Note: This blog post was co-authored with Nelson Bowman, Director of Development at Prairie View A&M University.
This past week we presented at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) conference in New Orleans. CASE is a professional organization for fundraisers in education. The conference brought together two districts of the organization, mainly fundraisers from Southern states. We presented a two-part workshop that focused on the history and trends of African-American philanthropy as well as engaging and soliciting African-American alumni. The presentations were well attended and well received with audience members asking important questions of us and their institutions.
However, we made two important observations. One, we noticed that despite the great numbers of whites at the overall conference, our sessions were mainly populated by African-Americans and a few Latinos. Two, the second session on engaging and soliciting African-American alumni garnered the attention of more whites than the historical session. Basically, there seemed to be more of an interest in the practical side of the topic—how to raise money from blacks.
Aside from the few white participants (who were eager and sincere about learning), the session was filled with people of color who either work at Historically White Institutions and are assigned to cultivating donors of color or those fundraisers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Privately, several fundraisers of color revealed, “outside of my position, my institution is not really pushing the envelope on this issue. In fact, their attitude often times appears apathetic.”
Despite countless news reports and articles that discuss the forthcoming change in demographics—the fact that the country is rapidly becoming blacker and browner—many majority fundraisers at majority colleges and universities are not paying attention to their African-American alumni (or other alumni of color, for that matter). If fundraising among alumni of color is being addressed at all, it is being relegated to fundraisers of color for the most part. These fundraisers of color are important and in fact, we need many more of them to relate to future alumni. However, majority fundraisers also need to learn about fundraising and philanthropy among African-Americans and other communities of color.
In the very near future, the average alumni donor will not be white, and strategies for engaging this new donor need to take into account cultural traditions that may be different from the current white majority. Fundraisers will need to let go of traditional assumptions about giving—including the assumption that African-Americans don’t give. Fundraisers need to spend time in black communities, getting to know their potential donors. African-American alumni need to be asked how they would like to be involved in an organization and listened to when they contribute. Efforts on the part of majority institutions and majority fundraisers need to start now in order to be prepared for the demographic changes in the near future.
Of note, organizations such as CASE and the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) are slowly adding more and more sessions on African-American philanthropy and fundraising as well as on other racial and ethnic groups. The trick is getting the leadership of these organizations to continually stress the importance of understanding philanthropy in communities of color to their membership. This kind of emphasis not only helps to solidify the future of colleges and universities by engaging potential alumni donors, but it is the right thing to do. All alumni, including African-Americans and other alumni of color, should be brought into the college and university family.