The development profession is rife with incidences of implicit bias, microaggressions, and racism as experienced by professionals of color, who face constant tension in navigating donor, funder, and board interactions to bring in necessary financial support for their organizations. This webinar will explore the role of decisionmakers to identify, understand, and disrupt system-wide deficiencies that thwart the growth of people of color in leadership positions in the sector.
This panel will be a forthright cross-racial, cross-professional conversation on how the dynamics of power and race affect our ability to understand and navigate both philanthropy and fundraising. The session will cover areas all-too-familiar to any professional of color working adjacent to white-dominated philanthropy: the ubiquity of implicit bias, tokenism, microaggressions and pressures to assimilate; the need to work harder to prove oneself; how intersectionality complicates the role and makes the job harder; the nagging presence of imposter syndrome and a sense of isolation; and how DEI issues are (or aren’t) addressed in the nonprofit workplace.
Panelists include: Unique Brathwaite, Director of Strategic Development, Community Resource Exchange; Judy Levine, Executive Director, Cause Effective; Sonya Shields, Senior Associate, Cause Effective; Patricia Swann, Senior Program Officer, The New York Community Trust.
