Charting a way forward within an organizational DEI committee can prove to be difficult. For many, the committee itself and the commitment to doing diversity work with the organization is new, meaning that a shared vision of equitable diversity has not yet been built. Add to this the pressures of coming up with policies that will impact how diversity, equity and inclusion are implemented within your organization, and one can understand anyone's hesitance in getting involved with a DEI committee.

As members of Apra’s DEIBJA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Justice, Accessibility) committee for 2024, we found ourselves engaging with these feelings as we looked to build on the work of the previous DEIBJA committee (a group that has only been part of Apra since 2019). We were not familiar with each other, had limited time (a year) to continue to build out impactful policies and each of us had minimal experience with being decision makers within DEI committees in organizational settings.

We agreed that if we were going to engage with the uncertainty and ambiguousness that comes with doing diversity work as a group, we needed to create shared meanings and a sense of community among us. Rather than rush into proposing policies and setting up subsequent workstreams, for the first couple of months of our tenure we focused on internal community building that encouraged us to share our viewpoints of diversity within philanthropy.

In effect, this sharing process served as a foundation through which we could be honest and vulnerable with each other about our perspectives on what was unjust within our industry. It also did the work of showing us where we had common meaning to share as it relates to topics in the orbit of diversity, equity, justice, inclusion, accessibility and belonging. Out of this process came our committee’s Statement of Acknowledgments which, in short, outlined our perspective on philanthropy’s current ills that prevent us from creating equitable spaces in our work as prospect researchers.

Some of these ills include:

• The current political climate/state laws that limit or ban DEIBJA efforts.
• A lack of institutionalized representation of professionals within our industry and workplaces who identify with historically marginalized racial and ethnic identities (i.e. the African diaspora, indigenous peoples, Latino/Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.), those who identify with marginalized sexual orientations and gender identities (including intersex identities), and those living with disabilities.
• A lack of community-based learning spaces or spaces of affirmation for professionals with marginalized identities, as mentioned above.
• Normalized conceptualizations of a “good” prospect exclude opportunities to engage with constituents who do not have traditional markers of wealth.
• Too many siloes and very few examples or case studies on how different organizations are implementing DEIBJA fundraising practices.
• Little to no procedures or policies around acknowledging harm when it’s been committed, and a lack of a path to healing.

We grouped these statements into two areas of focus: people and process. Some of our ills relating to people come from wanting to increase diversity and representation of Apra members and within our industry, and promote inclusivity within Apra and our own organizations. Our process-related ills come from wanting to adopt an equity lens toward our practices as prospect development professionals.

This process led to honest conversations within our group that opened the door to a sincere exchange of ideas where we felt liberated in communicating genuinely on topics that can be difficult to discuss. Not only this, the statements also served as an opportunity for us to brainstorm on (aspirational) ideas for ways Apra can serve as a partner in solving these ills. This was great for our workstream planning that has given us a significant amount of success in getting focused around our goals for this year on the committee.

Our work to address these ills is just beginning, and it will take all of us to make true progress. The DEIBJA Committee, in partnership with Apra's Content Development Committee, invites you to help us continue the conversation. If you'd like to contribute an article, suggest a podcast episode, help moderate a webinar, or simply share an idea for consideration, please reach out to editor@aprahome.org.