ArtsEmerson is just over a decade old. Since the beginning, the theater, which is part of Boston’s Emerson College, has worked hard to cultivate diversity in its productions and in the audience.
“There was a commitment to be in and of the city and have these venues represent the full richness of Boston and all of its people,” says executive director David Howse,
Since he joined the staff in 2015, Howse has worked to reimagine the organization to create a space “we all felt proud of and that we all felt like we belonged in.” Part of that has involved building a fundraising team and working to extend the theater’s inclusive culture to its interactions with supporters.
Senior development officer Shannon Worthington joined the staff in December. Since then, she and Howse have been working to find their rhythm working together while also navigating the pandemic and the charged atmosphere around ongoing racial injustice. Howse, a Black man, and Worthington, a white woman, spoke with the Chronicle about fundraising the wake of George Floyd’s murder, having tough conversations in the workplace, and about what they wish other fundraisers and leaders would talk about more.
Shannon, how does the ArtsEmerson’s culture feel different from other theaters or nonprofits where you’ve worked in the past?
Worthington: I’ve worked with a lot of organizations that did not make equity in the theater and anti-racism a main thing that they were doing in their work on a daily basis. This organization started doing that work years ago. This was something that was really being worked on on a day-to-day basis, not just public facing but also internally among their staff. It wasn’t just about having outreach programs in the community, going in and doing one or two classes at a school or something. Our committees, our audience members, they’re very diverse, and it’s not just about them coming to our shows and being in a theater, but it’s about them really being a part of who we are. We ask them their thoughts on shows that they’ve seen, their opinions on what they’d like to see in the future. When we talk about equity, it’s not just asking people to have a seat at the table, it’s also inviting them to eat dinner with us. People in the community are a part of the work that we do.
How does the culture around fundraising feel different than at other organizations?
Howse: Having fundraised at my old organization, I was really curious about who was missing from our donor base. At ArtsEmerson, we were talking very publicly around expanding whose stories we’re telling onstage. We were talking a lot about expanding who’s in our audience and who’s not in the audience. We were talking less about who is and is not in our donor pool.
We started to think about the opportunity there and where are the donors of color. We know that they’re there. How do we actually engage them more meaningfully so that we can really inspire their support for the work that we’re doing? And so very quickly, our focus was not only on those donors who have big pockets and are very visible but really trying to build relationships with and source folks who are perhaps not as visible — sometimes equally generous, but just not in a public way.
Our instinct was to do both and to make sure that we are engaging with those traditional philanthropists but also not overlooking the incredible opportunity in subordinated communities. The Black community, the Latinx community, the Asian community. And working to understand what have those barriers been.
As a young organization, we didn’t have a legacy audience. We didn’t have a legacy donor base that we’re trying to pivot in some way. We were literally trying to build it from scratch, and we wanted to build it how we meant and not necessarily just taking on an old model or a traditional model.
As a Black man, having deep relationships in the Black community, I started to ask questions and build community around an effort that we call the Gaining Ground Fund, which supports artists whose work reflects the African diaspora experience in America, which is a long term for supporting artists who are championing Black work and Black artists in particular.
We got a lot of pushback, a lot of folks saying you can’t do it. People won’t give. This is not what they do. Blah blah blah. It just gave us more energy to say this is why we have to do it. There’s this myth around philanthropy in communities of color.
Where did you get pushback from?
Howse: Where did I not get pushback from?
I got pushback from a lot of the traditional donors, from institutional donors. With the Gaining Ground Fund, I was very clear that I wanted it to be seeded by Black dollars. And a lot of folks were saying that that money doesn’t exist. Black people don’t give to theater. They certainly don’t give that way in Boston. It won’t be sustainable. You won’t be able to grow it. It’s illegal. All kinds of pushback.
There were even people in the Black community who were saying, “I love this effort, but I don’t know enough people who could actually do it. Maybe if you scaled it back there’d be some success.”
At the same time, there was a lot of curiosity around, “Can you do this? And is this possible?” I got lots of calls from people to ask how it’s going. And can you help me think about how to engage with those particular communities? So I think there was both skepticism and also a little bit of hope in thinking that this may be something that they could then model and practice in their own institutions.
Worthington: When I moved to Boston a year ago, I was looking at all sorts of different organizations. I would ask what their committees and boards and their top donors looked like. I would ask what are you doing to diversify your donor base, your board, get out there to different communities, and engage people in the programing that you’re doing,
One of the answers I remember getting was “That’s just the way Boston is.” And that answer was not acceptable to me. I had heard it for so many years from a lot of organizations, even though they may not have said it out loud. They were saying, “People of color don’t have the money that we want to sit on these boards.” And that’s just simply not true.
When I came to interview at ArtsEmerson and I heard David talking about the efforts to seed the Gaining Ground Fund with support from people of color, and I learned that 30 percent of the donors to that fund were people of color, it just proved the fact that those things people have been saying were not true.
George Floyd’s murder prompted conversations between the two of you. You both were processing your own feelings while also interrogating fundraising at this moment. How did your thinking differ?
Worthington: People started reaching out to David, asking how he was, asking how they could help, and we started having some conversations about that. We had some initial different feelings on it. My instinct was: Let them support us, and let’s take the money. But I was not thinking about the timing and what he may be feeling and what may be the right move for our organization.
David, you felt it was important to take time to reflect before moving forward. Can you talk about your personal discomfort in using this moment to raise money?
Howse: Shannon was doing everything she’s supposed to be doing in raising money and asking questions: How do we leverage the moment? How do we take advantage? We’ve been doing this work for so many years. We’ve been in the leading pack as it relates to elevating subordinated voices, specifically African American voices. This is our moment to actually step into it.
As the leader of the institution, I had to find my voice and balance before I could feel comfortable doing it. And it took me a while to find my equilibrium after those events. It was a very emotional time for the country and certainly emotional for me as a Black man in trying to lead an organization. I was trying to distinguish in my own head how we leverage the moment, tell our story more deeply and in a different way, and then move forward with it.
There were folks who were reaching out asking where they should give their money — particularly white people — asking me personally. There was a lot of energy and effort towards this act of releasing or absolving. For me, the act of giving money at this moment felt too easy.
I struggled with the fact that I didn’t want the organization to be perceived as taking advantage of the moment in a negative way. And I didn’t want to be perceived in that pack of people who for the first time were actually celebrating Black lives. There’s a term I often talk about: “pimping the people,” leveraging this moment of suffering to do this act of giving.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that we didn’t need the money. We definitely needed the money. But I wanted to feel good about the asking and the receiving and the giving from the donor. And so I wanted to have a different conversation and talk about why this moment is actually much larger. I didn’t want us to be perceived as jumping on the bandwagon when we had already been on the bandwagon.
How were those conversations between the two of you?
Howse: The conversations were very natural flowing because our organizational culture makes space for disagreement, discourse, and progress. The conversations that Shannon and I were having were not at all antagonistic. They were complicated, but they felt like a natural progression for us inside this organization to be tackling these things, to be asking ourselves the hard questions, to be pausing and reflecting where we need to pause and reflect.
Were the discussions ever uncomfortable?
Howse: Yes. They’re uncomfortable. And we embrace the notion of being comfortable being uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for me to talk about my deep feelings related to the moment and my decisions related to the trauma. I imagine it was difficult for Shannon to hear and to sit and listen. But we are committed to the mission of this organization. We’re committed to each other in that way. And so we stick in those conversations even in the most challenging time. I’d rather have the uncomfortable conversation than have no conversation at all.
Shannon, what were those conversations like for you? Had you had conversations like this in any other fundraising role?
Worthington: No, I hadn’t. In past jobs, if things were brought up that felt uncomfortable, they were quickly dismissed. If you really, truly want change to happen, you can’t just keep doing the same thing.
I appreciate the fact that — even though it’s really difficult sometimes— David welcomes friction. I think that’s how we learned how to work together better. Even if we don’t agree with each other, we get to a place of understanding and find a way to make a plan and move forward alongside each other.
Hearing from David, from other colleagues, from donors about their experiences, what they have gone through, and why our programing is important to them has given me a better understanding when approaching other donors and prospects.
We’re all so worried: Are we going to say the right thing? Are we going to do the right thing? Are we going to hurt anyone’s feelings? And the answer is you probably are. It’s not always easy, and I know that I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth.
It’s hard to be a co-conspirator and an ally. But not as hard as it is for a person of color to be having to deal with this right now.
How are you talking with other staff about how they were feeling after the killing of George Floyd and what they thought the organization should do publicly or what it should say to its audiences?
Worthington: We started getting questions from staff members about when we were going to say something. Are we going to say something? What should we be saying?
There was a blog post on our website that David wrote, which was so powerful and gave a lot of insight into what he was thinking as a leader of the organization and as a Black man and what he was experiencing personally and professionally. I think when the staff read that, it really helped them understand why there may have been a pause in reacting.
We also got the staff together on Zoom just to have some moments of silence and to reflect.
Then there was a series of blog posts that came from David and also artistic director David Dower and some of the conversations they were having together shortly after George Floyd and processing that together. They shared their text-message conversation with each other publicly.
Howse: Once I was able to articulate my “why,” there was a sense of understanding — and also respect and patience. There was not a push, there was not an uprising. I think people had their questions, but we try to lead most of our meetings with why we’re making a decision. People seem to understand or at least to get where I was coming from and appreciate and respect it.
This was not our first time talking about Black lives in this organization. So we had developed a muscle. It’s not the strongest muscle, but we had developed the muscle that allowed us to navigate these most complex and emotional times with incredible grace, incredible dignity, and incredible curiosity.
Have you started to go back out to donors and ask people to support the organization?
Worthington: Yes, we have. I think that we’re better for waiting. It gave me a perspective and understanding that I hadn’t had before. I’ve learned that it’s OK to just take a pause and step back and allow some time for thought and reflection before moving forward with a campaign or reaching out to donors.
We came up with a plan together on how we wanted to proceed. We talked about some specific donors and who would be the best one to contact them. We talked about what we would say to them and what we would say when people asked us what we were doing to create change.
Howse: Everything has a season, right? We were in the thick of a national catastrophe, a dual crisis, both with the racial reckoning and the pandemic. There was a lot that we were carrying. We always knew that we are fundraisers. That is part of our responsibility. We would get back to that. But everything in its own time. We knew when the time was right, we would feel that moment.
It was soon after a lot of these conversations, maybe a week or two, or even three weeks, that I was able to spend some time to find my voice in a way that felt natural, that felt dignified, and felt forward-looking.
I drafted an email, and Shannon and I went back and forth on it. We actually came to something that felt wholly responsible and wholly the organization. It felt like the organization’s voice. What was important for me and I think what was important to the institution was that we not get wrapped up into this new energy and this new groundswell all about Black Lives Matter. Because Black lives have mattered to us as an organization for years. The moment that we actually started to talk more openly about it felt like the right moment. People respected our pause and were equally excited about supporting our efforts.
So how is fundraising going?
Worthington: This is a scary time for a lot of organizations. After Covid started and after George Floyd, we had a lot of people contacting us and a lot of interest. We were reaching out to donors, and they were responding. But the longer that some of these things go on, the harder it is.
Some of the donors that have traditionally given larger amounts, I think that they will continue to give. It’s some of our mid- to lower-level donors that are a little bit more concerning. Not because they don’t want to support the organization. But people are starting to experience a lot of changes and watch their dollars more closely and really figure out what’s a priority for them.
We don’t know how long this will last and what it will look like even six months from now. It’s fear of the unknown.
We’re talking to some of our higher-level donors and prospects about making a multi-year gift versus a one-time gift year after year. We’re coming up with plans to do that more strategically, a bigger ask for a multiyear commitment that will give us some long-term sustainability so we can continue to do the work that we’re doing in the community.
What would you like to see fundraisers and leaders talking about right now, especially when it comes to racial equity and inclusive fundraising?
Howse: I would really interrogate our best practices that relate to development. Think about who those best practices exclude and how they might be considered offensive to some communities.
Are there specific best practices you’d like to see change?
Howse: There are a number of things, but that’s part of the interrogation process. I hesitate to say, “Here are the two or three examples.” It actually alleviates the need to go deeper and understand: “Tell me what I’ve gotten wrong so I can figure it out.”
Part of your responsibility is to do your own due diligence. Start with your own internal functions to figure out what is it we don’t know and how do we improve it. There’s a whole system: how we’re asking, who are we asking or prioritizing, who we’re putting in positions.
What else should the fundraising field be talking about?
Worthington: David’s the first Black executive I’ve worked with, and I’ve only worked with one other person of color who’s a fundraiser. I don’t think there’s a lot of organizations that currently have a lot of diversity in their staff. There’s been a lot of talk of making changes. I hope it happens.
Howse: Yes. Development institutions should be really examining their “who” — who’s actually asking for money and how are they asking, and in what frame are they asking from.
It’s hard to have these kinds of conversations when your shop is homogenous, whether that’s all women, all men, all white, all Asian, all Black. Think about who are the people on your team that actually can share insight and lived experience and how much better might you be as a development shop if you had those rich and important perspectives from subordinated communities who have not often felt like they belonged in fundraising. Think about the impact that it might have on donors of color who are often not seen as prime prospects.
It sounds like you have a very collaborative way of working together. What advice do you have for other executive directors and development directors about how to build that kind of a relationship?
Howse: We talk about and model what we call shared leadership in the organization. We talk about amplifying the expertise and not the hierarchy. In spite of the hierarchy, my relationship with Shannon is as a co-leader. There are times where she leads, and there are times when I lead. That allows us to see what we each bring to the table. It’s also building a level of trust.
Knowing that Shannon has my back and her knowing that I have her back allows us to navigate even the murkiest of waters when it comes to fundraising and strategies and organizational development and infrastructure. Knowing that I can trust someone allows me to open up and share vulnerabilities, allows me to push and give constructive feedback for her development.
There are times that she is more expert than I am. And in the case of the response after the George Floyd moment, I felt that I had a little bit more lived experience. So I became the expert, and I took the lead in that moment. But we share that responsibility.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
