Diversity:  Why Care?

by Kay C. Peck, CFRE

Successful fundraising is all about knowing one's donors. While current mainstream fundraising techniques are built around assumptions concerning predominately wealthy, white, heterosexual donors, the world is changing, says Kay C. Peck, CFRE. She also says that diversity should be seen as an opportunity, not a cause for conflict.   Full story

High School Students Paint a Vision of Philanthropy

The AFP Diversity Art Showcase featured the artwork of high school students from the Oakridge School in Arlington, Texas, which educates students from 12 different countries representing a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The youth were asked to use philanthropy as their inspiration and the result was a bright spectrum of life experience put to canvas.
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AFP Forms Fundraising Communities to Support Diverse Members

Program aims to solidify and broaden minority involvement

Diversity is on the move among AFP members. Communities of self-identified individuals are forming to become "affinity networking groups" around which a commonality of experience can propel conversations about day to day life, challenges faced and problems overcome. Learn more about inclusiveness in fundraising by hearing from leaders in AFP and find out how you can get involved.   Full Story

Focus on Diversity: CCS

CCS formed a Diversity Committee to help further the company's focus on diversity and engage their employees in the best way to identify and move diversity initiatives forward.

Find out what they are doing.

Career Track: Emilio Alonso-Mendoza, J.D

A profile of Emilio Alonso-Mendoza, J.D., president of the Archdiocese of Miami Development Corporation, Miami Shores, Florida, reveals a man who is grateful for his talents and uses them for the betterment of others via fundraising. A 19-year veteran of fundraising, Alonso-Mendoza has also worked for the National Parkinson Foundation and the Children's Home Society of Florida. Find out his secret to happiness and his approach to diversity in this Kaleidoscope Q and A.

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AFP Founder Recognized for His Role in Groundbreaking Corporate Diversity Effort

William R. Simms, the only living co-founder of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), was recognized for his role in an African-American marketing initiative at Pepsi in a new book about the program. The Real Pepsi Challenge (Free Press, 2007) by Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Capparell details the changing face of American business in the late 1940s through the stories of some of the first African-Americans to work in corporate America and target black consumers as a distinct market.  Full Story

Purchase this book in the AFP Bookstore

Look Beyond What You See and Hear

On Sunday afternoon of the International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas, the AFP Diversity Workshop brought together hundreds of conference-goers to an event titled, "Engaging Diversity to Establish Inclusion."  The event brought together military veterans, nonprofit board chairs, first time conference attendees, people from families large and small, former cheerleaders and fluent Spanish speakers. How, you might ask, did these interesting attributes about the group come to be discussed?  It is all about sharing.  Full Story