Decolonizing Benevolence Assistance: How organizational leaders are learning and unlearning to shift power dynamics in social service delivery

• In Event: Centering participants in third sector research

Abstract

Many organizational leaders discuss decolonizing benevolence, but few practitioners or scholars can articulate what this means or how this is implemented in practice. This ethnographic research project examined how organizational leaders centered community engagement, rather than traditional top-down models of social service models. Through an in-depth case study of two USA based organizations with stated commitments to ant-racism and decolonizing work, this paper will focus on how non-profit organizational leaders from an urban Midwestern city engaged in practices to uplift the perspective of individuals and communities. The overarching goal of this research was to examine how leaders can promote practices that uplift, rather than further harm, those individuals and communities seeking benevolence assistance.

The White Savior Complex (WSC) is the concept that people with white privilege desire to help people from under-resourced communities sometimes for their own benefit, rather than the benefit of the community they are aiming to help. This is not just a black or white issue but is a continuum that is related to a hierarchy of privilege, with many nuances. The unintended impact of the White Savior Complex is that those seeking to help can reinforce inequalities and further oppress those seeking assistance, rather than leading to efforts to advance equity. This paper will contribute to a larger body of knowledge being created to assist leaders from grassroots organizations who desire to remain steadfast in their commitment to undoing racism and decolonizing the professional charitable helping relationships. There is a gap in the research around leadership and the ways in which leaders navigate the complexities of funding and training on an organizational level, as well as if and how they engage in building trust.

The findings of this paper will explore what it means to be an organizational leader—in theory and practice— who is committed to undoing racism, advancing social injustice, and addressing historical inequalities. Participants in this case study shared the challenges of working alongside staff and community members to un-learn and re-learn together. At an individual level, leaders were found to promote collaborative note taking to share power with beneficiaries. At an organizational level, leaders carefully chose funding sources to be strategic in how an organization received funding to navigate larger systems that could reinforce oppressive language and frameworks. For example, instead of jumping in to help, those seeking to help chose to co-determine and collaborate toward goals by recognizing people must make choices so they can oversee their own destiny.

Leaders can be instrumental in interrupting “well-meaning” professionals who unintentionally create a toxic dynamic, often rooted in implicit bias, which can ultimately reinforce oppressive modalities. The reality is “everyone has biases. Everyone has toxicity. We are all working to learn and unlearn together. Spotting your own is critical to becoming a trustworthy partner in the neighborhood.”* Participants will learn new ways for (de) constructing an alternative to how non-profit organizational leaders can shift power to promote justice and equity.

*Lupton Center, "3 places where toxic charity shows up." Accessed on 30 October at: https://bit.ly/3MlmadW

Author

• Anita J. Anglade, IUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy