AFP Call to Action

Dear AFP,

I appreciate your message on Monday, June 1 with the subject line “Beyond Services: Being the Voice of the Unheard.” As a non-black woman of color in the fundraising profession, I felt a duty to respond to your call for feedback. 

I suppose most of what I want to share with you may be better stated by our friend Vu Le in his most recent blog post.

I have been in the nonprofit sector for the last thirteen years. My identity, both as a woman and a person of color, has often times influenced relationships with peers, volunteers and donors. I can think of experiences where I knew it would benefit me to share with a donor that my husband was white. I can recall times where I have vehemently stated my position during a staff or board meeting without fear of being labeled an "angry black woman." I can recall times where I've been advised to keep my mouth shut because the truth was too hard for leadership to hear and grapple with. 

I am asking you to deeply consider what it would take to radically change the way AFP serves our profession. And I am asking you to consider allowing me to be part of the change. 

The IRS didn't create Charitable Contribution law to benefit causes - these laws were created to protect and benefit the wealth. And this happened at a point in history when the terms "people" or "citizen" barely included women and people of color. Our country was founded on white, male, land-owning christian principles - and those were the only individuals who counted as people. They were the only individuals who could hold wealth. And today, we celebrate donor centered fundraising as the go-to strategy.  We enable inequity to continue and we lean into the status quo. We form our boards around the wealthy and lament when we can't get our transformational work done. 

The system wasn't created for nonprofits to achieve their visions. I look to AFP to help dismantle this. 

I am asking you to be more than a white ally - we need you to be a co-conspirator for radical, necessary change. 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Rachel D'Souza-Siebert