ãba waθtéč, hello in Stoney First Nation language. It also means every day is a good day and a new day. I was surprised that it took me twenty four years since my arrival in Canada from China to get an opportunity to learn “hello” in the language of this land.
This was Social Venture Institute, a two-day conference for one hundred social entrepreneurs from Alberta and British Columbia to come together and build a community of social causes through bonding and sharing. The conference also weaved in stories from Thomas Snow, a professor of Indigenous Studies at Mount Royal University and Chris Hsiung, a documentary film maker exploring Alberta’s history by capturing indigenous stories on camera.
I was amazed how I resonated with the indigenous cultural values of family and story-telling and their similarities with Chinese culture.
We are in a way all different and similar at the same time.
Thomas Snow told us that when he was a child, he was very shy and disliked public speaking. As one of the very few indigenous children, his class always looked at him to say something about his culture but he never did. He said he regretted not sharing whenever he could because having those cultural heritage was such a privilege and every time we spoke up, we could help educating others to understand the culture and create empathy, a powerful tool against ignorance. I too had the same experience not speaking up, when someone made a disrespectful comment, nodding and dismissing the feeling of discomfort with silence to “fit in”.
Cultural and racial differences aside, haven’t we all experienced that moment of not speaking up because of a mental illness, a different sexual orientation, an addiction, or anything that made us different.
What I didn’t know at the time was that by not speaking up, we were festering ignorance, something that’s just as scary as an active act of discrimination.
So here I am, speaking up.
Earlier this year, AFP Calgary & Area teamed up with Women’s Work Institute to create a #solveathon: the first step of an innovative approach to tackle IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) related issues by surveying members and co-creating solutions instead of the traditional approach for members to passively receive the information by way of reading or being lectured. Hence, the #solveathon Insights Report before you today was informed by AFP members with their active participation. As the IDEA Chair for AFP Calgary & Area, I am incredibly proud of all the participants (over 100 fundraisers all together) from Alberta, other provinces of Canada and parts of the United States in this process over a relatively short amount of time.
We have many passionate voices like this survey respondent who said:
“This sector is facing significant changes. In order for fundraisers to thrive as we face the challenges ahead, we will need people with different backgrounds, experiences and identities bringing their best ideas to the table. We will have a greater chance of success if we can work together toward common goals. Success, in our sector, means working toward building a better world for all. “
On the other hand, the report also confirmed ignorance, or a perception of “false problem”:
“among fundraisers located in more politically conservative regions, respondents are more likely to believe inequality of opportunity does not exist in the profession, that it is a "false" problem. They assert the profession operates as an unbiased meritocracy. If they concede discrimination exists, they believe it favours female fundraising professionals because the profession is staffed predominantly by women. Furthermore, they do not believe that diversifying representation in fundraising would have any effect on the effectiveness and impact of the profession. “
From my experience being a fundraiser from a diverse cultural background and an advocate of diversity, I had observed two forms of ignorance amongst fundraising professionals: 1) the “diversity issue” is taken care of by tokenism, checklists, or by the diversity person/committee so that we don’t have to do anything about it nor contributing to the conversation; and 2) diversity is a “false problem” and professionalism (what Stanford Social Innovation Review would term “white professionalism”) is the only standard.
Ignorance will only threaten the survival of our nonprofit organizations as many of today’s disruptions and changes were rooted in the fundraising eco-system and practices being designed around white male philanthropists. As power and wealth shift, diversity is not just about having someone from diverse culture to sit in a committee, board, conference panel, or program. Diversity is about fundamentally changing our practices and creating an adaptive system and process. In other words, we all need to be part of it.
If you are diverse in anyway, I encourage you to take action by speaking up and joining in the conversation. That difference we have, be it cultural or in any other ways, is our privilege and our superpower. Speak up, as change can only happen with action!
Get AFP Banff Compass #solveathon Insights Report
