← What the Fundraising
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- [00:00]
Rebecca Darwin
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Mallory Erickson
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Zefy. I have been excited to learn about Zefy and what a game changer it has been for so many organizations. Plus, the platform is 100% free. They even cover credit card and transaction fees. You can set up donations, sell tickets, and manage your donors all in one place. And it only takes 15 minutes to get started. Start fundraising today at Mallory.com Zephie that's MalloryErickson.com Z E F F Y.
- [00:39]
Rebecca Darwin
When you look at the grant partners of collaborative funds or grantees, collaborative funds operate a little bit like institutional foundations in the sense that they provide year round support. So these are fully staffed organizations that are there to have the backs of their grant partners every single day. So they might be able to convene partners to say, okay, this is a policy issue that we're all facing. Let's all get together and be in one room, have a conference or some sort of way to bring people together to grapple with the tactics and move forward in one direction.
- [01:15]
Mallory Erickson
Hey, my name is Mallory and I'm obsessed with helping leaders in the nonprofit space raise money and run their organizations differently. What the Fundraising is a space for real and raw conversations to both challenge and inspire you. Not too long ago, I was in your shoes, uncomfortable with fundraising and unsure of my place in this sector. It wasn't until I started to listen to other experts outside of the fundraising space that I was able to shift my mindset and ultimately shift the way I show up as a leader. This podcast is my way of blending professional and personal development so we as a collective inside the nonprofit sector can feel good about the work we are doing. Join me every week as I interview some of the brightest minds in the personal and professional development space to help you fundamentally change the way you lead and fundraise. I hope you enjoy this episode, so let's dive in.
- [02:10]
Podcast Host
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to be here today with Rebecca Darwin. Rebecca, welcome to what the fundraising.
- [02:17]
Rebecca Darwin
Thanks for having me.
- [02:19]
Podcast Host
Why don't we start with you just telling everybody a little bit about you and your work and what brings you to our conversation.
- [02:26]
Rebecca Darwin
Thank you so much. My passion and excitement in this field is really about moving and mobilizing money. So I've been working with several organizations and most recently with Philanthropy Together to raise the awareness of collaborative funds.
- [02:42]
Podcast Host
Okay, tell me a little bit about your passion there and like why this conversation at this exact moment in time is so critical.
- [02:53]
Rebecca Darwin
There's so much change happening all around the world and the philanthropic sector is A place where a lot of those conversations can be had, but it can be a little bit of a cocoon. And I have dedicated my career going from frontline social work, doing street outreach, all the way to working at private family foundations, and now where I sit as kind of a collaborator and a consultant in this space. It's really an important time right now to find connection, to find a sense of reaching across, extending a hand, and like diving deep into some of the challenges that we're facing. Whether it's democracy or climate, there are so many spaces where we really need to talk and grapple and collaborate. And that's the kind of the sweet spot where I find myself like, let's have those important conversations and not do what philanthropy has a really bad habit of doing, which is to get stuck in conversation, but move to action and move to deploying capital.
- [03:56]
Podcast Host
Okay, so maybe to help everybody understand a little bit more the kind of logistics of collaborative funding, can you tell us a little bit about, like what does the decision making process look like within collaborative funds and how. We're going to talk a little bit about your work with the foundation for Black Communities and how collaborative funds impact funding gaps for communities of color. But tell us first maybe a little bit about how these funds put power back in the hands of community members rather than traditional funders.
- [04:35]
Rebecca Darwin
Happy to do that. So to start, what is a collaborative fund? A collaborative fund is an entity that pools resources from many different places. So it could be pooling from individual donors, corporations, governments. So you have a pooled sense of the dollars. There's multi level collaboration. So that means that there is relationships happen on the ground with grant partners, but there's also relationships happening with the funders and the people around the table who are giving the pooled resources. So it's happening at many places and they're primed for scaled systems level impact. So they might have on the ground like local community impact, but oftentimes these are funds that are moving large scale dollars over a million dollars and more million tends to be the smaller size of a collaborative fund and up to billion year annually. And they're really looking at those large kind of challenges. And how do we address, for example, systemic anti black racism and are really kind of grappling with that through their grant partners and also changing the donors who are putting in the pooled resources.
- [05:46]
Podcast Host
Okay, before we get into more specifics here, I'm kind of curious to have maybe a mindset conversation because, you know, the word collaboration I think activates a lot of things for Me inside this sector in terms of oftentimes when I've heard that used that word, used as a, a really nice kind of tagline for something, but in practice still really a competitive environment that marginalizes communities. And so, and I'm sure you're familiar with this, given your work too, and the different kind of dynamics at play. So can you talk to me a little bit about maybe both from the funding perspective, but also from the organizational perspective, what it really takes to participate in something like this? Because I think a lot of the traditional ways we've been taught to think about fundraising, to think about our funders and our donors, and our donors like kind of come up against what you're talking about, which I think is so important. So help us break through some of that a little bit.
- [06:54]
Rebecca Darwin
Yeah, definitely. So on the multi level collaboration part, it truly means that. So any point that there's a relationship in the collaborative fund, there is an opportunity for partnership. So when we think about the pooling of resources that's bringing multiple donor types to the table, hosting them and saying, you know, what are the unique things that you can bring to the table? Dollars is a central piece of that, but it can also be influence, it can be voice, it could be opening doors. And so really thinking strategically about the holistic way that donors, whether institutional or individual or government, can bring all of their resources to the table, that's one piece. And so they're collaborating with each other, they're collaborating with their peers, but they're also collaborating in new ways with the grant partners at the same time. When you look at the grant partners of cooperative funds or grantees, collaborative funds operate a little bit like institutional foundations in the sense that they provide year round support. So these are fully staffed organizations that are there to have the backs of their grant partners every single day. So they might be able to convene partners to say, okay, this is a policy issue that we're all facing. Let's all get together and be in one room, have a conference or some sort of way to bring people together to grapple with the tactics and move forward in one direction. They're also able to see kind of like the high level of what might be happening across an entire country and say, oh, here are some gaps, let's put out a call for proposal to address those gaps, or let's have rapid response or emergency fund to address a specific issue. So the collaboration is then happening with the fund itself and their partners and like cultivating those relationships and matchmaking and doing some of the alchemy that is required in our sector to move the things that we care about forward at scale. We know that we can't do this alone. No one person or institution or funder is big enough to tackle these majorly intertwined and intersectional challenges. So we got to work together.
- [09:09]
Podcast Host
Okay, I so appreciate that. And I'm curious. Okay, let's talk about the role that these collaborative funds can play then in addressing funding gaps and particularly for communities of color that receive 8% of grant funding. Is that right? So talk to me a little bit about that.
- [09:29]
Rebecca Darwin
Yeah, happy to. So in this case, when we look at collaborative funds, the entire vehicle, this giving vehicle, this intermediary approach, we see the. That collaborative fund leaders, 50% of them are coming from communities of color and are women led. So that's in comparison to 10% of US foundations having that same demographic makeup. So the leadership of collaborative funds looks very different than traditional philanthropy. And when the leadership is different, the accountability to community is different. And so that's one thing that I can say is that it's very relational. And a lot of times collaborative funds are staffed by people who used to be doing the frontline work and who have the experience of being on the ground. Secondly, the decision making is very different in a collaborative fund. There's a spectrum. There's some that are donor led, and that's one model. But the model that I'd like to highlight on this call and with you today is the community led approach. And that's the approach that we take at the foundation for Black Communities, where we have community selection tables making the decisions not just about where the dollars go, but but also about the strategy in the first place? And so what does it look like when we completely change who's making the decisions and who sets the priorities? And what we've seen is that when new people are at the table, when there's diverse representation there, entirely new projects get funded that have never been funded before. And that gives us an outsized opportunity for new impact to take place.
- [11:07]
Podcast Host
Can you tell me a little bit more about your. The foundation for Black Communities and kind of what you've learned? Maybe in that work you started to share some of that as you were explaining that model kind of versus other models. But have there been any other kind of insights or learnings, maybe, maybe in terms of what hasn't worked at points or what didn't go smoothly that you feel like can be great learning for the sector as they think about more community led collaborative funding models?
- [11:39]
Rebecca Darwin
So the foundation for Black Community was born out of serious lack of funding for black communities. In the Canadian context, for every hundred dollars that goes out of Canadian philanthropy, as little as 7 cents were going to black led organizations. So we're talking like way less than the 8%, just like a fraction of a percentile of dollars going to black led organizations. And so the co founding team came together with expertise as nonprofit leaders who were experiencing what it was like to apply for grant after grant after grant after grant and be denied, denied, denied, denied. And then the other side of the co founding team were grant makers that had seen amazing black led projects that we were trying to get funding to. And then we'd see at the board level, deny, deny, deny, even if it got to the board level.
- [12:33]
Mallory Erickson
Wow.
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Rebecca Darwin
So the four of us were seeing kind of like a really comprehensive view of what it looked like to be a black led organization in the nonprofit sector and not being able to get advancing, like not being able to advance forward. Some of it is definitely bias, unconscious bias, anti black racism, but it shows up in the funding structures. So a lot of black led organizations are not, they don't have charitable status. And so that inhibits their ability to get certain granting dollars and inhibits their ability to give tax receipts, et cetera, et cetera. So we wanted to come up with an entirely new approach that would allow black led organizations to be funded fully and to basically come up with a solution that was by the sector, for the sector made by black leaders. And we've been successful in doing that and creating new models of, of giving to allow black leaders to really come to the forefront and shine. And there's often a kind of like a trope that there's not enough black leaders or that there aren't any ideas that are worthy of funding. And that's absolutely not true on every single front. And so we have gone out with the beliefs that black leadership is valued and is essential and is creative and joyful and abundant. And we wanted to build an institution, a structure around that belief. And we've been able to do that just putting black leadership, black self determination and liberation at the core and allow that to then determine the vehicle to then determine the decision making process and bring community leadership into the core. Because really the expertise of how to address the challenges that black communities face lies in the communities themselves.
- [14:35]
Podcast Host
Okay, can I ask a really blunt question? Maybe? I mean, I'm hearing, I'm hearing what you were saying before about all of the like, systemic barriers and challenges that I'm kind of putting the current model Aside, like, what black led organizations are dealing with in the landscape of traditional philanthropy. And I'm curious, I want to know, you know, on the one hand, for black communities who are listening to this, kind of like what they can do to access or engage with collaborative funds, but I'm also curious about kind of like your recommendations around how they spend their time and their energy in the funding landscape in general. Because I don't know, I'm hearing that and I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, I focus a lot on what happens inside our brains and bodies when we fundraise and the role that isolation and rejection and power dynamics and pressure and all these things impact our nervous system and chronic stress and ultimately burnout. And I'm just like, kind of aching with the idea of how, like, infuriating it must be to be dealing with what these leaders are dealing with. And I'm just curious, like, kind of how you think about or would recommend that approach on a larger or like a macro level first. And then specifically we can talk about the collaborative funds like the ones you've helped develop.
- [16:09]
Rebecca Darwin
Thank you for, first of all, just acknowledging the raw reality of what it means to fundraise and being a black fundraiser and an accidental fundraiser at that. There is a lot of emotional toll that it takes when you're trying to raise funds. We were raising funds during the pandemic when black communities were horrifically hit hard by Covid and kind of the multi layered illness side of things. I personally lost a lot of family members to Covid. And so you're going through personal difficulty and turning around to fundraise for your communities. So the embodied experience of the power dynamics, it's just so tough. And so for anybody who's listening to this, I just encourage you to just honor your work. Honor yourself, be compassionate with yourself, be compassionate with your team members. We had zoom calls fundraising for the foundation for Black Communities, and we'd have our pitch together. We felt in sync. We were ready for the call. We get into the call and the types of questions and the pushback and the questioning. It was so clear that it was really about them. And it was about their inability to see the potential of what we were putting together. And we got off of several of those calls and would be just tearing each other apart. To be honest, like, you didn't say this on slide 17. It wasn't this. And we stopped and had to really acknowledge, you know what? This isn't about our team and our ability to lead this work. It's about other People's ability to see black leadership and to step into that fully. So absolutely. Just coming up against interpersonal anti black racism as well as systemic anti black racism. It's real. So that like feeling of like, is it me? Is it them? Kind of that, that questioning self doubt. I would just encourage everybody to be really kind to yourself, be really kind to your teammates and to have compassion and to acknowledge where the barrier is. Sometimes a barrier isn't about your pitch tech as an example. Right. And sometimes you can be as perfect and polished and ready and just fall flat, fall on flat ears or fall into somebody who's not open to partnership. So if you can just like let it roll off your back, give yourself the time to be frustrated and disappointed and cry and shout and then find the partners who believe in you. The reality is for us, we found partners that believed in us. And to date we've raised over $225 million. We have a historic partnership with the Canadian government and have unprecedented partnerships with private foundations, corporate foundations, community foundations. So it's possible. So just remember that it's possible and find the partners that are willing to lean in. That's how I would address kind of the embodied experience of fundraising as a black person. And then when it comes to engaging with community led collaboratives or collaborative funds in general, as a black led nonprofit, I would approach it as an opportunity to build relationship. And the foundation for Black Communities is one black led fund. There are many. You have the Black Freedom Fund, you have the Black Feminist Fund. We have funds that are coming up, I think the African Visionary Fund. We have funds coming up across the entire diaspora. So find those organizations, learn what they're doing on the ground, participate in the programs, the webinars, the programming that they put forward and build relationship. And that's the thing that we came across in our research, it came across in our surveys, it comes across in our conversations with grant partners. As much as there's like anti black racism, there's also no relationship. And so the first step to engaging traditional philanthropy and collaborative funding is part of that ecosystem. The first step is to build relationship and again, just find the people who want to have a conversation and put your best foot forward, don't dim your light.
- [20:49]
Podcast Host
All of that advice, I think is obviously so like potent and helpful for folks. And do you have any other kind of like last recommendations around? I'm like thinking about that kind of the burden that's being put on these leaders to build relationships in maybe historically unwelcoming environments and to essentially Be vulnerable with some protective layer intact because they don't know what to expect. And what is on the surface is not always what happens when you get a few steps deeper. And I've just heard from, you know, clients and friends, like so many stories of like, trust broken, you know, trust quote unquote earned or in a short period of time, but then broken, and just how dysregulating and challenging that can be to, to recover from. Do you have any suggestions for that kind of balance of both, like putting yourself out there and moving forward in all the ways that you're talking about, which is obviously so important, and like taking care of their hearts and selves.
- [22:02]
Rebecca Darwin
In the work of building the foundation for black Communities, one of the things that we have talked about a lot is how we as an organization develop trust. And I think the first thing is to not ever assume trust and to just keep showing up over the long term. And so if a person or an entity is not a trusted, if there's no trust there, there's probably a reason, and so that's fine. Trust isn't like the base level for good work and action to take place. And I think about that with like traditional philanthropy. I don't think that trust is the entry point for the relationship. Trust is something that you look back on and you're like, oh, it was there. It's kind of like street cred. You can't be like, hey, I've got all this street cred when you, like, you don't talk about it. So the moment you start talking about it, you don't have it right. I believe in the trust based philanthropy movement, I'm part of it, that's what I advocate for. But I just don't think that's something that we are working together towards over the long term, is not something that happens over a couple of meetings. Collaboration and partnership can happen, but I believe that trust happens over the long term. And I can't help it that I was trained as a social worker. And so I do this work personally on like a 40 year horizon. And so if I have a setback in a moment, that metric of what that setback means is done over a five year arc or a 20 year arc. And so, and I believe that in working one to one with individuals as well as working on systemic systems level change, the ebbs and flows of movements is over long decades, long arcs. And so that gives me hope. But I'm the type of person who's like, I'm gonna take this win and I'M gonna take one more step because I've dedicated my life to this and so yeah, I just had to take the long view and I a lot will think that my glasses are too rose colored. But I choose to be an optimist. I choose to think in long term and I believe that on that long arc what we're doing today matters and is making a difference.
- [24:35]
Podcast Host
I agree and I think everything I'm trained in, habit and behavior design and we know that hope drives motivation up and gets us over the action line. And so I think anything when people say things like hope is naive, I'm like, well is it or is it or is all of it a self fulfilling prophecy? Because if we aren't hopeful, then we don't take action and then we are correct. You know, like I'm sort of like, you will be correct with whatever you say here, right? But if you hold on to that hope in action, right. And you let that propel you forward in action, then you get to write a different self fulfilling prophecy. And I think that long lens is what allows that hopefulness because yeah, it's really hard to feel hopeful after something really painful or a big loss or big direct, you know, if you're just thinking about that moment. So I appreciate that so much. Where can folks go? As we wrap up, where can folks go to learn more about the foundation, to connect with you. I'm so grateful for this time and for everything you shared with us today.
- [25:41]
Rebecca Darwin
My pleasure. So for more on the foundation for Black Communities, you can go to4blackcommunities.org you can find me on LinkedIn. Just Rebecca Darwin. And then if you're interested in collaborative funding and that entire movement in itself, you can also check out Philanthropy Together and they have on the website more information on what is a collaborative fund and how you can get involved.
- [26:06]
Podcast Host
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time and wisdom and for all the work that you're doing. I'm so grateful.
- [26:12]
Rebecca Darwin
Thank you so much. Foreign.
- [26:19]
Mallory Erickson
I hope today's episode inspired or challenged you to think differently. For additional takeaways, tips, show notes and more about our amazing guest and sponsors, head on over to Malloryerickson.com backslash podcast and if you didn't know, hosting this podcast isn't the only thing I do every day. I coach, guide and help fundraisers and leaders just like you. Inside of my program, the Power Partners Formula Collective. Inside the program, I share my methods, tools and experiences that have helped me fundraise millions of dollars and feel good about myself in the process to learn more about how I can help you, visit MalloryErickson.com PowerPartners Last but not least, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love to encourage you to share it with a friend you know would benefit or leave a review. You I'm so grateful for all of you and the good hard work you're doing to make our world a better place. I can't wait to see you in the next episode. The question I've been asked the most in the last five years is how do you always know what to say to a donor? And the truth is because I've navigated donor conversations thousands of times. Unfortunately I had to learn what to say the hard way. Live with a donor in high stakes conversations. It was uncomfortable, messy, defeating and definitely led me to burnout. I want better for fundraisers which is why I built Practivated, the first AI powered donor conversation simulator built just for fundraisers. With real time feedback, customizable scenarios and coaching from your AI guidelines Coach Tivi, you can practice donor conversations in a safe, judgment free space. I want to help you build confidence, reduce stress and strengthen donor relationships all at the same time. Are you interested? Book your demo with me Mallory erickson today@practivated.com demo.