Cultivating Diverse Donors Requires Cultural Sensitivity and Common Sense

Wealthy African-American, Asian-American, and Latino donors often have differing attitudes and habits when it comes to charitable giving, according to a recent report.

Changing demographics mean such donors are providing critical new pipelines of support for nonprofits, say experts. But cultivating diverse donors takes cultural awareness and a talent for relating to people from all kinds of backgrounds. At the same time, it requires the ability to treat people as individuals while avoiding assumptions based on race or ethnicity. Regardless of a donor’s race, ethnicity, or other identifying factor, his or her behavior is unlikely to conform to stereotypes.

Instead of looking at a group of wealthy donors in a homogeneous way, view them as individuals first, keeping in mind that their ethnicity is important but not necessarily the only aspect by which they define themselves, says Sergio Gonzalez, a former University of Miami senior vice president for advancement who now serves in the same role at Brown University.

However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore ethnicity and take a one-size-fits-all approach to fundraising, says Christine Oh, director of development at the Korean-American Community Foundation.

“With ethnic or multicultural donors, there’s an additional element to think about and consider,” says Ms. Oh. “If you take everything you know about fundraising and use that for those donors without taking into account their cultural context, then there are problems” that may limit the amount of money you raise.

For Latino and Asian-American donors in particular, the cultural context often centers on immigrant experiences. Second- and third-generation donors likely watched their parents or grandparents work low-wage jobs and navigate prejudice and language barriers, so they have a strong desire to honor the previous generation.

Ms. Oh says that comes up a lot with her donors, who are usually not interested in getting recognition for themselves.

“If we say we want to recognize you for what you did, that only goes so far,” she says. “But if we say we want to honor your parents or someone who helped with your success, they’re all over that.”

Her Asian-American donors are also attracted to giving programs that let them donate with their peers as a group.

“We’re a very community-oriented people. We want to give together and be part of something,” she says. “We don’t want to give in this silent, individual way, so the more you can do things together and in public, the more successful you’ll be with Asian-Americans.”

The organization’s donors also have a competitive streak, says Ms. Oh, so her group introduces a competitive element into some of its fundraising events — such as live auctions — that make raising money entertaining for donors.

Mr. Gonzalez was lauded at the University of Miami for his success at cultivating a stable of wealthy Latino donors, many of whom were not alumni. Despite his success at raising money from these philanthropists, he says there is no silver bullet to capturing the attention of wealthy Latino donors, who are just as likely to give to causes connected to their backgrounds as they are to any other type of nonprofit.

He says for larger nonprofits, knowing how long a Latino donor has lived in the United States might be a better indicator of potential interests and could help you develop a plan to begin cultivating them.

“If they’ve been here for a while, you approach them as you would anyone else,” he says. “For more recent arrivals, you have to work harder to engage them in the community of the organization.”

For example, telethons and emotional appeals are popular fundraising tools in Latin American countries. Donors there are used to opening their wallets to help survivors of natural disasters or in response to publicized emotional appeals to help the needy. But they’re far less familiar than donors in the United States with giving to large institutions like universities.

Fundraisers at institutional nonprofits must work harder to get these donors involved and to understand how giving here works, says Mr. Gonzalez.

The best way to do that is to build relationships, get to know a donor’s interests and concerns, and get extra help from board members or other supporters with similar backgrounds, he says.

“Get them connected to others so they can start to see how the community works, and connect them more personally to the organization,” he says. “The Hispanic community can be very loyal to organizations and people they connect with, so steward, steward, steward.”

While connecting donors with others who share their backgrounds is a good tool, it is not critical that fundraisers share the same ethnicity as the donors they’re trying to cultivate. It helps, but experts say getting too hung up on that can hamstring the relationship.

“Don’t think that because you don’t reflect the donor that you can’t cultivate that donor,” says Darryl Lester, a fundraising consultant who founded Community Investment Network, an organization that fosters giving circles of African-American donors. “Sometimes we think we can’t be effective if we aren’t the same, but that’s a myth.”

Mr. Lester echoes Mr. Gonzalez’s view that success cultivating ethnically diverse donors comes down to relationship building and going the extra mile to find out what matters to them, just as you would anyone else. However, Mr. Lester cautions fundraisers to avoid potential bias against African-American philanthropists.

“In the nonprofit sector, we’re good at connecting with folks of color when they’re on the receiving end, but when we’re approaching them from the supply side, that’s something else,” says Mr. Lester.

He says it is important for fundraisers who are not black to view African-Americans as potential donors because many — wealthy or otherwise — grew up in families with a culture of giving. Nonprofits that ignore those donors, or make assumptions about what they will or will not support, may lose out, he says.

There is also a lingering misconception that wealthy African-Americans’ giving priorities center on their church, but a lot of black people don’t attend church, says Mr. Lester, and even if they do, they are likely to give to other causes as well.

K-12 and higher education and youth programs remain popular causes among those donors, and re-entry programs for people who have been incarcerated represent a growing area of interest, he says.

He cautions fundraisers to be alert to complicated issues that can arise among wealthy black donors.

“Among donors of color, you have some who are giving because it leverages their reputation, so you may find they don’t give that much to their community, and their giving mirrors their white counterparts,” he adds.

Those who support smaller affinity organizations may keep those gifts quiet because they don’t want to be typecast or judged. The lesson here is not to assume you have a full picture of a donor’s philanthropy until you get to know them.

Take the time, says Mr. Lester, to find out who they are, who they know, their family connections, what they’re passionate about, how they gained their professional reputation, what boards they serve on, and other civic involvement.

“It’s going about building relationships with people the way we build relationships in general,” says Mr. Lester. “That’s the challenge for folks; it’s how intentional you are in using your time to connect with another group.”