Executive Director Howard University Medical Alumni Association, Inc
With a combined 60+ years in fundraising, we’ve learned that raising money for a community you’re not of requires more than skill—it requires awareness, humility, and respect. This session shares lessons learned from working across lines of culture, geography, and lived experience.
Through real-world examples from campaigns in education, advocacy, and the arts, we’ll explore how fundraisers can navigate cultural nuance, build trust, and avoid the pitfalls of assumption or saviorism. Participants will gain tools to strengthen relationships, communicate with authenticity, and align their fundraising practices with the values and voices of the communities they serve.
Learning Objectives:
Understand how identity, lived experience, and positionality shape your approach to fundraising, relationship-building, and communication—especially when working within communities different from your own.
Build trust through inclusive listening sessions with community stakeholders. Learn cultural norms and preferred language to guide respectful communication. Learn to identify personal identity and bias. Incorporate feedback into messaging and outreach. Partner authentically, showing transparency, consistency, and shared values to strengthen relationships across cultural and experiential lines.
Recognize how personal identity and perspective shape donor and community relationships. Learn how presenters identified key stakeholders to build advocates and emphasized ongoing, not one-time, engagement. Develop tools to recognize and navigate cultural mismatches—differences in pace, values, or power dynamics—while advancing equity and belonging in your new role.
