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POC Affinity Group History

A Brief History of the POC Affinity Group

The year was 2001, the place Cleveland - Alliance Annual Conference. Four women of color gathered in a room where a session had been cancelled; they wondered aloud how to expand the presence of people of color at the Alliance annual conference and in the membership. They started a buzz to find out who else was interested and gather them. By striking up conversations with just about any Conference participants who appeared to be people of color, we created a breakfast roundtable on the final day of sessions. After that Saturday roundtable, exchanging ideas and concerns, we had a consensus on the value of being connected more intentionally. In May, we started a series of monthly phone meetings on first Fridays to imagine what we would be and do, and to encourage others to join with us.

At the 2002 Annual Conference in San Diego, we brought together some of the same folks and new faces at a pre-conference lunch session and a Friday night dine-around. During the conference, we were in touch with at least 40 people of color, and several white allies at a Saturday breakfast roundtable, who work in different areas of nonprofit capacity building, as consultants, grantmakers, professors, and technical assistance providers. The gatherings gained momentum, and participants expressed a desire to take action. We took inspiration from the plenary session that opened Friday's conference events, "Capacity Building for Community Building," which featured a panel that happened to be all African-American and talked about the importance of strengthening nonprofits in ways that build up communities.

Leading to the Alliance's 2003 Annual Conference in Houston, we touched base widely through phone meetings, an e-mail survey, and lots of other exchanges. We developed a three-point program: Publishing, Peer Connecting, and getting Paid! At the Houston conference in June 2003, we convened a full-day pre-conference retreat for people to revisit the evolution of the POC group, share values, and build consensus for priorities and action steps. The group developed six action areas (publishing, professional development, multi-ethnic collaboration, peer exchange, advocacy, and infrastructure), with the first three being top priority. A POC Leadership Team formed, with co-leaders Patricia St.Onge and Brigette Rouson joined by those members willing to take the lead in moving our action areas. From that core group, we developed a book proposal to define and advance cultural competency in nonprofit capacity building—emphasizing, though not exclusively addressing, racial/ethnic identity and communities of color.

We also formed a planning group that advised us on the POC annual gathering for DC'04. Staff worked with the POC leadership to develop plans and a budget for the Affinity Group as a whole, started fundraising, brought the POC insights into other areas of the Alliance work, and began exploring anti-racism initiatives.

At various points, but especially before the San Diego’02 conference, we have reflected and taken action on the imperative to be a multi-ethnic group, and have benefited enormously from the leadership and participation of colleagues of African, Asian, Latino, and Native ancestry.

The POC was fortunate that in its startup and formative years, the Alliance board was chaired by people of color, and the affinity group enjoyed the strong support of the staff leadership as well.

The living history continues...