Give or Get

I was recently asked, yet again, how an organization can reconcile a fundraising board with the need for greater community representation. Rather than immediately entering “rant mode,” I thought about it for a couple of days and realized that there was much more to rant about than I have acknowledged in the past. While this is not a question exclusive to the practice of community engagement, because nearly all arts organizations need to do major work in this area, it is particularly germane to this work. So here are some of my issues with the question:

• It implies that there are no people of means in the communities we might want to reach. This demonstrates a set of assumptions that’s going to get in the way of progress right out of the gate. Such people of means may, at the moment, have no compelling interest in arts organizations. One of the functions of engagement is to address that issue. Then again, there may be people of means in those communities with an interest in the arts we present. We just don’t know them!
• It highlights one of the principal problems self-perpetuating boards face in addressing diversity. If no one on the board knows people in the communities the organization is seeking to reach, it takes herculean efforts to identify potential board members there. The solution? Meet people. (I know. There are all kinds of problems with this. Many communities–justifiably–do not trust members of “the establishment” coming to them seeking to bond. But there is no alternative to making the attempt, sometimes repeatedly, until successful.)
• It rests in a usually unconscious assumption that money is the only valuable (or by far the most important) resource to be sought. This certainly grates against my “child of the ’60’s” sensibilities. And of course I don’t deny money is important for arts organizations. It’s just that there are other significant resources that are needed. Especially in community engagement, trust is vital and money can’t buy that. (More on this next time.)

In the past, my response to the fundraising board question has been a variant of the “give or get” (donate yourself or secure donations for the organization) formulation, summarized as “give, get, or do.” In the case that generated this post, “the question” was followed up with another about how to prevent the individuals who are representing their communities (and not bringing in the $ that other board members do) from feeling like second-class citizens. This eventually pushed me over the edge on another rant. The second-class citizen feeling could only come from one of two places: 1) Society’s general assumption that money is the highest value. (See third rant above.) or 2) The board’s members don’t really value the contribution the community member is bringing to the table. This can be made obvious by word, body language, lack of deep commitment to the community in question, etc. This is such an important issue that I’ll continue with it in my next post.

Engage!

Doug

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