’ I’m like ‘MY ARM IS BROKEN! Can we please address that before we talk about the other parts that are not broken??’ That is what the pluralism and racial equity debate feels like to me.’” In my opinion, there is still a need for analyzing the depth of harm that this metaphor provokes (is it really just a broken arm?) that then requires of us to triage our attention and sequence our conversations as a broader community working for social change. I’m really hoping there will be a follow-up gathering of the Council’s members and partners to continue stepping into these tensions together. 🙏🏼 with gratitude for the leaders in philanthropy committed to putting the hard conversations on the table for us to grapple with: Kristen Cambell Branden Polk, MSW Joy Ossei-Anto- SHRM-SCP Kathleen Enright Kristen Scott Kennedy Srikanth (Srik) Gopal Uma Viswanathan 🔗 in comments

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