CEO Corner: The Waters of Anti-Blackness and What We Do About Them
Alice Ayres, MBA
Published: 05/16/2024
“How can everyone be powerful?” Nneka Allen asked me.
For me, the answer is that everyone would have a voice and be empowered to use it, a role in shaping the future, and space for their story to be heard.
As fundraisers, we all understand how powerful it is to build meaningful relationships based on mutual respect, deep listening, and trust. When we rush relationships with donors, we risk alienating people. When we don’t ask questions and listen
to donors’ stories, we miss opportunities to help them express their visions for their gifts, and, sometimes, we miss the opportunity to realize real transformation for our organizations and our donors’ lives.
As you read the following four articles, you will see that nascent relationships can be fragile, but how building relationships can help us move from harm, anger, and disbelief to responsibility, repair, and healing. I hope you also see the impact of
what I have come to realize was rigidity in AHP policies and procedures that excluded people from sharing their voice with the AHP community, and how relationships and trust made it possible for me to understand that and find new paths to remedy it.
- The Waters of Anti-Blackness and What We Do About Them: Nneka Allen's Narrative
- The Waters of Anti-Blackness and What We Do About Them: Fran Petonic's Narrative
- The Waters of Anti-Blackness and What We Do About Them: Birgit Smith Burton's Narrative
- The Waters of Anti-Blackness and What We Do About Them: Alice Ayres' Narrative
In another of our conversations, Nneka asked me what I would commit to going forward. I realized that my role is to create space within AHP for the stories we often do not hear on fundraising stages and to do so in a way that is accessible to the
largest number of people. It is for that reason that I am delighted to announce that AHP will be publishing via
LinkedIn (our
greatest readership outlet), pieces from fundraisers of color, LGBTQ+ fundraisers, and fundraisers who are differently abled and from all other diverse backgrounds.
We start with this mini-series, co-written by the four of us, which we hope will share the power of reaching across seemingly huge divides to ask questions and learn about the needs of other people. And, when harm is done, the power of taking responsibility
for harm, repairing what is broken, and, in doing so, building relationships and finding ways to heal. It is my hope that by broadening the topics and voices heard about from the AHP stage—sharing the power of the microphone—AHP will create
an environment where we can all truly belong.