> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • An Update for Readers on Our New Nonprofit Status
Sign In
  • Latest
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
Sign In
  • Latest
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
  • Latest
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Advice
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

How Four Charities Raised Money by Collaborating, Not Competing

By  Rebecca Koenig
March 9, 2017

Charities that work on similar issues can sometimes feel like they’re fighting each other for attention and money. For small organizations that struggle to attract significant financial support, this can be especially demoralizing.

A quartet of New York City nonprofits that work to assist people affected by racism, poverty, transphobia, and homophobia are rejecting that mind-set. They share not only a commitment to economic, racial, and gender justice but also an office building and a fundraising vehicle.

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from v144.philanthropy.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Charities that work on similar issues can sometimes feel like they’re fighting each other for attention and money. For small organizations that struggle to attract significant financial support, this can be especially demoralizing.

A quartet of New York City nonprofits that work to assist people affected by racism, poverty, transphobia, and homophobia are rejecting that mind-set. They share not only a commitment to economic, racial, and gender justice but also an office building and a fundraising vehicle.

All working out of the Miss Major-Jay Toole Building for Social Justice in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, the leaders of the Audre Lorde Project, Streetwise and Safe, FIERCE, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project began planning a shared fundraising effort in 2012.

The groups wanted to build their coffers, but they also aimed to strengthen their ties to each other and honor two longtime activists who inspire their work and for whom their office building is named. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an African-American transgender woman and a veteran of the Stonewall Uprising, founded the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project. Jay Toole, a queer activist, co-founded Queers for Economic Justice and Jay’s House.

The key question driving the collaboration: How to combine resources, support each other, and reduce feelings of isolation and competition? The answer was a giving circle — a grass-roots group of donors pooling their money to support shared causes. The nonprofits established the Miss Major-Jay Toole Building Giving Circle and set a goal to raise $67,000 for all four groups, plus the activists.

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s not a traditional giving circle: Rather than outside donors, it consists of staff, board members, clients, and volunteers with the participating nonprofits. And rather than asking members to merely give money, the circle asked them to contribute time, energy, and knowledge to design a fundraising campaign that would celebrate the strengths and resources of the people they serve — people of color, youth, and LGBTQ people.

They hoped to educate donors and potential supporters about the challenges of attracting dollars to serve these groups. And they sought to teach more employees and board members how to raise money, so those skills wouldn’t be held by just a few people in the organizations.

The Process

Staff members from each organization met on several Saturdays to build relationships with each other and explore the value of the work each group does.

They shared stories about how their communities have survived oppressive conditions. They brought in trainers to help employees acknowledge and develop ways to overcome entrenched inequality that put nonprofits that serve and seek support from minorities at a financial disadvantage. And they discussed traditions, like food, art, and music, that have thrived in their low-income communities and made them special.

They decided to make this last theme the foundation for their fundraising campaign.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Events

They groups devised projects and events to “engage the community in ways that normal fundraising doesn’t,” says Krystal Portalatin, former co-director of FIERCE. “We really wanted to bring people close to us as a way of building long-term investment.”

So they created opportunities to involve their clients in projects that showcased their talents and perspectives.

First, the members of the giving circle created a quilt to represent their struggle for freedom from oppression and asked people in the community to sponsor a patch — and contribute a message to be inscribed on that patch — for $5 to $50.

Then the members organized a guided hike in Central Park on which, for $35 to $75, donors could learn how urban development has negatively affected people the nonprofits serve by limiting their access to public open spaces. The offer included a guide featuring facts about local history as well as hiking tips.

Finally, members of the circle hosted three meals with wine tastings, one each in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, asking for donations of $50 to $100. It also sold a cookbook of recipes reflecting the cultures of the people they serve.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Results

The efforts raised $40,000. Although that was short of the original target, it provided an honorarium for the two activists and bolstered the groups’ modest budgets of $500,000 to $1 million each.

More important to the organizers, though, the nonprofits successfully pooled resources, introduced themselves to new people, and conveyed the message that “you don’t have to choose, you can give to all of us,” Portalatin says.

The nonprofits plan to maintain the partnership, which Cara Page, executive director of the Audre Lorde Project, says reflects their clients’ shared “story of survival” and taught the groups how to fundraise in ways that showcase the value of their communities.

“I can’t stress enough how transformative this process has been for me,” Page says, because it revealed other forms of wealth in their communities and showed that “our worth isn’t only tied to dollars.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
AdvocacyFundraising EventsInnovationExecutive LeadershipWork and Careers
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Latest Articles
    • Get Newsletters
    • Advice
    • Webinars
    • Data & Research
    • Magazine
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Latest Articles
    • Get Newsletters
    • Advice
    • Webinars
    • Data & Research
    • Magazine
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Work at the Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Gift-Acceptance Policy
    • Site Map
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Work at the Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Gift-Acceptance Policy
    • Site Map
    • DEI Commitment Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Organizational Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Organizational Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Philanthropy
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • pinterest
  • facebook
  • linkedin