The Adoption and Effectiveness of Community-Centered Fundraising

• In Event: Co-production, Citizen-led and Community-centric

Abstract

Contemporary fundraising and philanthropy often perpetuate the very injustices nonprofits aim to address. Historically, fundraising has placed wealthy, white donors at the center of organizations’ work, avoiding difficult conversations about privilege, proliferating savior mentalities, and upholding systemic oppression (CCF, 2023). In response, fundraisers of color initiated the Community-Centric Fundraising movement in 2019 to evolve fundraising and present a framework to align it with movements for equity and justice.

This study will explore whether and how fundraisers and organizations have implemented CCF to actively challenge traditional fundraising philosophy. We aim to investigate the following questions:
● What CCF practices have nonprofit fundraisers introduced to their organizations?
● What have been the organizational challenges in adopting CCF practices?
● How have donors responded to those practices?
● What, if anything, has changed in the organization as a result (i.e. revenue, the culture of philanthropy, etc.)?

Literature Review

Donor-centered fundraising prioritizes personalized relationships and experiences for individual donors to build loyalty and increase donations over time (Burk, 2003). While most nonprofit organizations have found a donor-centered approach effective, a core critique of this style is that it concentrates power and influence among wealthy donors and pits nonprofit organizations against one another (Le, 2017). In contrast, CCF emphasizes social justice principles of inclusive decision-making, diversity, and accounting for the needs of various stakeholder groups (CCF, 2020).

As fundraisers’ knowledge about CCF has grown, they are increasingly examining donor-centered fundraising's ethics (Clohesy, 2003; MacQuillin, 2016; Ostrander, 2007) and turning to CCF as an alternative model (Bergeron & Tempel, 2022). While donor-centrism can be effective for raising money, CCF practitioners argue that it often takes the practice to harmful extremes that undermine social justice aims (Breeze & Dean, 2012; Le, 2015; Novovic, 2022).

Despite the growing literature exploring CCF’s principles, no larger-scale research has yet explored how organizations have begun to integrate these principles, what challenges they have encountered, and what results they have seen. Beyond the anecdotal examples of this relatively new approach, there has been no broader scale examination of how individual practitioners have applied community-centric principles in their fundraising roles and organizational strategies.

Research Methods

This research will use both quantitative and qualitative data collection, building on the strengths of each approach. First, the researchers will administer a survey to capture a broad range of fundraisers’ experiences in implementing CCF practices. The survey will capture information about the types of organizations these fundraisers work in so that we can understand where CCF adoption is taking place and gather data on the impact of CCF practices on the organization’s culture of philanthropy, philanthropic revenue, and broader equity and inclusion efforts.

Second, the researchers will select approximately 12 fundraisers who complete the survey to participate in an additional interview to understand their experiences with CCF in greater detail. We anticipate at least 400 fundraisers completing the survey to generate meaningful results. about what kinds of organizations are implementing CCF practices (i.e. size, subsector, geographic location, etc.) and the opportunities and challenges that exist.

References

Bergeron, A. & Tempel, E. R. (2022). A commitment to ethical fundraising, in G.G. Shaker, E.R. Tempel, S.K. Nathan, and B. Stanczykiewicz (Eds.), Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 5th Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Breeze, B. & Dean, J. (2012). Pictures of me: user views on their representation in homelessness fundraising appeals. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 17, 132-143.

Burk, P. (2003). Donor-Centered Fundraising: how to hold on to your donors and raise much more money. Chicago, IL: Burk & Associates/Cygnus Applied Research.

Clohesy, W. W. (2003). Fund-raising and the articulation of common goods. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 32(1), 128-140. https://doi-org.proxy.seattleu.edu/10.1177/0899764002250010

Community-Centric Fundraising. (2020). Aligned Actions List. https://communitycentricfundraising.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CCF_Aligned_Actions_List.pdf

Community-Centric Fundraising. (2023). History. https://communitycentricfundraising.org/history/

Le, V. (2015, August 3). The Nonprofit Hunger Games, and what we must do to end them. Nonprofit AF. https://nonprofitaf.com/2015/08/the-nonprofit-hunger-games-and-what-we-must-do-to-end-them/

Le, V. (2017, May 15). How donor-centrism perpetuates inequity, and why we must move toward community-centric fundraising. Nonprofit AF. https://nonprofitaf.com/2017/05/how-donor-centrism-perpetuates-inequity-and-why-we-must-move-toward-community-centric-fundraising/

MacQuillin, I. (2016). Rights stuff: Fundraising’s ethics gap and a new theory of fundraising ethics v1.1. Rogare – The Fundraising Think Tank https://www.rogare.net/normative-fundraising-ethics

Novovic, G. (2022, March 1). Rethinking Philanthropy: Emerging paradigms of social justice. The Philanthropist Journal. https://thephilanthropist.ca/2022/03/rethinking-philanthropy-emerging-paradigms-of-social-justice/

Ostrander, S. A. (2007). The Growth of Donor Control: Revisiting the Social Relations of Philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 356–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300386

Author

• Elizabeth J Dale, Grand Valley State University