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Titre
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23 Mar 2021
Bringing Community to Communications w Sarah Durham
00:37:11
Sarah Durham shares several great resources that we’ve listed below...here are links for content and references mentioned in the show:
Michelle talks with Sarah Durham founder of Big Duck, a Brooklyn, New York-based nonprofit communications firm.
Communications: Sarah says, “...in a nonprofit, communications is the practice of creating and sustaining mind share and engagement that advances the mission...communications is not always just about how you communicate with people who are outside of your organization, it can even be about internal communications, how you communicate inside your organization”
Brand: Sarah says, ”...the best way to understand branding in a nonprofit context is to think of your organization's brand as your organization's voice. And again, your brand is a part of your communications. It's one of three outcomes that a successful communications program can drive. So how does your organization write and design and speak about itself? How do you explain the whole story that is your organization not just a particular program?”
Marketing: Sarah says, “marketing is actually a slice of communications, but communications isn't even bigger tent than marketing. Marketing is usually about getting a pretty particular group of people to take an action, oftentimes like become a member or come to an event or sign up for something.”
Great advice to leaders of nonprofits: “...a lot of people who are responsible for directing communications in nonprofits, like an executive director, for instance, or a leadership team, don't have any formal background in marketing or communications. And they probably don't have a budget to hire somebody with deep expertise in marketing and communications... I wrote this book is to encourage an organization and the leader of the organization or leaders to think about what the outcomes you want to achieve are, what communications can actually achieve for your organization or how it can help advance your mission.”
About throwing volunteers at communications: “...the organizations I've seen use volunteers really well are organizations where there's somebody within the organization who is able to be really clear about the goal of communicating and make sure they've got the right volunteers with the right skill sets and the right expertise who are working in a coordinated way, not just in an ad hoc, choose your own adventure way.”
Check out this ebook Sarah mentions - available free!
The thing about this podcast is that it is self-funded! So if you love it, consider joining us on Patreon, and passing along to your friends and colleagues. Of course, it is super helpful to us too, when you subscribe on your fav pod player, and rate us! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com
02 Mar 2022
How I Figured Out I Suffer From Toxic Productivity, ft. Marina Martinez-Bateman
00:44:18
Follow the Ethical Rainmaker on Instagram, Twitter, listen wherever podcasts are found, and consider supporting the Ethical Rainmaker through Patreon!
Marina Martinez-Batemanis a communications strategy consultant with over 20 years motivating people to take action. They are a serial entrepreneur, having started their work life and first business at the age of 13, and having created, consulted on, planned, and launched multiple business and projects
Marina’s businesses and hustle is about making money — without sacrificing their principles or values — which is really hard to do! They are a popular speaker, trainer, and peer mentor in the industry around topics like #abundance, #mentalhealth, #latinxleaders, #accountability, and #valuesbasedleadership.
A lot of our content in this episode was story form — thank you so much to Marina for sharing their deeply personal stories!
The Ethical Rainmaker is a podcast, hosted by Michelle Shireen Muri, that explores the world of inequity in nonprofits and philanthropy, including where we should step into our power or step out of the way! It is my desire and effort to bring zero-cost information, case studies, and inspiration to everyone in the third sector — especially those who want to do better on this journey.
30 Mar 2022
The Truth About Cancel Culture (and an alternative approach) ft Kevin Baker
00:37:41
Kevin Baker is bringing that rich voice and beautiful mindset to The Ethical Rainmaker! Kevin is a consultant whose mission focuses on making sure people can bring their authentic cultural selves to the workplace, creating healthier, more open workspaces that better serve employees and their clients. And he does this all through a diversity and inclusion lens.
Thank you so much to Kevin for all the deep work you have done and for the work you do!!
The Ethical Rainmaker is a podcast, hosted by Michelle Shireen Muri, that explores the world of inequity in nonprofits and philanthropy, including where we should step into our power or step out of the way! It is my desire and effort to bring zero-cost information, case studies, and inspiration to everyone in the third sector — especially those who want to do better on this journey.
12 May 2021
Reparations and Truth Telling w Dr David Ragland
00:44:39
Dr. David Ragland is an inspirational figure and activist in the new reparations and reconciliation movements…and there is so much GOLD in this episode and so many references...it will take longer than I have capacity for to document it all for this episode. That’s the beauty we get when talking with professional educators. Here are major themes:
These are the five areas outlined by the UN for reparation:
Compensation
Restitution
Satisfaction
Guarantees of Non-Repeat
Healing
Need to know:
HR 40: HR 40 is proposed legislation - the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. The legislation, which was first introduced nearly 30 years ago, establishes a commission to examine slavery and discrimination in the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. It refers to the broken promise of 40 acres and a mule, to freed slaves, by General Sherman, in 1865. In the US there has never been significant truth and reconciliation actions taken for enslavement or for native american genocide, as there have been in other countries like South Africa has, for apartheid.
The newly elected Congresswoman Corey Bush (Missouri) and Dr. Ragland co-founded the Truth Telling Project with her after meeting during the Ferguson protests.
Resmaa Menakem is mentioned and of course we love his body of work including his book “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies” which Fleur Larsen mentioned in Season 1. You can check out his interview with Krista Tippet too.
Reparations is the repair of moral and material harm.
The Truth Telling Project: A truth process or healing, created as a response to police violence.
In this episode we say the names of these remembered folx who have been murdered by police and those whose names are not said, will not be forgotten. I’ve tried to link to pieces that share a bit about who they were...
And this is my favorite quote, because we, societally, never talk about what was stolen...and often we refer to it as bringing “civilization” right? DR: "I'm kidnapping you Kuta Kente. Now, your name is Toby. Your religion is Christianity. And you can't play drum no more. You can't cook the food you ate no more. Your kids are going to be slaves, and their kids are going to be slaves.”
MM: “And they will learn nothing of your culture previously because it will be outlawed for you to practice it.”
NOTE: So we’re learning that this podcast is becoming part of university curriculum across the US and Canada! If you happen to be studying this episode, and want to add more links related to this episode...email us! hello@theethicalrainmaker.com because if you are doing the research anyway… ;)
We are self-funded. So. If you’d like to inspire this beautiful series through your financial contribution - we’ll take it on Patreon!
Subscribe to this podcast to get the best of what we have to offer.I promise there are more incredible episodes on their way - every other Wednesday.
The Ethical Rainmaker is produced in Seattle, Washington by Kasmira Hall, and Isaac Kaplan-Woolner, and socials by Rachelle Pierce. Michelle Shireen Muri is the executive producer and this pod is sponsored by Freedom Conspiracy.
28 Apr 2021
Billionaires, DAFs, and the Changing Face of Philanthropy w Teddy Schleifer of Vox's Recode
00:42:10
Teddy Schleifer is a journalist for Vox’s recode, covering what billionaires in the Silicon Valley are doing with their money.
Teddy works for Vox as a journalist and hosts the podcast Recode Daily
He says his reason for covering billionaires = “just as reporters cover poverty in America, reporters must also cover and uncover wealth in America - offering the scrutiny that informs essential debates about income inequality, money in politics, and the role of private philanthropy. If we don’t have a common set of facts about how the wealthiest people in society spend their money or live their lives, then we are just shooting in the dark - arguing based on press releases, unfounded suspicions and our set-in-stone prior beliefs.”
Teddy would love to hear from you with hot tips about badly behaved foundations or billionaires! Or anything else alarming in philanthropy. Hit him up.
References:
During the pandemic, the number of billionaires spiked by 30%. Around the time of this podcast recording in Spring 2021, there is a record high of 2,755 billionaires. 86% of those billionaires are richer than they were a year ago.
We discussed the relative wealth of MacKenzie Scott who has given $5.8B (the single largest gift in the history of the US), but still gained in wealth in 2020.
DAFs: As Teddy explains, a Donor Advised Fund, essentially serves as a place to set money aside for charity, “and the money then goes to charity later. It could be much later.” (it could also be never and keep power in the hands of family members.) There is over $140B sitting in Donor Advised Funds in the US.
Of the billionaires he covers, he recently spoke with who was relatively surprised to see how he could influence the presidential election with his donations
Larry Page, is listed as one of the billionaires ($80-$100B Net Worth in a given day) that places the minimum 5% payout from his foundation, into a DAF, literally with no benefit to society at this time. He’s the worst case scenario. He’s a cofounder of Google.
Teddy warns us that we have very little information about what billionaires are doing with their money, and that this lack of information is getting even worse!
Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook “...is probably the most prominent billionaire philanthropist in effective altruism, and he's in his thirties, but he has a clear point of view on what he wants to do with the money and is working on it.”
Here is the interview with young Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried who talks about influencing the Biden election
Stephanie Ellis-Smith of Philanthropy NW/The Giving Practice in Seattle, was listed as a philanthropy consultant who talks about “analysis paralysis”
Jack Dorsey has a new charitable effort called Start Small, which is taking a lot of criticism because of its gifts to other celebrities.
We are self-funded. So. If you’d like to inspire this beautiful series through your financial contribution - we’ll take it on Patreon!
Subscribe to this podcast to get the best of what we have to offer.I promise there are more incredible episodes on their way - every other Wednesday.
The Ethical Rainmaker is produced in Seattle, Washington by Kasmira Hall, and Isaac Kaplan-Woolner, and socials by Rachelle Pierce. Michelle Shireen Muri is the executive producer and this pod is sponsored by Freedom Conspiracy.
21 Oct 2020
The Racist Roots of NonProfits and Philanthropy w Christina Shimizu
00:31:46
Episode Summary
“Faulty.” “Problematic.” “Racist.” In this episode, we talk about why these terms are now regularly used to describe the foundations that the nonprofit and philanthropic systems were built upon. Guest Christina Shimizu, a co-founder of Community-Centric Fundraising, briefly explores the relatively recent history of how these systems came to be, why they are built on deep injustices and how philanthropy and nonprofits are actually a political and economic system.
Unpack all of this with us! If we don’t examine how these things came to be, we can never hope to reimagine them, improve them or do better, to benefit the communities we are trying to serve.
Christina is Director of Individual Giving at The Wing Luke Museum a gorgeous cultural gem (and museum,) documenting the Asian-American experience.
In this pod, the example of how 130 Chinese railroad workers built their own home comes from this history of building the museum is now housed.
You can get in touch with Christina via Twitter @chrissyshimizoo
References:
Stifled Generosity is a great timeline by Justice Funders - its full title is “Stifled Generosity: How Philanthropy Has Fueled The Accumulation And Privatization of Wealth” - Christina refers to it outside of this episode!
Participatory Budgeting is a concept we didn’t cover but is so critical to the conversation - check out these national leaders: https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/
Definition of Political Economy of Philanthropy: “A practice of philanthropy that is formalized and works hand in hand with the nonprofit industrial complex “
Definition of Nonprofit Industrial Complex: “The structure of how our nonprofits operate institutionally with philanthropy and with different private/public forms of funding to create the structure of what we call the nonprofit industrial complex”
Inquiry: What forms of colonial power turned into different economic policies, that then turned into different tax codes, that then turned into a whole system and structure that we experienced today? Understanding the root of it and how it evolved gives us a clearer understanding of what it is that is working, that isn’t working and how we can have some agency and power in moving forward so that it can work better for our communities.
Consider: Philanthropy and nonprofits as: a political system, an economic system, a culturally informed system.
Political analysis: Consider that a risk-reduction model that so many of our nonprofits proffer, is not furthering economic justice.
Consider: Systemic poverty cannot be solved by nonprofits that deal with harm reduction or trying to care for immediate and survival needs of people. If we are not focused on what our communities need in order to thrive…
Extractive Practices Created Wealth Accumulation: Many philanthropists accumulated money through utilization of extractive economies: extracting and exploiting labor, exploiting land, stealing land from indigenous peoples, genocide, kidnapping people from Africa, tearing famlilies apart, breaking up culture and exploiting them as enslaved people, exploitation of immigrant labor. <= These were listed by Christina in the mini-pod and you can also learn about this in Edgar Villanueva’s book Decolonizing Wealth
Redlining and exclusionary practices were used to withhold access to resources from communities of color
Modern Liberalism: Strong political support for economic regulation of the economy, opposition of tax cuts, expansion of public programs (therefore government takes greater role in healthcare, education, housing etc), extension of civil liberties
Neoliberalism: Political and economic philosophy that supports deregulation, privatization and tax cutting. No regulation on the capitalist economy, aka the “free market.” Privatization of things that are offered in the public sphere, like education, health care, telecommunications, and banks — and, that all of these should be operating in the competitive free market, not operated by government (government shrinks). Also support cutting taxes to hypothetically create incentives for businesses to invest in themselves and job creation. Neoliberalism is currently the dominant political and economic ideology of both Democrats and Republicans for over the last 40 years.
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. The purpose is Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
17 Feb 2021
Spilling the Tea on UK Fundraising w Fixing Fundraising's Andy and Tom
00:48:09
While many awful nonprofit practices exist, Andy and Tom are doing their work as responsible white men in our sector, to unpack what is really happening in nonprofits and philanthropy and use their platforms for good - so that we can all do better. So many great assets mentioned in this episode, here are links for content and definitions mentioned in the show:
Here is the article by Baroness Stowell, Chair of The Charity Commission, titled: “If you want to improve lives through charity, leave political fights out of it” (posted on the conservative site, The Daily Mail)
(And here is an article by my colleague Cami Aurioles title “Nonprofits Can’t Engage In Political Advocacy At All, You Say? Wrong. We Can And We Must” as posted on CommunityCentricFundraising.org)
Saddiq Khan, Mayor of London, took a lot of shit for allowing “political” content into the NYE celebration, there are dozens of videos and articles about it.
Captain Tom (Moore) and his recognition that the NHS (National Health Service) wasn’t resourced well enough during this pandemic, as well as his instigation of a mega fundraising campaign (1.5 million individual donations totaling over $32.79M Pounds ($45.47M Dollars), was one of the topics we touched on. Captain Tom, at 100 years old, passed away from COVID-19 related illness on February 2nd, 2021. May he rest in peace.
Andy recommends listening to the Do More Good podcast, and specifically, Episode 62 with Ellie Orton and NHS Charities Together
The Royals: Prince Andrew’s fall from grace, Prince Williams is the patron for Centrepoint, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to Hollywood and started this pod we haven’t listened to yet...
Andy refers to this article “Having a royal patron doesn’t pay for charities” (open in incognito mode for easy access)
As a side, Tom mentions that Tea came from India, but he probably meant that a lot of tea has been imported to the UK from India from the late 1800s on. Deeper history = England’s involvement in tea actually originated in China. Check out this riveting quick history. I promise it's worth it. You might learn that the East India Company intentionally got Chinese addicted to Opium in order to get tea for a price they could afford, which was the colonization of India. The story involves mass murder/war and slavery. Fucked up. And the reason why certain tea-growing regions (like Assam) are some of the economically and socially devastated places in the world. Sarah Rose’s has a brilliant book about it, called For All The Tea In China. It's okay. The way I grew up I thought tea was Iranian. #themoreyouknow
Definitions:
The Charity Commision as defined by Andy: “...it's’ the gov’t body that checks that charities are doing with their money what they’re meant to be doing. They check that there’s no fraud, they check that there’s no corruption, and they check that everything is operating as it should. In principle, that’s a brilliant body to have. It should really help public trust in charity and it should be something that really keeps everyone moving towards the right goals. And you will notice that I have said should, rather than does.”
“Fiat Money” as defined by Wikipedia is any money accepted by a government for paying taxes or debt, but is not pegged to or backed directly by gold or other valuables (fiat money systems have no gold standard. Fiat money does not have significant intrinsic value or use value (inherent utility, such as a cow or beaver pelt might have.”
“Barmy” as defined by Urban Dictionary, means eccentric, daft, insane, crazy, not quite right in the head
RAF = Royal Air Force
“Knighthood” Here are the “Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom”
Brexit = In case you have been living under a rock since that awful day in 2016, the UK voted itself away from the EU for probably racist reasons including anti-immigrant sentiment. Here is an article about it. Oh and just like in the US after Trump’s election, racism became more overt in Britain as racists felt empowered by the move.
“Fag packet” is really just a pack of cigarettes. Not a slur.
Gratitude to Trick Candles for letting us use this song I love called “I’m Gold"
The thing about this podcast is that it is self-funded! So if you love it, consider joining us on Patreon, and passing along to your friends and colleagues. Of course, it is super helpful to us too, when you subscribe on your fav pod player, and rate us! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com
02 Feb 2022
How I Became An Accidental Sweatshop Overlord w Kristina Wong
00:30:22
Kristina Wong does some pretty incredible things with her life energy and creativity - damn!
In this episode we talked about several bodies of work she has created including:
The Auntie Sewing Squad
The massive mutual-aid network of volunteers across the United States, sewing homemade masks for vulnerable communities - like asylum seekers on the border, which Kristina started. In early 2022 they are still sewing and involve hundreds of Aunties, shipping thousands of masks to vulnerable communities across the US.
The Book = Auntie Sewing Squad: Mask Making, Radical Care, Racial Justice (released 2021) talks about America’s pursuit of global empire at the cost of its citizens, the significance of women of color performing a historically gendered and racialized invisible labor…
Art to Action, as the generous fiscal sponsor for The Auntie Sewing Squad
Wild Harvest Food Bank is an LA food bank, operates as a grocery store for all, and their CEO Glen Corrado,
$50 p/month food challenge, where she survives on that budget every month!
Upcoming Project? Kristina plans a concept called Food Bank Influencer working on perhaps a food bank performance space to benefit the Navajo Nation - a nation which she reports, has only 13 grocery stores spread across three states serving 300,000 tribal citizens.
09 Sep 2020
Tokenism is NOT Transformation w Chuck Warpehoski
00:32:29
Whether as a well-meaning convener of community efforts to help or as part of a community which is asked to help and then treated poorly, many of us can see ourselves in this episode. This show featured useful definitions and examples - here are links for content mentioned in the show (and check out our new Patreon page now!):
Michelle talks with Chuck Warpehoski DEI Consultant at ChangeWorks LLC, and former City Councilman in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Community-Centric Fundraising is a movement around building new fundraising models grounded in equity and social justice.
Tokenism: When a candidate for a position is symbolically chosen based on their demographic representation (bringing “diversity”, but the candidate is expected to act the same way, make the same decisions or ultimately oppress parts or all of themselves.
Community as Unpaid Consultants: When community members who have a stake in the solution, are asked to share time, expertise and connections (consulting) without pay. Also mentioned: In these scenarios folx are often left out of the final decision-making process and they often don’t get to hear about the impact their unpaid labor had.
The Akimbo Workshops by Seth Godin were the catalyst for both the creation of this podcast and for Chuck and Michelle connecting
Gratitude to Young-Chhaylee for letting us use their song “You Are Not Alone" throughout this episode - so sweet...find them on Insta or FB or Bandcamp!
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, rating us, sharing it out to friends and colleagues or supporting this self-funded podcast through Patreon! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
21 Sep 2022
Is ‘Impact Investing’ Just About Stroking Egos? w/ Bob Osborne
00:38:55
Big money is thrown around when it comes to impact investing, but are these ‘incubators for social impact projects’ and ‘five-star conferences’ actually doing anything other than stroking egos? In this ep, Michelle and The Osborne Group’s Bob Osborne discuss their experiences and analysis!
31 Mar 2021
Deschooling and Decolonization w/ Akilah Richards
00:51:17
Akilah Richards shares several great resources that we’ve listed below...here are links for content and references mentioned in the show:
If you become a fan and want to support her work, check out this fresh link and her Patreon.
References then Definitions:
Unschooling: “... a child-trusting, anti-oppression, liberatory, love-centered approach to parenting and care giving. It also is about creating and expanding communities of confident, capable people who understand how they learn best and how to work collaboratively to learn and solve things. Because it really is, before you talk about learning, it's about trust, it's about looking at what liberation means intergenerationally, which includes learning, but not only that. And it's about love. What does it mean if love is not just about my intention, but about something that's actually surrounded by this ecology of accountability where I'm actually listening to the people who I'm loving on and what they're saying and what they need, and then my love in action is shaped by that. All of those things are really what I understand unschooling to be.”
Deschooling: ”.....shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people's agency over your time, body, thoughts or actions. It's also ... Yes. It's also about designing and practicing beliefs that align with your desire to thrive, be happy and succeed. And those are the opposite of what has happened and continues to happen, because it's happening still, colonization.”
Student hood vs Personhood: “Much of what we do is to think about what would it mean if I wasn't thinking about my child just from the perspective of student?.....So, when you start to do that work on your own self, in part by not focusing so much on your child's studenthood, then you start to make the connection between the actual human, the child human, and some of the things that they're advocating for or the things they're pushing back against. You just start to really humanize your relationship intergenerationally in a way that makes it so that you can partner with a young person around their learning journey, which may or may not include school. It still might include it, but it brings in other things that are usually not a part of school, like consent and agency, confident autonomy, the nuances of what it means to collaborate in an environment that tells you that if you help somebody, you're going to get in trouble and they're going to get in trouble. Which is the most anti-humane thing ever.” “And what we're talking about now is moving away from young people needing to perform studenthood and their right to be violated as humans, and instead looking at a way that integrates the same stuff we talk about as adults when we're in our 30s and 40s and 50s trying to get to who am I? What are my boundaries? How do I show up in the world in a way that is both affirming for me and welcoming for the sort of energies that I want to be part of? What happens when I'm super uncomfortable with someone or I don't understand or don't like, yet we have a common goal that we need to work through? These are real life situations that we do not get practice with in school.”
Schoolishness: “The ways that we together are so colonized. We want a leader, we want somebody needs to be right, one person's talking, the other people are listening. We do a lot of inhumane things that have become so normalized. And they didn't just appear in adulthood, they didn't just happen when you got that job with that one person. These are things that happen throughout our schooled lives. I call these things schoolishness. Not because they are rooted in school, but oftentimes school is where they are perpetuated.”
Ecology of accountability: “...we find that in the self-directed spaces that's often one of the things that's missing. It's like your intentions are there and then you have some resources and you see a need the way that you define it, so you go do something. Okay, but you need to be involved. So, we talked about this a little bit at the top of our conversation. Whoever it is that you feel like you want to impact, how can you get into community with them? Right now. How can you get in community with them?”
The thing about this podcast is that it is self-funded! So if you love it, consider joining us on Patreon, and passing along to your friends and colleagues. Of course, it is super helpful to us too, when you subscribe on your fav pod player, and rate us! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com
04 Nov 2020
Heal Yourself to Transform Society
00:35:07
If our goal is to be in community and work with or help others, we must first work within ourselves - taking on the healing process to not recreate the patterns that have oppressed us. Healer, facilitator, and npo executive Victoria Santos describes her journey through personal trauma and burnout through community organizing and her holistic healing journey. We dropped a lot of references, so here are links for some of the content we mentioned in the show (and sign up for our mailing list to get ahold of episodes early and learn more about these topics):
Michelle talks with Victoria Santos a deep healer, community organizer, facilitator, coach and npo leader
While she has practiced many modalities of healing, she studied grief rituals with Sibonfu Somé for 10 years, a Burkinabe author and teacher (her wiki, her site)
We mentioned Commonweal and its gathering that takes place annually in Bolinas, California
“The quality of the intervention is directly related to the capacity of the intervener.” Otto Schumer
Orland Bishop is a spiritual teacher and Los Angeles social activist Victoria collaborates with. She described his much used phrase “Sawubona” as translating into the larger question of “who do I need to be so that you could be yourself?”
Victoria and Orland are working towards building a spiritual center near Los Angeles (There are many places to find Orland online, including here.)
Gratitude to Tres Leches (and here) for letting us use their song “No Llores" throughout this episode!
Join the CCF Slack Channel and #theethicalrainmaker to have a conversation!
Thank you so much for listening! Support The Ethical Rainmaker podcast by
if you have the flow, subscribing to it on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
01 Dec 2022
Patagonia did WHAT? ft Andy King
00:48:10
"If you're giving back, maybe you should just stop taking." Wow, so much to say about current events in the world of nonprofits and philanthropy including ridiculous claims and unethical, dishonest behavior from UK's famous BrewDog, dishonest partnership and tokenization at Forterra in Seattle, the relationship between extractive practices, power hoarding and Patagonia, and beloved Captain Tom and his daughter, mourning through greed! Show notes can be found at theethicalrainmaker.com
Learn about upcoming collaborations between Michelle and guests like Andy King, Mallory Mitchell, Fleur Larsen, Rachel D'Souza-Siebert and more - at http://www.theethicalrainmaker.com/
26 May 2021
Surthrival w Kishshana Palmer
00:44:32
References
Kishshana Palmer is a motivating and inspiring figure in nonprofit leadership speaking globally about topics like recruiting and retaining diverse talent, diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, leadership, managing high-performance teams and wellness.
Michelle mentioned episodes of The Ethical Rainmaker that feature Teddy Schleifer re: Billionaires, and Anna Rebecca Lopez and Vu Le re: Decolonizing Data.
The Rooted Collaborative holds The Rooted Retreat in July each year...women of color can join now…
Need to know:
NOTE: So we’re learning that this podcast is becoming part of university curriculum across the US and Canada! If you happen to be studying this episode, and want to add more links related to this episode...email us! hello@theethicalrainmaker.com because if you are doing the research anyway… ;)
We are self-funded. So. If you’d like to inspire this beautiful series through your financial contribution - we’ll take it on Patreon!
Subscribe to this podcast to get the best of what we have to offer.I promise there are more incredible episodes on their way - every other Wednesday.
The Ethical Rainmaker is produced in Seattle, Washington by Isaac Kaplan-Woolner and Kasmira Hall, with socials by Rachelle Pierce. Michelle Shireen Muri is the executive producer and this pod is sponsored by Freedom Conspiracy.
14 Apr 2021
Rewind: White Women as Gatekeepers w/ Fleur Larsen
00:38:26
While many awful DEI practices exist, Fleur has built a reputation of accountability and truly showing up. She mentions many great assets in this episode, which we've linked to below. Check out her upcoming workshops here.
Michelle talks with Fleur Larsen, a facilitator and DEI consultant with a great rep
We mentioned Lola’s Ink, a new podcast by Jenna Hanchard which also features a great story from Jenna and guest Jodi-Ann Burey => In A World Full of Karens Be An Elizabeth...check it out!
Fleur talked about The Crown Act, created in 2019 to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and styles like braids, locs, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools. Yes, this is still happening.
Gratitude to Falon Sierra for letting us use her new song “Sprained Ankles" throughout this episode - its so good right?
Are these episodes helpful? Do you feel inspired, touched or moved? If so, consider inspiring our team with your financial contribution at Patreon! And as always, write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
18 Nov 2022
Are We Even Evaluating What Matters? ft Dr Marcia Coné
00:47:58
Traditional philanthropy has been asking nonprofits to jump through ridiculous and paternalistic hoops since its inception. But as movements like CCF require institutions to rethink how we do our work, we are not questioning our evaluation and metrics practices! In a world where tech money wants us to quantify our work, what is truly meaningful and how do we change!? Michelle talks with Marcia about Equitable Evaluation Framework and how our practices are so wrong and how to do better.
16 Feb 2022
Why honesty is my favorite form of poetry w Matthew Cuban Hernandez
00:34:36
Matthew Cuban Hernandez, is an award winning poet, emcee, performance artist and storyteller…. a rapper, actor and performance coach, as well as the author of:
As a performer, Cuban has opened for artists like Wu-Tang, and he’s been featured on BuzzFeed, NPR and tv spots.
A teaching artist for nearly ten years, Matthew has spent the last six years working in youth detention centers across Los Angeles County, and is currently serving as:
A lot of our content in this episode was story form and on many different topics but here are notes on…
Honesty
“My favorite form of poetry is honesty” - Matthew Cuban Hernandez Matthew says that he believes honesty is a form of poetry in part because we so rarely hear it or experience it, even with ourselves” When you hear true honestly, it's like oh my god its beautiful.”
At minute 8:08 Matthew talks about when it is an isn’t helpful to be honest, healthy dialogue…
He also talks about how we are afraid to be openly wrong, that we [societally] don't allow room for that growth or building to happen b/c we want to be correct and we are scared of expressing an honest feeling and have others make us feel “less than.”
He also talks about the honesty of correcting narratives ex: @ 11:19, when 90% of the people in youth detention are Black and brown kids, the kids might think “oh, well white kids must not do crime.” But Matthew points out the necessity of honesty here too “that’s not the actuality of what you are dealing with. There is a whole pipeline set up to have you right here right now…” “its not just you vs the judge/officers/another block/the GED system/trying to get a job/the college system. Understanding that these things are symbiotic is a big step in the right direction.
15 Jul 2020
Welcome to The Ethical Rainmaker
00:03:19
Join us as we explore some of the practices that undermine our missions and navigate the way forward with today's resisters, reimaginers and re-creators of the Third Sector. It's time to think differently!
Follow @theethicalrainmaker on Insta or FB and sign up for our list to get updates!
17 Nov 2021
Shattering Fragility w Liz LeClair
01:03:41
Welcome to Season 3 of The Ethical Rainmaker a podcast that explores the world of inequity in nonprofits and philanthropy including where we should step into our power or step out of the way! It is part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost information, case studies and inspiration, to everyone in the third sector, and especially those who know or are learning that we’ve been complicit in upholding some problematic practices, and maybe some dishonestly but want to do better on this journey. If you like what you are listening to and want to support this work, find us here on Patreon or email us at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com to talk about sponsorship!
In this episode, Michelle talks with Liz LeClair a fundraiser and vocal advocate for human rights gender equality and social justice. We love Liz , who hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we’re happy to have so many links/citations for you (and you can sign up for our mailing list here):
Liz has been writing spicy articles and pushing for justice for years now tho...here are some greats that awaken our sector to some of the injustices we perpetuate:
Liz LeClair: ‘This is the apology we deserve’ (The Charity Report)
The National Day of Conversation #NDOC is a full-day of digital conversation focused on the issue of sexual harassment and assault of fundraisers in the charitable and nonprofit sector. Liz co-founded this effort in Fall 2019 Liz to highlight the issue of sexualized violence in fundraising.
The Bysander Effect: is the theory that folx are less likely to offer help to a victim if there are other people around (someone else must be taking care of it.)
Mallory Mitchell is Resource Mobilization Director at Black Visions and an overall badass currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (US.) Here is our InstaLive
Ann Rosenfield was the lead for Congress that year. She is an outspoken advocate and ally, and the editor of Hilborn News.
Collecting Courage: A book written by Black Fundraisers in Canada, about the joy, love, pain and freedom in this work - archiving and building the narratives of Black folx in this sector. Published in 2020 and edited by Nneka Allen (guest on S2:E2), Camila Vital Nunes Pereira and Nicole Salmon)
Gail Picco has written extensively around issues of equity, race, gender, and philanthropy, and worked closely with the authors of Collecting Courage to bring that book to reality. I highly recommend following her.
Shanaaz Gokool is the former CEO of Dying with Dignity Canada, the current CEO of Fast and Female, and an incredible human rights activist in Canada. Liz referenced her calling her “in” to talk about a more intersectional approach to the work she was doing around the National Day of Conversation.
Liz wants you to know about The Charity Report and the great work of Gail Picco & team they can check out the website: https://www.thecharityreport.com/
Fleur Larsen: A white woman facilitator of DEI convos of whom Liz (and Michelle) are both admirers! Fleur was featured in The Ethical Rainmaker’s most popular episode White Women As Gatekeepers. Learn about her workshops.
A Note from Liz about Sexual Harassment and Sexualized Violence in the Charitable Sector: We are still working on what the National Day of Conversation will look like in 2022. We are looking at a more intersectional approach, but if you have Canadian listeners (or really anyone who is interested) this is still a good repository of information:
Drs. Erynn Beaton and Megan LePere-Schloop of Ohio State University, conducted research on the fundraising workplace climate and you can learn more here.
Liz’s Recommended Reading List (from Liz):
I have been fortunate to have many people recommend books to further my understanding of trauma and healing. I am so grateful to amazing women like Birgit Burton and Nneka Allen for sharing their wisdom with me on these subjects. As I said, I have learned the most from the women of colour who are willing to call me in, and call me out, when they need to.
Collecting Courage: Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love is a collection of stories documenting racism and survival by 14 accomplished Black fundraisers working in charities across North America. With searing and intimate detail, they write about their experiences with anti-Black racism—about coping with being last hired, first fired, overlooked for promotion to outright hostility in toxic workplaces. Their testimony chips away at the idea of the inherent goodness of the charitable sector.
My Grandmother's Hands: Resmaa Menakem: a book about human bodies and how trauma affects us. Menakem's focus is on racialized trauma and the pathways to healing our minds and our hearts.
Bad Feminist: Roxane Gay: if you have not read this book yet please do yourself a favour and go buy it. Roxane Gay is the voice of reason in a sea of insanity most days.
Had it Coming: What's Fair in the Age of #MeToo?: Robyn Doolittle. Robyn is a well known and respected journalist here in Canada, akin to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the NY times. She has done, and continues to do extensive research into sexual harassment, sexualized violence, and gender discrimination here in Canada. I highly recommend checking out her work.
The Skin We're In: A year of black resistance and power: Desmond Cole - Desmond is an Black journalist who came into the spotlight when he started to write about his personal experiences with police carding, racial discrimination, and dismantling of systemic racism in Canada. He's brilliant and everything he writes advances our knowledge of these issues.
White Women As Gatekeepers: The Clipboard of Control w Fleur Larsen
00:37:23
*Updated 11.13.20
While many awful DEI practices exist, Fleur has built a reputation of accountability and showing up! So many great assets are mentioned in this episode:
Michelle talks with Fleur Larsen, a facilitator and DEI consultant with a great rep
She is one of the founders of Skate Like a Girl (est. 2000) and comes from the therapy, education and nonprofit spaces
References:
Definition of Gatekeepers: Those who speak for, describe, translate, interpret, count and determine institutional access for people of color - in the process of systemic oppression. Gatekeepers are typically accountable to their bosses in institutions rather than the communities that they serve, and usually help maintain rather than change the system. They contribute to depriving oppressed people access to the institutions that control their lives. Source: People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
Definition of Liberated Gatekeeping: Using power and privilege, access, opportunity to break down gates; Awareness of systems, policies, people that may be gates; Realization we are ALL gatekeepers (we can be liberating or oppressive); Using gatekeeping to check other’s privilege. Source: Monica Dennis and Rachael Ibrahim and Move to End Violence Initiative.
WOAH she does 60% of the work for 40% of the pay when she works with BIPOC folx. Did you hear that? Just wanted to point it out.
We mentioned Lola’s Ink, a new podcast by Jenna Hanchard which also features a great story from Jenna and guest Jodi-Ann Burey => In A World Full of Karens Be An Elizabeth...check it out!
Fleur talked about The Crown Act, created in 2019 to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and styles like braids, locs, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools. Yes, this is still happening.
Gratitude to Falon Sierra for letting us use her new song “Sprained Ankles" throughout this episode - its so good right?
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. The purpose is Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
03 Nov 2022
Shame On You and Guilt Too ft Dr. Anu Taranath
00:43:52
We throw shade and cause guilt and shame in social justice work all the time! But is finger pointing effective or does it just make us feel better to make someone else wrong? In this ep, Michelle and Anu, author of Oprah-loved book Beyond Guild Trips, build analysis through a lens of travel ethics and what it means to truly move forward.
03 Mar 2021
Collecting Courage w Nneka Allen
00:34:27
Episode Notes
Nneka Allen shares great resources that we’ve passed along in our show notes! Here are links for content and references mentioned in the show:
Michelle talks with Nneka Allen, who identifies as an Afro-Indigenous woman, a proud Momma of a beautiful 25 year-old daughter, Destiny and a 6th generation Canadian and daughter of the Underground Railroad. She is the Principal of The Empathy Agency, Co-editor and author of the book Collecting Courage and Founder of the Black Canadian Fundraisers’ Collective.
References then Definitions:
Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love is a collection of short essays by 14 accomplished Black fundraisers in Canada and North America, documenting racism and survival while working in charities.
The Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church is a national historic site built in 1848 by refugee slaves, and it was one of the stops on the underground railroad. It is part of the Amherstburg Freedom Museum in Ontario, Canada, just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
Decolonizing Wealth (the book and the project): The healing process of repair includes acknowledgement, restitution and closure.
Our Right to Heal was a project created by incredible Black women telling their stories about fundraising before Collecting Courage was conceived
You can see a powerful performance commissioned by Nneka called “Conditional Invite” on video!
Here is an article about Collecting Courage
Article: Collecting Courage: Traversing the whiteness of the philanthropic sector as Black fundraisers (fundraisingleaderhip.org.)
This podcast episode of Whiteness at Work with host Chris Conroy, features the three editors together! Nicole Salmon, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira and Nneka Allen!
The thing about this podcast is that it is self-funded! So if you love it, consider joining us on Patreon, and passing along to your friends and colleagues. Of course, it is super helpful to us too, when you subscribe on your fav pod player, and rate us! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com
24 Aug 2022
Is Community-Centric Fundraising Still Working Two Years Later? ft Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos
01:06:47
For the 2-year anniversary of the Ethical Rainmaker and Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF), Michelle sits with Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos to discuss where CCF is at today … and why it’s making itself at home because it’s here to stay.
23 Sep 2020
Kink, Consent and Centering Community w L.T.
00:49:26
Practicing consent is a powerful tool. Here are links for content mentioned in the show (and sign up for our mailing list?):
Michelle talks with L.T., a pleasure-based sex educator, kink-trainer, pro-Dom, healer, and activist in the movement to transform/end mass incarceration
L.T.’s next public appearance will be on 9/24/20, at Politrix, a panel of sex worker, sex educators, activists, and lawyers to unpack and analyze the impact of new legislation
Gratitude to Mista DC for letting us use their song “HAPPYer NOW" throughout this episode - it's so good right?
Definitions:
Consent: Agreement to do something or not do something. A living idea that we are constantly building on. A way to reduce harm.
Informed and Unanimous Consent: We are not going to make changes without the other party being informed and enthusiastic. Not centering our own pleasures and desires in those agreements. Not coercing the other party to do something that is only beneficial to us.
BDSM: Bondage and Discipline (BD,) Dominance and Submission (DS,) Sadism and Masochism (SM)
Kink: There is so much XXX-rated content out there and I don’t have your consent.
References: This episode doesn’t have references to link to inasmuch as it has some great examples and conversations to really listen in to. Themes like...
Kink as a healing modality: Asking for your needs to be met by others.
Setting proper expectations between two parties in any type of relationship and honoring vs breaking the agreement due to power hierarchy.
Renegotiating changes to expectations.
Understanding that yes doesn't mean forever, no doesn’t mean forever and maybe means no. “No.” as a complete sentence.
Open communication, precise language and dedication to communication in service to healthy relationships.
Self-awareness around what we desire and what struggles we are having as part of our responsibility.
Power dynamics in funder-grantee relationships. Npo and relationship to the communities we say we are serving etc.
Drawing boundaries around what we are and are not comfortable with, from conversation topics to invitations.
Relationships and narratives that need adjustment or readjustment.
Buying a service or making a large gift, doesn’t mean that people are being bought.
Being Black in a society of white supremacy, the criminalization of black and brown bodies and socialization.
Non-conventional, non-colonized ideas around sexual expression, identity and orientation and reclaiming identity and power in white supremacy.
The connection for asking for what we need and power in collective unity as applied to mutual aid, environment etc.
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, sharing out to friends and colleagues or donating on our new Patreon! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
03 Aug 2022
The Drizzle: Three Mistakes I've Made As A Fundraiser
00:18:46
In the second episode of our Drizzle Miniseries, our Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares the three biggest mistakes she made as an in-house fundraiser, including themes on event extortion, process predicaments and burn out blessings.
29 Dec 2022
The Hidden Danger of Purity Culture, ft. Lorraine Nibut
00:48:42
Juicy episode alert! Michelle and Lorraine break down many aspects of purity culture and how this form of supremacy and oppression — controls and dictates how we express ourselves, causing anguish and keeping us from our best work. From large breasts, to Honey Boo Boo, the Atlanta spa shooting and fetishization, the Fyre Festival and consent violation ... Michelle and Lorraine explore the many ways purity culture holds us down — and what we can do to fight back against it!
+ Present how you are most comfortable, unapologetically
+ Embrace your identities - own it and rise above the shamers
+ Speak your needs choose courage over comfort as courage can bring comfort
+ Express when something is uncomfortable for you
+ Face when your own discomfort is preventing you from your own success
10 Aug 2022
The Drizzle: Emotions That Sabotage Getting Money
00:22:45
In this third and final-for-now episode of our Drizzle Miniseries, our Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle talks with Stacy about the emotions that can sabotage us when it comes to money! They discuss the impact of our personal narratives and family of origin stories — and how all of that shows up in how we run nonprofits and fundraising.
19 Jan 2022
Courageous Fundraising Principles w Virginia Community Voice
00:45:21
Lea Whitehurst Gibson and Bekah Kendrick talk to us about the processes they created and used to develop a community-centered organization with courageous fundraising principles…
Virginia Community Voice “So our mission overall is to equip neighbors and historically marginalized communities to realize their vision for their communities. And then the second part of our vision, our mission is to prepare institutions to respond effectively.” Learn more and follow them on socials: Facebook, Insta, Twitter, LinkedIn and of course, you can donate here.
Facebook: @virginiacommunityvoice
Insta: @vacommunityvoice
Website: https://vacommunityvoice.org/
Lea Whitehurst Gibson is the Executive Director of VCV and is a seasoned community organizer. Priori to leading the VCV, Lea was the Director of Community Engagement at Thriving Cities Group. She also worked for Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities (RISC) where she organized 1,000 people in 20 diverse congregations to stand together for just practices. Lea has a degree in theology from Elim Bible College.At VACV Lea oversees the organization’s operations, fundraising, staff and board development, and leads Community Voice Blueprint training and coaching. Lea and her husband are foster parents and live on Richmond’s Northside.Contact Lea at lea@vacommunityvoice.org.
Bekah Kendrick is an experienced nonprofit professional, grantmaker, and grant writer. Prior roles include: Technical & Grant Writer for Thriving Cities Group, Director of Community Impact: Education at United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, and Director of Programs at MentorVirginia. Bekah has a Bachelors in American Studies from The College of William & Mary and Master’s in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. She manages fund development and communications for Virginia Community Voice. Bekah enjoys reading, hiking, and being near the water with her husband and son.Contact Bekah at bekah@vacommunityvoice.org.
Process: Virginia Community Voice equips their neighbors to realize their vision for their own neighborhoods. Locally they work with marginalized communities that have not historically been listened to or heard and implementing the solutions they think best for their communities. And they work to prepare the official decision makers and traditional positional authority to listen and implement those solutions. All of this is towards a commitment for equity for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia - and specifically in Richmond, which is the former capital of the Confederacy.
It's important to know their programs:
1) RVA Thrives, has a goal and mission of equipping neighbors to realize their vision for their own community and to make sure they have resources and coaching to engage in what is happening in the neighborhood (food access, affordable housing, gentrification etc.)
2) Community Voice Blueprint (downloadable for free) is a four-step guide to community engagement around which they offer coaching and training.
As they are a Black and woman led organization, they wanted to make sure that their inception did not include the traditional racist and donor-centric practices that most npos use.
Here are a few notes about what Bekah and Lea describe as part of their process:
They set the intention of dismantling old ways and centering racial equity, and “injecting equity into our entire process”
They questioned whether they needed to start another nonprofit
They looked for resources and saw no documented path towards equitable community engagement
As they formed the organization (as a spin off of a white-led organization) they took the time to research fundraising norms and ways of working that they disliked and are rooted in white supremacy.
In doing research in current norms and racism in philanthropy/fundraising specifically, they identified the most problematic:
Donor centric fundraising only presents one model of who a donor can be. Said Bekah: “we knew we wanted to have a more democratic and accessible model in which all gifts are valued equally, no matter whether they're small or large, whether they're monetary or time. “
Avoid communication that objectifies people, is myopic, acts as poverty porn or tourism, charity model or promotes white saviourism. Said Bekah: we wanted to move away from that toward communication storytelling that is affirming, that is telling a more complete and complex picture. Even if it's one that is uncomfortable.”
Wanted to acknowledge and talk openly about how wealth is accumulated, the racist roots of nonprofits and philanthropy and how wealth is extracted through genocide, extraction of labor, and enslavement of people, and how foundations were founded.
In summer 2020, they are inspired by the community centric fundraising principles and were already in the process of developing their own Courageous Fundraising Principles and their fundraising model.
Once they had formulated their thoughts, they spent a lot of time working with all staff members, to make sure all felt invested and were engaged. Their staff include neighbors, considered community engagement specialists or community advocates (and they are at every staff meeting.)
Then they went to their neighborhood steering committee
Then they worked with their board as individuals, and then as a group
They also took the time to talk to Spanish-speaking communities - translating the work and receiving feedback. And Black communities as well.
They took their time!
Once the Courageous Fundraising Principles were finalized, they threw a virtual party on Giving Tuesday to share with board, neighbors, investors and answered the following:
What does it actually mean to invest in local community?
How does VCV understand its relationship to money and to donors?
What is a true investment?
Why is this important? Why are old ways unethical?
Where does VCV believe it should we be investing its time?
They also asked folx to give feedback. (And they raised money)
As part of tactics, they intentionally began using the term “investor” - investing time and money.
They ask for folx to become “members” and membership includes a monthly recurring investment as well as three hours a month, amplifying the voices of people of color. They promise to honor these investments equally.
They continually ask themselves “Is this the right way to do this? Is this causing harm whose voices are not at the table?”
They respond to the community and are transparent with their budgeting process and budget
In working with institutions, they envision that when they sign a grant agreement with grant guidelines, the funder will also agree to guidelines from VCV, affirming what they are doing.
In creating their board of directors, the based their board on the community itself. With at least 75% people of color, who have lived experiences in marginalization. They deprioritized wealthy folx and report that they have not suffered from that choice. With a board that comes from the community, they have more equitable outcomes!
In giving advice, Lea says: “You will get pushback from people saying, like, I'm not sure!...Are you sure?” People of color were worried. Not because they didn't think it was the right thing or it was the right way to go, but they were worried for us as an organization because of potential retaliation that could come from something like this.
But here's the thing - we have not seen that, we have not seen retaliation. We have seen our capacity grow. We have seen, investment stay and in some places grow because we've chosen to do the bold thing. Again, when you hit a point of tension on the other side, there's beauty. It is also still scary. But we're going to push forward because we know that there is something more beautiful on the other side. And that has been true of my life in general. But specifically in this space, it was scary, but also right.”
So much wisdom in this episode but I love this quote:
“For us, this is not about just doing this work, doing you know, our courageous fundraising principles, , focusing our work around equity, focusing our work around the community, rooted solutions to the problems that we face every day for the sake of doing that. We are doing it because our lives are at stake, our communities are at stake, our families are at stake. And that is the reason for this. It is not about what we think the next big thing is or how we want to move, you know, in the world differently. It is about, the very soul of our spaces, of our communities, of our lives, of our children's lives. What I want to say is this, this is real life. It affects real people. And if we don't start to change things, our children are going to keep dying in the street. That's, what's going to keep happening. If we allow our culture to support in equitable outcomes and equitable processes and equitable policies that is what's going to keep happening.”
Okay also this one:
“...you have the opportunity to pivot and to say, we need to do something differently or to kind of stay the course along the norms that are continually hurting our communities. And so we made the choice to pivot and that's, and that's actually where the beauty came from. Cause you know, it's, it's a point of tension, right? Like you get to a point where you're like, oh, we're doing something that's not fully equitable. Do we cover it up? Do we like, you know, wash it over or do we, or do we lean into the tension and say we didn't do something right. We admit to it and we want to change it. And what I find every single time is that there's beauty on the other side of leaning into that tension.”
01 Dec 2021
Raci$$$m w Phillip Chavira
00:43:38
“I don't think we talk enough about how money is a tool for and against the movement…” In this juicy conversation about money, Michelle talks with the very quotable Phillip Chavira, about why Capitalism is trash, where white supremacy shows up, why we need to talk openly about racism and where we have power to make decisions that center our communities and our values. You are going to love this conversation!
In this episode, Michelle talks with Phillip Chavira, an award-winning non-profit leader based in the Bay Area of Northern California where he currently is a finance director of Point Reyes National Seashore Association in beautiful West Marin County.
This highly quotable, lifelong advocate for all the things we love, Phillip Chavira can be followed on Instagram @phillipchavira Connect with Phillip on Instagram @phillipchavira and LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/phillipchavira
Phillip can be heard on TheUpNUp where he shares his journey to becoming the first person of color to be an Executive Director for the ’Intiman Theatre’(@intimantheatre). From witnessing the inequalities within the arts early on in life to working his way up to co-producing the Tony Award nominated Broadway play ‘Eclipsed’. Check out “Keep c o l o r on stage”
Learn more about Point Reyes National Seashore Association’s work with the National Park Service and working with local Bay Area nonprofit organizations focused on community building and mentorship primarily in Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities. https://ptreyes.org/youth-in-parks/
References:
Phillip mentions Vu Le and his blog Nonprofitaf.com as a useful resource and recommends using consultants to help navigate difficult conversations within staff, (including Michelle!)
Here is a list Phillip created, of things an organization can do to start their journey
Check out The Ethical Rainmaker interview with Heather Infantry, as an example of a badass advocate talking with community foundations about their payouts and inequity
Phillip mentions The Pride Foundation in Seattle as an example of spending down reserves and becoming share holders of local organizations (around minute 24)
Spend-down organization aka Sunsetting = When a foundation decides to spend out or spend down all of its assets and close its doors. There is usually a date associated with this term. (see The Chorus Foundation and their plans to sunset)
Phillip mentions Vu Le and his blog Nonprofitaf.com as a useful resource and recommends using
We talk about Northwest Immigrant Rights Project as an example of an organization that can never close its doors due to systemic injustice, while other nonprofits can
Stats Dropped:
60% of wealth in the US is passed on generationally, mentions Phillip
between 1983 and 2013, White households saw their wealth increase by 14%, and during that exact same time, Black households’ wealth declined 75%, and then Hispanic households from a median perspective, that wealth declined by half.
In 2000, the Federal Reserve stopped collecting information on reservations with indigenous houses!
“One of the scary things I think about with this racial wealth inequality is that if it remains unresolved, if we keep going at this pace, this trend is going to lead to the median household wealth for Black folks in the year 2053 to be zero. We could potentially see that. Then in 2073, it's projected that LatinX households will be at zero for median household wealth. This comes from the Institute for Policy Studies that utilizes the information from the Federal Reserve.”
86% of billionaires since the pandemic are now $5.1 trillion dollars richer while 76 million people lost their jobs.
Phillip Recommends These Resources on Race and Money
“Capitalism is just trash. The way that it has evolved over time and how just had it disproportionately affected people a lot by race, it infuriates me and it torments me as I study capitalism. You mentioned the education, and I like that you put that footnote in there...I want to take that and put that on my business card because centering around dollars, I feel that when a human does that, they can exploit others at a cost.
There's always a cost you gain in that dollar. That dollar was received from your family and it was passed on and how did your family ethically received those dollars, how are organizations making high profits off the backs of Black and Brown people around this world.”
“I think that what drives me crazy about the fact that we hide from our finances, I do this in our family, I see it in our family, I see it in organizations, I've had executives tell me, "Well, I don't really look at the spreadsheets, I'm told the numbers," and as somebody who looks at the numbers every day, I'm like, "There's so much room for change."
“...people said make as much money as you possibly can, pay as little as you can, get as much money as the consumers are willing to pay, and it just was driven into a generation where they think that money equates love, money equates success, money equates fame. That's one of the biggest lies that I feel has been applied through entertainment, it has been applied through social media. There's documentaries about how social media has affected us, so this belief that money is going to save the day, is a fallacy. I think that this divide that is going to continue to happen is terrifying and we have to do something about it.”
07 Oct 2020
Disrupting Your Community Foundation
00:52:18
A long time advocate for justice and the arts, Heather identifies as a “foot soldier for Black liberation,” and has had incredible success organizing a disruption of her local community foundation. She’s amazing and we can all learn from the incredible work she outlines for us in this episode. Here are links for content mentioned in the show (and sign up for our mailing list?):
Heather is the Executive Director of Generator City, an Atlanta-based nonprofit committed to creating a space for social change where all people have a voice in working towards a shared vision for a better tomorrow.
This is the press release she wrote to tell the community story! (Link coming soon!)
References:
Join the CCF Slack Channel and check out the #disruptingcommunityfoundations thread
Seattle Foundation Twitter threads revealing investment in Seattle Police one and two by @divestspd
We could really use a written step-by-step guide or infographic situation to further show how Heather led these efforts...stay tuned and we’ll see if it can happen!
DAF = Donor Advised Fund, which is a giving vehicle established at “a public charity.” Future episode on the problematic nature of DAF’s coming in 2021!
Black political leadership is big in Atlanta - Maynard Jackson, was the first black mayor of Atlanta and the longest serving. This great city is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.
Heather talks about gaining inspiration from John Lewis’ history and mentioned this movie
Gratitude to Shaina Shepherd for letting us use her new song “The Virus" throughout this episode!
Thank you so much for listening! Support The Ethical Rainmaker podcast by donating to our Patreon if you have the flow, subscribing to it on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
27 Jul 2022
The Drizzle: How I Got Into Fundraising
00:21:41
In this inaugural episode of our Drizzle miniseries, the Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares her origin story, (with chapters that include bullying, Classical music, the CIA, fate, therapy, and more!)
16 Mar 2022
The truth about unhoused folx (and harm reduction!) ft. The Sidewalk Project
00:44:28
Soma Snakeoil and Stacey Dee are founders of The Sidewalk Project, bringing compassion instead of judgment to people living on the streets. “When systems fall down, people stand up!”
Soma Snakeoil, also called Goddess Soma, is an activist, a mediation facilitator, a visionary artist, a playright, a professional dominatrix…
Stacee Dee’s band Bad Cop / Bad Cop (wiki, spotify)
Thank you so much to Stacy and Soma for sharing your deeply personal stories and for the work you do!!
The Ethical Rainmaker is a podcast, hosted by Michelle Shireen Muri, that explores the world of inequity in nonprofits and philanthropy, including where we should step into our power or step out of the way! It is my desire and effort to bring zero-cost information, case studies, and inspiration to everyone in the third sector — especially those who want to do better on this journey.
Follow the Ethical Rainmaker on Instagram, Twitter, listen wherever podcasts are found, and consider supporting the Ethical Rainmaker through Patreon!
15 Dec 2021
The Metric of Love w Oregon Food Bank
00:47:55
We are so pleased to connect with Vivien Trinh and Nathan Harris of the Oregon Food Bank, where they are changing the way our sector works, by developing practices that center love!
Vivien Trinh is the Community Philanthropy Associate Director of Operations at the Oregon Food Bank. With 11 years of philanthropy experience, her career has taken her through the many aspects of philanthropy including direct mail, digital fundraising, donor relations, database management and prospect development at non-profits of all sizes. As the daughter of refugees, she is deeply committed to building inclusive communities that honor the dignity of each individual. You can reach out to Vivien at vtrinh@oregonfoodbank.org.
Nathan Harris is the Director of Community Philanthropy at Oregon Food Bank. He has nearly two decades in philanthropic development, working at the intersection of love and generosity to realize transformational change. Before coming to Oregon Food Bank in 2019, Nathan served as chief development officer at Freedom for All Americans, an organization dedicated to securing nationwide LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections by 2025. He previously served as director of leadership gifts and Centennial Campaign at ACLU of Northern California and was the Director of Advancement at Transgender Law Center. You can reach Nathan at nharris@oregonfoodbank.org.
bell hooks defines love as “the extension of one’s spiritual growth 'the will to extend one's self for the the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.”
Risk: We talked about risk and Nathan names that “risk”in changing the practices and tools of doing the work, is to be questioned. That one perspective is the fear of change or fear of something different. Vivien invites us to think about risk, as defined by who might be harmed by our practices and tools...and to center the healing of those folx.
Process: Here are some of the processes and practices OFB discussed within this episode...
Vivien and a few folks started an Equity in Fundraising work group within their department to casually explore community-centric ideas. They later created a “Love” working group as well.
When Nathan came on 2 years ago, they began to focus their work towards building new practices
Vivien mentions that unpacking “love” as a word through introspection and team conversation, was the kernel that helped them move forward in designing the “how” of measuring love. They focused on how love might inform their values and how it could change what philanthropy could mean.
OFB celebrates Shiree Teng, who they partnered with in the design of the staff self-assessment. The creation of the tool was influenced by her brown paper, “ Measuring Love on the Journey for Justice. (we didn't talk about this on the pod)
Performance Metrics: One tool they developed is a staff self-assessment, with the purpose of the assessment focused on reflecting on a staff person’s individual work over the past 6 month period.
Their assessment asks questions like: Do I feel like my work as a relationship manager or a gift entry specialist is values-aligned with myself in this moment? Do I feel like I am making meaningful change in the world? Am I having hard conversations with donors? Am I bringing them along a political journey?
In their database, OFB has the ability to code contact reports that our relationship managers have with their donors around these indicators of love.
Vivien shares: “...the hope is that we're collecting this information so that we can pull it out and analyze, not like in a punitive way of like, you're not having enough hard conversations with donors, but, if you're not able to code your contact reports with these indicators, what is that telling you about where you are in your professional career at this moment? Do you feel like you're engaging in the work in a way that's meaningful to you and if not, how do we make it happen? What do you need personally, in order to grow, in your career in a way that is pulling away from that centralizing of money?”
They propose is to rethink what data we capture and to encourage behavior toward financial goals and encourage behavior toward growth and self-reflection.
In creating a collective definition of “love” they identified aspects of love like growth, shared values, care. They later shared that they have a full “Love Indicators” list complete with a Bill of Rights and definitions! These include: Actions for the Common Good, Care, Client Centered, Community, Engagement, Equity, Growth, Partnership, Respect, and Shared Values.
Nathan points out that they have also created other instruments to assess other aspects of love.
Another tool is the donor survey, where they ask in 10-15 contexts, whether and how a donor considers their gift to be a contribution of love. “...do you consider your donation...an expression of your love for the organization, the mission? For the vision? For your neighbors?...the systemic inequity that drives hunger? ...Do you experience your supportive Oregon, Oregon food bank as an expression of love? And I think on average 60% or more of our donors agreed strongly, like, yes I do.” Vivien mentions that the donor survey allows the team to be bolder and confident in their work. Nathan mentions that they can be bolder and more strategic in their messaging to facilitate the political journey and facilitate “love” for other (in one example, the love of their surveyed community towards immigrant communities could be increased by political education.)
Another practice involves prospect development/portfolio management. In this field of practice, OFB is starting to ask themselves questions around the transformational outcome of a relationship.
“It doesn't have to be money. It can be a sharing of a story that helps us move, our donors through a political journey, because they have either lived experience, with hunger or with, discrimination or lived experience of systemic oppression. It could be, they have a rich network of, or they have a community that we haven't engaged with in the past that they can introduce Oregon food bank to. It provides an opportunity to recognize all the different ways that people can contribute to their community that can take action.”
Nathan also talks about how they operate with equity not equality, so they are not able to “treat everyone the same.” Instead they focus on increasing the likelihood that an individual will have a love-centered and transformative experience. Transactional to transformational. They later shared that they’d like to celebrate Justice Funders and ongoing collaboration with Mario Lugay, Senior Innovation Director, and they acknowledge the Just Transition for Philanthropy (and Just Transition) framework.
They mention decreasing the size of portfolios to allow staff to spend more time connecting with their donors, and paying attention to wether these relationships are being tended to with mutual care, respectful interactions and community-centrism.
Nathan notes that OFB is in the silent phase of a large campaign and as such, they are prioritizing donors that can have high capacity, but within that, they are looking at and prioritizing values alignment, love, and vision.
Vivien mentions cross-referencing amongst multiple (databases and platforms) places, to better understand how the community member(s) engage with Oregon Food Bank. Are they interacting in multiple ways? Have they donated, volunteered or taken a political action? Vivien mentions that when an individual is engaging on multiple platforms/ways, they are a better candidate for connection/portfolio work.
Vivien and Nathan alluded to other tools they are using internally, but we did not have time to discuss in the show!
Big pieces of wisdom:
Vivien ”you can move quickly and you can leverage the sense of urgency that I think sometimes I shy away from that urgency is important when it is focused on justice. And in that urgency, the point is not to bring everyone along is to center people at the margins.”
Nathan “the power of our people and the wisdom of the collective and the possibilities that live at the intersection of the power of our people and the wisdom of our collective. Like we have so much opportunity in this profession to do something extraordinary, transformational and very, very different than what's been done before.
We're the ones in these roles keep your best practices. I'll take my better practices. They haven't been designed yet, but I believe in the wisdom of our collective to do that kind of designing. If those best practices don't seem to be working. And I don't think the limitation of that is just how we work. I think that our field can transform philanthropy by working differently than we ever have before. Like take back that power. We absolutely have it. And in doing so, I think our communities can be and will be better served.”
12 Oct 2022
REWIND: Kink, Consent and Centering Community ft Sex Educator L.T.
00:51:12
Nonprofits and Foundations engage in power play all the time but this kinky practice in the third sector is rarely consensual. In this rewind episode, Michelle discusses negotiation and consent practices with L.T. a radical pleasure based sex educator! Cum explore this Rewind!
08 Sep 2022
How do you keep everyone happy? Creating Culture Change ft Rickesh Lakhani
00:45:36
Nobody quit for 2 years. That’s the kind of culture that Rickesh Lakhani and his teammates at Future Possibilities for kids in Toronto, Ontario, were able to build. Michelle sits with Rickesh to discuss what it takes to build a beautiful workplace culture.
05 Jan 2022
How To Feed A Movement w Tomme Beevas
00:49:17
Tomme Beevas lives out his values in ways that we hope will inspire you too!
In this episode we talked about the tremendous work he participated in at:
Pimento Relief Services - learn more and follow them on socials: Facebook, Insta, Twitter, LinkedIn and of course, you can donate here.
Pimento Jamaican Kitchen and Rum Bar is Tomme’s restaurant and there are many tv episodes that feature he or the restaurant - this is the newest…a dinner with the Beevas family on the Magnolia Network
Facebook: @pimentokitchen
Insta: @pimentokitchen
Twitter: @pimentokitchen
Tomme notes that Pimento Relief Services was created for those “on the front lines of liberation.” Pimento Relief Services was created after the lynching of George Floyd. He later talks about the 99’ murder of Amadou Diallo as well. As I write these notes, we have just learned of the shooting of 4 year old Arianna Delane, George Floyd’s niece, who was asleep in her bed when a yet-to-be-identified person shot into her apartment.
Tomme lists Marcus Garvey as one of the north stars of Pimento Relief Services, and quotes him saying: “Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.”
Tomme refers to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which we could use to see how US cities are developing - as the US holds other countries to these standards…
Process: Here are a few notes about what Tomme lists as how Pimento Relief Services was built to serve the community:
They took a meeting place that already existed as a safe, community-based space: Pimento Jamaican Kitchen and Rum Bar
Friends and community members were invited to identify their own needs!
Needs included food as the primary need for which they threw a food drive. (Tomme points out that Minneapolis is the food headquarters of the world, and yet Minneapolis had a food desert in their city.)
They coordinated an active list of needs for those on the frontlines of liberation - reporting needs out in real time via social media (needs ranged from fire extinguishers to insulin, diapers to food.)
A week later, they threw a healing event, involving yoga, art, and other healing modalities
The following week they held a gathering with 150 of the top leaders of the community in the small backyard of the restaurant - including religious leaders, the mayor, business leaders etc talking about how these groups could provide services to those on the frontline of liberation in the community
Tomme defines liberation in three categories:
Economic Liberation: How do we create more Black business leaders, how do we elevate folks in their occupations?
Social Liberation: Tomme includes Food Justice, Social Justice, Academic Justice (women in academia, accurate political and social history,
Political Liberation: How do we get people to show up for voting, running for office - what resources do they need to run their campaign, political action committee that funds candidates
Big pieces of wisdom: Tomme drops wisdom through the entire episode, from how we use consultants, how we create community, how to center people from the beginning, what liberation looks like and overarching philosophy about our highest purpose. But here are just a few quotes:
“Start with Trust. Trust the people you’re serving to know what they need, and know what they want...I simply got out of the way and allowed them to build the community that they needed in the space that I happened to be a steward of.”
“Growing up in Jamaica, we recognized that even if there is just one loaf of bread…that’s enough to feed our whole community.”
“The roots of it go back to that greater responsibility to serve one’s community. Because our purpose is much bigger than we are. And when we think of our community itself, I feel as if each and every one of us have a greater responsibility. So for example, as a black man, I have a greater responsibility to my community. As a Jamaican, I have a greater responsibility specifically to my Jamaican community. I'm imagining as a white man, he should have a greater responsibility..and in the LGBTQ plus community. We each have a greater responsibility…And so it's answering that call to service, you know, stepping up and doing one's duty for that greater responsibility is how I've ended up here. And if nothing else, that's what I hope that people get from this conversation today. And if nothing else, I hope that's something I can pass on to my children.”
29 Jul 2020
Meaning Well Isn't Good Enough with Vu Le
00:29:15
Wanna go down an internet hole? Here are some links for content mentioned in the show (wait, did you already sign up for our mailing list?):
In this inaugural episode of The Ethical Rainmaker, Michelle talks with friend and fellow Co-Chair of Community-Centric Fundraising
Vu Le - is one of the most amplified voices in the nonprofit/philanthropy sector worldwide, by way of his blog, nonprofitAF.com.
Our most recent vegan ice cream fix came from Frankie & Jo's.
A special thank you to Seattle-band Trick Candles for letting us use their self-released single, "I'm Gold."
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
12 Aug 2020
Raises in a Pandemic with Ananda Valenzuela
00:24:40
A beautiful decision made in a time of double pandemic and recession - here are links for content mentioned in the show (and sign up for our mailing list?):
Michelle talks with Ananda Valenzuela, Interim Executive Director of RVC, founded by Vu Le of nonprofitAF.com, about the process around giving raises and retaining staff during a recession.
This great blog post Ananda wrote, has links to research (1, 2, 3, 4) and a solid story about investing in staff during a recession, that may help you make the case at your own organization.
The last time we saw each other we were both reading N.K. Jemisin - a favorite author for us each.
A special thank you to Seattle-band Zoser for letting us use his new song “Quarantine" - just released on August 5th on his new EP “Evolve” - you are gonna love his music!
This is a brand new podcast and we could use all the help we can get! The best way to support us is by subscribing on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. The purpose is Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
09 Jun 2021
Part 2: The Racist Roots of NonProfits & Philanthropy w Christina Shimizu LIVE
00:58:20
Episode Notes
PLEASE listen to Part 1, which is S1:E7 which also has really great content! Part 2 is a continuation and includes great citations…here are some links...(and sign up for our mailing list for future updates):
Chrissy work includes Seattle-based organizations like the Wing Luke Museum, Asian Pacific Americans for Civic Empowerment Votes, Chinatown International District Coalition, and she's been working with the Decriminalize Seattle Movement, the Afro-Socialist Defund Seattle Police Campaign. And she's now housed at Puget Sound Sage.
We dove right into Andrew Carnegie and his essay The Gospel of Wealth Since you are reading the show notes I’ll pull out the quote she uses:
"But whether the law be benign or not, we must say of it, as we say of the change in the conditions of men to which we have referred: It is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business, industrial and commercial in the hands of a few, and the law of competition between these as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race."
Okay and here is the old school definition for philanthropy in the same context:
"It is a law, as certain as any of the others named, that men possessed of this peculiar talent for affair, under the free play of economic forces, must, of necessity, soon be in receipt of more revenue than can be judiciously expended upon themselves; and this law is as beneficial for the race as the others."
She talks about the rise in power of organized labor and mutual aid networks (1870s/1880s) and cites the Haymarket bombing (also called “affair” or “riot”)during the fight for the 10 hour workday
Consider: Philanthropy and nonprofits as: a political system, an economic system, a culturally informed system.
We discuss Amazon’s policy to penalize workers if they don’t work fast enough, and connect it to TER’s recent episode feat. Teddy Schleifer and how MacKenzie Scott (was Bezos) can’t give money away fast enough because of her investments (in Amazon and these extractive practices for ex)
Donor Advised Funds. One day I’ll write an article about it but we discuss it here and in S2:E6 with Teddy Schleifer. Very important to learn about if you dunno…
Heather Infantry, and the TER episode Disrupting Your Community Foundation was named. She’s a badass and we are so appreciative of her work!
"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable, but then so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words." - Ursula LeGuin
Consider: Within our work, who are we investing in? “...when we dig into the actual complexities our communities, our networks will fall apart unless we trust and have genuine relationships with each other outside of work. So, are we investing in that?”
Things get heavy here, as we talk about the murder of Seattle resident Charleena Lyles, who was murdered, while pregnant, with three of her children home, by police. What is not covered in reports is the relationship to the nonprofit housing she was living in.
NOTE: So we’re learning that this podcast is becoming part of university curriculum across the US and Canada! If you happen to be studying this episode, and want to either tell us about it (plz) or add more links related to this episode...email us! hello@theethicalrainmaker.com because if you are doing the research anyway… ;)
We are self-funded. So. If you’d like to inspire this beautiful series through your financial contribution - we’ll take it on Patreon!
Subscribe to this podcast to get the best of what we have to offer. I promise there are more incredible episodes on their way - every other Wednesday.
The Ethical Rainmaker is produced in Seattle, Washington by Isaac Kaplan-Woolner and Kasmira Hall, with socials by Rachelle Pierce. Michelle Shireen Muri is the executive producer and this pod is sponsored by
Why White People Have A Hard Time Being Real ft Fleur Larsen
00:43:00
Fleur drops some knowledge especially for our white colleagues - for example "we can't move forward until we've tended to what's occurred - most orgs need to do repair...not pretend that we can just move forward like nothing happened, you gotta try and see what happens."
Data can make a significant difference in addressing community needs and tracking progress towards a goal, but it can also be a tool of oppression, misrepresentation and erasure. From who is generating the data and why, to the assumptions and narratives created we must interrogate data practices and processes that can cause harm to our communities.
Anna Rebecca dropped a lot of concepts and knowledge, and Vu shared great examples, so here are some highlights that were mentioned in the show (sign up for our mailing list to get ahold of episodes early and learn more about these topics):
Michelle talks with Anna Rebecca Lopez, a data nerd, activist, consultant and disruptor who believes in data for the people.
This rad infographic shows part of a body of work Anna Rebecca created for the Community Centric Fundraising content hub.
We also talk with Vu Le, nonprofit critic, speaker and author, and writer of NonprofitAF.com
“Weaponized Data” was coined by Dr. Jondou Chen who is cited in this article by Erin Okuno and this blog post that Vu refers to
“Data is problematic in so many ways. It can be anywhere from how the data is gathered, who's using the data and even the types of questions we're asking before we even start in the data collection mode... Data in itself is used for so many reasons. It's used to make decisions for a community. Data is used to validate certain experiences or perspectives. Data is used to tell stories and oftentimes when those stories are inaccurate because of the data, it can cause serious harm to the communities.”
Power Plays: “...oftentimes it's people who have power who are using data. It's people who have resources who are using data as people who have education, it's people who know how to use data and be able to read data and talk about data. And unfortunately there's a big gap between those who have access to data and know how to talk about it, how to use it, and the people who are in and of themselves contributing to a data set, or contributing information that then gets filtered into data. And so automatically right there, there's a big separation. There's a separation of the people who are providing this information and the people who are using this information...these are people in communities. And when we remove data from that understanding of humanity, it's easier to use data against people. ”
Current trends in evaluation and research: “Evaluation as a tool that upholds white dominant culture, as a tool that even upholds white supremacy has been discussed since like the 1970s, especially when talking about culturally responsive evaluation, which is centering evaluation within the communities who are most impacted by the process. Now, just because that research has been around for 40-50 years now, doesn't mean that it's always being referenced or implemented...most of this work of culturally responsive evaluation...is led by people of color. And as we've seen people of color often not credited with the work that they've been doing.”
An example of a data resource paradox: Vu tells a story about how a concept like the logic model, can be weaponized: And they rejected this grant because they're like, "Sorry, your logic model is not good enough". We weaponize these concepts, which often like A.R said, it's from people in power and who are people in power? It's going to be white folks. Who are the people at research institutions who were getting paid to throw the sort of terminologies and concepts and tools into the sector? It's mostly white elite educated individuals. And so this is a huge problem when funders are using this to gate keep funding, go into the community when they're like, "Sorry, you don't have a good enough data for us to fund you. You're out of luck". Well, how are organizations going to get good data if they don't get funding? So they're stuck in this data resource paradox. You can't get good funding unless you have good data, but you can't get good data unless you have good funding. ...So we are biased towards short term, white lead, tangible, easily measurable data and metrics and outcomes. And I think that causes a lot of harm.”
if you have the flow, subscribing to it on your fav pod player, rating us (esp on iTunes...yeah, I know) and honestly...share it out to friends and colleagues. Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com.
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