June 24, 2004

ALLIANCE CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPOTLIGHT: Kim Klein

by Brigette Rouson


“Some things just slip into one's consciousness and become integrated into your world outlook without an awareness of a single event, such as the importance of equal rights for women, the value of using hair conditioner, and the wonderfulness of Kim Klein.”

-Jan Masaoka


kleinFor Kim Klein, nonprofit fundraising guru to many, the time has come to get creative and take action to realize new possibilities.  Not one for platitudes, the Grassroots Fundraising Journal publisher, and author of numerous books and articles, goes to the heart of the matter. “What if cutting were not an option?” she asks in the face of spending cuts that redirect valuable resources away from nonprofits.  Bending the lines of the upstart refrain, “what if the military had to hold a bake sale and schools had all the money they need,” she urges the nonprofit community to get a bumper sticker, raise a banner, or simply use their voices against efforts to “privatize government.”

Kim brings her message of fundraising for social change to the Alliance for Nonprofit Management’s annual conference on Saturday, August 14, and true to the theme, it will be all about empowerment.  “People need to get clearer and make more than just a lip-service commitment to diversifying their funding,” she declares.  “If you are serious about building political power, and the kind of change that true social justice is going to require, the involvement of massive numbers for change,” then the imperative is to bring the money to the movement—and not rest with foundations as a source of funds. 

Jan Masaoka, Executive Director of CompassPoint recalls, “in 1983 I was a nonprofit finance director and she did a board fundraising training for our organization.  She sees fundraising as community empowerment, not as a professional skill.”

As most know well, Kim is no newcomer to this work.  She started very early in the domestic violence movement at a shelter for battered women in California called La Casa de Las Madres, where she was drafted to be part of a fundraising committee.  Her focus was on churches and synagogues.  The lessons were plentiful.  “I realized these little groups all rose and fell on their ability to get money,” she recalls.  “I realized that any serious change in the society required capitalizing.”  At the same time, she saw that fundraising—while hard work and requiring attention to detail—is not intrinsically difficult or complicated.  It was just that “people will do almost anything not to ask for money.”  It was an insight that led her to matching the clear need with the skill development, the necessity of food with teaching people how to fish.

Not much later in her career, she helped the Coalition for the Medical Rights of Women achieve its goal of moving from almost total foundation dependency to a broad base of individual donors—tripling the budget in three years.  “That put me on the map,” she admits.  “People were amazed” at the ability not only to reach that level of diversity in sources, but to sustain it. 

Neither the worthiness of a particular cause nor the virtues of one organization has been enough to fuel her passion.  In her chosen work, she blazes a new path, and she invites others in the fundraising profession to do likewise.  Three aspects of her current areas of emphasis describe that possibility.

First is honestly claiming an agenda.  “There was a buzz that capacity building was politically neutral.  I feel that that’s wrong, and that we have to put forth a social justice agenda and call people into accountability for that.”  She envisions a shift in practice so that “when you go to a group and they say they’re dying on the vine, you help them figure out how they’re going to raise money, and say to them, ‘You don’t have to put up with this!’”—meaning public policy that fails to respect human needs and human rights.  She is simply encouraging people “to be much more conscious of what you’re doing. I’m saying, yes, you are imposing an agenda and claim it.  Because not to pose an agenda is to pose an agenda.  We are not value-neutral people.”

Frances Kunreuther of the Building Movement Project at Harvard University’s Hauser Center concurs.  “Kim really stresses the ‘for what’ question that we often raise in our work. She doesn’t believe in capacity building or fundraising as a goal in and of itself, it is in the service of social change and social justice. Without that grounding, the purpose has no meaning. That is especially important in these times where we could lose so much unless we take a stand for what we believe in.”

Second is developing capacity on the issues that really count.  Tax policy and civil liberties are two matters, Kim explains, that must be on the minds and in the action plans of conscientious nonprofits everywhere—and that means capacity builders must be prepared to support them in having an influence.  She is quick to acknowledge that numerous organizations are doing excellent work on these issues, which she has no intention of duplicating.  Her charge, as she sees it, is “to figure out how to make tax policy interesting,” and to get more energy focused on expanding resources and respecting rights.

Third is diversifying the ranks of people who do what she does.  “That is a key element,” she insists, of paying attention to what will make a difference.  Capacity builders “live in many, many places that are a majority-minority, where people of color are the majority.  So just from a straight reality viewpoint, you cannot have a nonprofit sector that is so much paler than the rest of the world.”  As an example of the kind of change that can happen, she notes that the profession of fundraising consulting, once a majority of white men, over the past 20 years has now become a majority of white women.  The ongoing work of the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT) has done much to extend the change further.  Their motto is “We’re changing the color of philanthropy,” and they have indeed done just that.  Another example of how these issues are being addressed is the Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color, a collaborative project between Grassroots Fundraising Journal and CompassPoint. In Kim's involvement in the project, she has observed firsthand that “people are excited.  We’re learning so much more about fundraising; all these new ideas are coming forward.  It’s going to appropriately change the way things are done in philanthropy.”

All these are important considerations in listening to what Kim has to offer.  Frances Kunreuther adds,  “what has impressed me about Kim is that she is completely straightforward, is a champion of grassroots groups without being patronizing (i.e., calls out issues); is a tireless advocate for those working closest to the issues of marginalized populations but also in areas such as the environment and the arts.  She believes that change can happen and models that belief; and she is really funny. She isn’t afraid to speak up and out, she is warm and embracing, and she holds people accountable.”

Without question, Kim is a riveting speaker and a fighter for grassroots nonprofits and the common good.

“When I hear her talk,” reflects Jan Masaoka, “I challenge myself: Do I express myself as clearly as she does?  Do I convey the passion for social justice that she does? Do I respect my audience the way she does? Can I make a lifetime commitment the way she has? Can I laugh as much as she does? Can I show as generous a spirit?”

Join us in Washington, DC on August 14 at the Alliance Annual Conference for Kim's Keynote Address, "The Power of Fundraising in Determining the Future of the Nonprofit Sector" that you may just be quoting 20 years from now!

 

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