Don't Force Diversity on Donors Who Can't Relate
Birgit Smith Burton

	Birgit Smith Burton

I have been a professional fundraiser for more than 20 years, having started my career when it was more respectable to play the piano in a neighborhood bar than to admit to being a fundraiser. OK, so I'm exaggerating—a little. My first fundraising job was with the United Negro College Fund in 1987 because UNCF was a great training ground for novice fundraisers of color. Many of my colleagues who have been in the profession as long or longer than I also cut their fundraising teeth working for the UNCF. It was one of the few organizations that would hire minority fundraisers. I felt respected and happy to not have to deal with issues of discrimination within the organization. However, after leaving the UNCF in 1997 I did begin to personally experience discrimination in my profession. On more than a few occasions I recall seeing the utter look of shock on the face of an interviewer who had assumed I was white because of my German name and nonethnic-sounding voice over the telephone. Suddenly there was a strong internal candidate whom the head hunter had not mentioned before or another position for which I was better suited.

Throughout my career I have been interviewed about my experiences as a minority fundraiser, I have conducted and participated in research on diversity in philanthropy and the fundraising profession, I've led workshops on diversity in the fundraising profession and organized a network of African-American Development Officers (AADO) that has gathered for six conferences over the past 10 years. Thus, you may find it odd or downright hard to believe that I, as an obvious advocate for diversity in the fundraising profession, would now say that minority fundraisers need to understand and accept that they aren't always going to be welcome in all solicitation opportunities and that skin color or ethnicity might be a factor.

This revelation became clear to me on a shopping excursion to an Atlanta boutique for full-figured women. Greeting me at the door was a very chipper woman who was quite petite. She smiled and asked if she could help me find anything. Inside my head I was screaming, "Hell no, you can't help me find anything, Miss Size Zero!" I didn't feel that she could possibly identify with me and I didn't want her to pretend that she could. Even if she had been full figured at some point in her life, I just know how I felt at that moment and I almost ran out of the store. Instead, I thanked her and said that I was just browsing. I picked up a scarf to purchase and headed to the cashier who looked a bit more like me. She saw the scarf and asked if she could help me find anything else. I felt comfortable allowing her to assist me and eventually left the store with more than $1,000 in merchandise.

Thinking about that experience made me recall an incident a decade earlier when I had been told (off the record) that a position I was interested in at a university was better suited for someone with whom the older alums (who remember the "good ol' days when there were no blacks or women at their school") would be happy to discuss a major gift to their alma mater over golf and lunch at their country club. I was very offended at the time, but thinking back on it, I can understand and appreciate how they felt.

I used to laugh until I cried when I heard my colleague in the office next to mine change from the accent of her refined New England upbringing to that of a demure southern belle, complete with a mint julep in one hand and a parasol in the other when she was speaking with her southern prospects and donors. Her explanation was, "They have to believe that you can identify with them. Sometimes the connection is as simple as an accent."

I don't suggest that you put on your best Academy Award-winning performance to fool a donor into thinking you're someone or something you're not. I do suggest that being able to relate to the donor or identifying the best possible person to whom the donor can relate is important. And sometimes, no matter how savvy a fundraiser you may be, you just may not be the right person to make the connection with a donor for whatever reason, and that's perfectly OK.