We are rounding the corner to the end of January – the first month of 2021 – and so much has already happened. If anyone thought that when the clock struck midnight on January 1, that the unpredictability and chaos of 2020 would disappear, boy were they wrong.
We are half-way through the long, dark days of winter, with much of the pandemic ahead of us. Families across the country are in lock-down, parents are doing double duty home-schooling and working full-time; that is assuming they are fortunate enough to be working at all.
The charitable sector remains on high-alert, waiting to see how the second and third waves of the pandemic affect giving. As grim as it may all seem, the last AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project second quarter report showed charitable giving grew, more people donated, and many organizations acquired a significant number of new donors. We remain, however, on high alert.
It is in times like these – times of immense crisis – that organizations and sector leadership push ethical and moral issues to the side. Who has time to deal with culture or values when your entire future is at stake?
But this is not a zero-sum game. We cannot become complacent about equity in our sector, no matter how long this goes on. More than ever before, we must remain vigilant about inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. We must remain as committed to the well-being of the people who volunteer and staff our organizations as we are our donors.
In 2019, Wanda Deschamps and I co-founded the National Day of Conversation (NDOC) about sexual harassment of fundraisers in the non-profit and charitable sectors. After sharing my experience of sexual harassment by a donor with the CBC, I was contacted by many women (and men) who had similar experiences. A 2018 Harris Poll survey of AFP members showed that 25 per cent of female fundraisers experienced sexual harassment on the job.
We knew this was unacceptable and we would not shy away from speaking our truth.
In 2020, we hosted the second annual NDOC with the support of Fundraising Everywhere, The Good Partnership, Agents of Good, and BridgeRaise with endorsements from organizations like the Canadian Women’s Foundation and Imagine Canada. With a committed group of volunteer behind this initiative, we hosted hundreds of participants and raised more than $4,000 for charities working to end sexual harassment in Canada.
The goal of NDOC is to keep the topic of sexual harassment in the sector discourse. We want the fundraisers who experience sexual harassment to know they are not alone. We want the managers, supervisors, and leaders in our sector to know turning a blind-eye to this issue is not acceptable. We want to provide easily accessible resources and training on sexual harassment for our sector. We want to remind our sector that we can do better and be better.
Heather Nelson of BridgeRaise generously sponsored an article on NDOC 2020 with Charity Village. To learn more about NDOC, our mission, and to learn more, I encourage you to read it.
I remain deeply committed to advocating for equity and diversity in our sector. I remain committed to raising awareness about sexual harassment of fundraisers and providing resources to protect people. I will never stay silent – pandemic or not – on this topic. And I hope you will join me in raising your voices and calling for change.
We must not be complacent during the time of COVID-19.
Will you join me?
Liz LeClair is proud to call herself a fundraiser and a feminist. She brings more than 15 years of experience to her role as the Director of Major Gifts at the QE2 Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born in Toronto, she has lived and worked on both coasts, working with a variety of non-profits, in a variety of sectors. Liz is a long-standing member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals; sits on the board of Certified Fundraising Executive International, volunteers on numerous national boards and committees, and is the current Chair of the AFP Women’s Impact Initiative, an initiative started in response to the #MeToo Movement in the non-profit sector. In January 2019, Liz published an op-ed with CBC on issue of sexual harassment in the non-profit sector followed by numerous industry articles on this issue. She is also a founder of the National Day of Conversation, a one-day digital dialogue on the issue of sexualized violence in the charitable sector. Liz is committed to speaking up about the challenges facing women and marginalized individuals in all sectors. Twitter: @liz_hallett LinkedIn:
Editor's note - Hilborn Charity eNews is proud to note we have published over 30 articles on the topic of sexual harassment in the charity sector since 2016.
Cover image via NDOC website.
