What the Fundraising

Conclusion

Fundraising sits at the intersection of many contradictions. It can be both defeating and frustrating, but also some of the most rewarding and sacred work. It is about people and relationships, but it is also about resources and the movement of those resources. Fundraising is about solving inequities, but it often perpetuates them, too. So much of my day‐to‐day involves grappling with deep frustration at the broken system while providing specific resources to improve the lives of fundraisers working inside that same system.

Being a fundraiser means living in the gray, trying to find the balance and the nuance between what, at first glance, might feel diametrically opposed. I say this because, from my perspective, the sector is currently stuck in a trope of seeing everything in a binary way: givers or takers, donors or fundraisers. This creates a terrible narrative because no one is an ATM, and no one is a bottomless well of need. Because of power imbalances and toxic dynamics tied to money, we often forget that people are inherently generous, and almost everyone is a donor or connected to nonprofits through at least one degree of separation, if not directly. As Community‐Centric Fundraising continues to remind us—the community benefits most when everyone both gives and receives. Everyone is human and deserves to be treated with the dignity and value that we inherently hold.

We all have a stake in the health of this sector.

Our sector relies on the movement of money, ...