Letter to the Editor: For Moral and Financial Reasons, Fundraisers Need to Be More Diverse

To the Editor:

In “Philanthropic Leadership Shouldn’t Still Look like the Country-Club Set” (Opinion, April 11), the authors raised many salient points about the current state of philanthropy with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion from their vantage point as co-chairs of the D5 Coalition.

I am grateful to the D5 coalition for releasing its fifth “State of the Work” report and for raising the importance of building philanthropic organizations that reflect the diversity of society today. At the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, we are developing new initiatives and engaging in outreach activities to grow the diversity of staff who work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising, and marketing at educational institutions.

We are keenly aware that while students and alumni are increasingly diverse, a recent CASE survey showed that currently only 9 percent of staff who work in these areas in the United States on behalf of their institutions are diverse. This CASE survey showed that 21 percent of respondents had no diverse staff working in their office, and 21 percent of the respondents had fewer than one in 10 of their staff leadership represented by diverse individuals.

These are critical issues to resolve if we are to establish a donor and advocate base that reflects our individual institutions and if we are to recruit and retain professionals who mirror the student and alumni body. Institutions must build strength in their diversity and inclusion programs and create strong opportunities for success. Leadership needs to rigorously explore the cultural factors that affect diversity progress.

Where this need is not addressed, we will increasingly see potential for negative impacts on student recruitment, alumni relations, and fundraising.

There is a business imperative as well as a moral imperative to act.

Beyond dollars raised, increased alumni engagement, and social media shared, we must make diversifying our organizations a critical benchmark of success. This may include reinforcing the organization’s commitment to diversity; enhancing and growing its current inclusion efforts; and identifying key performance indicators for evaluation. We are seeing increasing awareness of and commitment to this much needed transition among our member organizations.

The good news indicated by the D5 Coalition is promising. However, there is much to be done.

Sue Cunningham

President
Council for Advancement and Support of Education
Washington