Thomas Brackeen is an introvert who likes to tuck quietly into a corner at large gatherings. But at the Nature Conservancy, he’s moved to center stage to manage the work of more than 30 of his colleagues who are tackling issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their fundraising operations. A decade after he got his start at the organization in the mailroom, Brackeen finds himself directing the development office’s top brass, among others.
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Many nonprofits establish diversity, equity, and inclusion positions in their organizational leadership. But the Nature Conservancy and a few others have introduced such roles in their advancement offices to coordinate and direct DEI work specific to fundraising. Brackeen, though relatively new to fundraising, says such a dedicated focus is necessary.
“Fundraising is about relationship building,” he says. “And DEI is embedded in relationship building. It’s getting to know a person I’ve never met before and being open to who they are.”
Brackeen came to the Nature Conservancy after he was laid off from a job during the Great Recession. He took the entry-level mailroom position but told his boss that he had the skills and ambition to do more. He moved to an administrative role in the development office but still explored other parts of the organization and considered roles in event management, information technology, and finance. “I was still trying to figure out what it was that I was passionate about,” he says.
Brackeen found that passion almost by chance in DEI training called “engaging across differences.” He dug deeply into the dialogue about race and gender and found that he was talking — a lot. “I shocked myself,” he says.
A youth pastor at an African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Brackeen continued his DEI exploration when he later joined a Nature Conservancy partnership with Green the Church, a nonprofit that taps the Black faith community as a catalyst for environmental work. Then, a little more than a year ago, Brackeen was asked to manage Nature Conservancy’s DEI efforts in development.
Fundraising is largely driven by deadlines and portfolios. DEI work is measured by culture change.
Four groups of staff members have just created the first action plans on issues including donor and staff diversity, discrimination and harassment, and office culture. An African American man, he wants to see more racial diversity in the staff and among donors, but the organization is also looking at gender and age, among other things. The overarching question, he says: “How can we become an organization more reflective of what society will look like in the next 20 to 30 years?”
Behind the scenes, next steps include efforts to diversify the pool of job candidates through expanded and targeted recruitment, anti-bias training for hiring managers, and efforts to give new staff a sense of belonging.
Other ongoing work: creating a fundraiser “bill of rights.” Brackeen and the others are discussing topics that include how to protect fundraisers from verbal abuse and sexual advances.
Brackeen sets meeting agendas for each of the groups and develops timelines for enacting plans and reaching their goals. He also assesses the scope of each group’s work and helps determine what resources and staff hours are needed.
Brackeen says the metrics and outcomes-focused nature of fundraising makes DEI work all the more challenging. “Fundraising is largely driven by deadlines and portfolios — how much money did a particular fundraiser raise this particular year? Or are we able to meet this organizational fundraising goal at the end of the year?” he says. “DEI work is not measured by that. DEI work is largely measured by culture change.”
And culture, he notes, doesn’t change quickly. “We can’t rush people to get to a certain place,” he says. “A challenge for any organization is to exercise patience.”
