A new membership group aims to create a national gathering place for women of color in the sector to find mentorship, networking, and career advancement.
Yolanda F. Johnson, a longtime fundraiser and president of Women in Development, New York, will launch the organization, Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy, on June 30.
The concept was inspired by the experiences women fundraisers of color shared with Johnson after she became Women in Development, New York’s first African American president in 2019.
“They did not see themselves strongly reflected in the organization’s programming or leadership,” Johnson wrote in her founder’s letter on the new group’s website. She says that outreach confirmed that philanthropy needed to invest not only in attracting more women fundraisers of color to the field, but also in doing more to include, promote, and champion them.
Johnson has made diversity, equity, and inclusion a central part of her platform as president of Women in Development, New York. She created a task force to recommend how the organization could become more welcoming to fundraisers of color and has acted on its suggestions, such as adopting a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as one of the organization’s core values and creating educational programs on those values to give members tools to make changes at their workplaces.
But Johnson wanted to make sure that impact was lasting.
“Sometimes when things are tied to your priorities as a leader of an organization, those priorities can change in the future,” she said.
That’s where Johnson’s new group — referred to as WOC and pronounced “woke” — comes in.
WOC is an independent national organization, but Johnson expects it will work on programs with Women in Development, New York, as she leads both groups and they share some overlapping goals.
And while there are existing affinity groups for fundraisers of color — such as those within local chapters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals; African American Development Officers; and the Rooted Collaborative, another group for women fundraisers of color, founded by management consultant Kishshana Palmer — Johnson says her new group is unique because it caters to both development professionals and philanthropists.
WOC will build connections between fundraisers and donors to advance individual careers and make the sector more inclusive, Johnson says. Much of the programming will be aimed at “showing fundraisers how to better work with philanthropists and vice versa,” she said.
Johnson hopes to focus events and programs on both the philanthropic sector and individual career advancement. For example, she is planning financial-literacy programs to help “redefine who is a philanthropist,” but also imagines programming aimed at women who already give.
Johnson is also planning an “online library,” which will collect existing research and proprietary articles relevant to the group’s membership.
“We’re building a place where as much information as possible about women of color and people of color and fundraising and philanthropy will live,” she said. “A lot exists out in different places, but we’re going to try to put as much of that together as we can.”
As the organization is launching during a pandemic, the initial events will be virtual. But Johnson said Covid-19 hasn’t posed a big hurdle — members are joining across the country, so there isn’t much need for localized events.
“The plan is to set up some groups for people to connect via LinkedIn and also some virtual networking sessions to connect people with each other,” Johnson said.
In advance of its official launch event, WOC has piloted virtual networking events with small guest lists and also co-hosted a panel discussion on racial equity in philanthropy with Women in Development, New York.
Racial equity is a core focus of WOC, and Johnson hopes the group will advance the cause within philanthropy as a whole. Already, she is planning a program, Allies in Action, to engage white allies in advocating for racial justice within their workplaces and communities.
“I am carving out that space for the allies so that, as we continue to empower these women, other people in positions of power and privilege can begin to understand how to get us toward equity and create those opportunities that we deserve as women of color,” she said.
Johnson is launching WOC as the country shines a light on the racism and systemic inequalities much of the population has long ignored. She says that reckoning has underscored her commitment to the organization.
“We could be on the cusp of real change,” she said. “I think it’s more important now than ever to have this place for these shared experiences as fundraisers, as people, as philanthropic professionals.”
