Planning a Successful Diversity Event
By Bernadine Douglas, CFRE

	Bernadine Douglas, CFRE, is director of development for the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She is the chapter education chair of the AFP Central Florida Chapter.

The AFP Central Florida Chapter’s “Diversity in Philanthropy Conference,” a daylong program held on June 7, 2007, in Orlando, brought together 128 AFP chapter and community members to engage in sessions, workshops and sector discussions and hear impressive keynote addresses on furthering diversity in the profession.

This event came about as a result of the chapter’s 2007 strategic planning. We wanted to make sure we made diversity a part of our focus for the upcoming year. The chapter, however, felt the discussion needed to be broader than merely recruiting diverse groups to the profession. We wanted to really empower organizations to build diversity at the volunteer, donor and professional levels.

I challenged participants in my opening comments to be painfully honest. I believe true change comes about only when are our authentic selves are willing to question, to engage and to change.

We hoped that nonprofit professionals would walk away with real tools and insight to effect change in their organizations. Specifically, we wanted participants to examine their own perceptions and see how these opinions affected their decisions regarding volunteers and donors

The conference brought together a cross-section of our community, allowing many groups who had never interacted before to do so. Workshops such as “Power and Privilege,” conducted by Tracy Brown of Diversity Trends in Dallas, encouraged folks to think about diversity in a different way by urging them to have an introspective and authentic conversation among themselves.

For anyone who wants to hold a diversity-related event in his or her AFP chapter or organization, my advice is to start early. Also, don’t be afraid to engage corporate America—especially if you know of a company that has a strong, vibrant diversity program. Lockheed Martin, our title sponsor, has one of the best-known diversity programs, so we knew this conference was perfectly aligned with its corporate mission. Additionally, as soon as we had the idea of a diversity conference, we met with our key sponsors to get their thoughts. In these preliminary conversations, most sponsors signed on before we even had actual sponsorship information.

We got the community excited, and that made all the difference.

Bernadine Douglas, CFRE, is director of development for the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She served as president of the AFP Central Florida Chapter from 2005 to 2006 and is now the chapter education chair.