From White Supremacy in Philanthropy to Economies of Solidarity with Martha Awojobi | Ep 4

Season 1
Written By Pam Cheney

Today's conversation and dose of fundraising ideas, inspiration, optimism and joy comes from Martha Awojobi. Martha is a consultant for nonprofits and she specialises in events, recruitment and income generation, with an anti racist lens, she curates BAME Online, which is a conference and a series of online events that centre fundraisers of colour, showcase new talent and create the space for the challenging conversations we must have if we are ever to get to the heart of how we can dismantle structural racism in fundraising and in the wider charity sector.

Her mission is to support black and brown led organisations who are critically underfunded and under resourced, to do brilliant work in their communities and to ensure that black and brown fundraisers are able to thrive within their organisations. I am really excited to be talking with Martha today and having a conversation that really matters. Yes, we're going to talk about white supremacy, about privilege and racism in fundraising, about the systems and structures of oppression that we're all conscripted into yet fighting against. But we're also going to talk about what lies on the other side of these challenging conversations. This matters not only for fundraising and the nonprofit sector in the UK, but globally.

At its heart, this is about equity, decolonization and dismantling centuries of global oppression and how we as fundraisers can find our place, our purpose and even joy as we challenge ourselves, others and our organisations to collaborate and change.

There are so many brilliant ideas and challenges in this conversation, but I love how Martha presents these as our shared collective challenge and her sense of optimism and joy for what lies on the other side of these transformative and necessarily difficult conversations, the ones that we have to have with ourselves and each other and within the charity sector. 

I'm also really grateful to Martha for this conversation, for her energy, her kindness, her passion and her tolerance. It felt like a learning journey for me personally, and I can totally see why organisations seek out Martha to guide them, not only to secure funding, but to also use this process to navigate the deep personal journeys that engage us with white supremacy and racism within fundraising and the charity sector and how we can dismantle these structures and systems that conscript us.

Imagine if we were to move away from the false urgency that the fundraising, nonprofit and donor dynamic have created. If we can move forwards with collaboration and humility, that we can't fix this ourselves, and that we must centre the communities that do hold new ideas and models.

If we're willing to stop running in the wrong direction and look around and listen, we might just find more economies of solidarity. I hope that this conversation helps more of us white men and women working within the nonprofit sector to reflect on our privileges, to challenge ourselves and define the roles we can play in deconstructing these systems. 

Some first steps might be to read the books that Martha suggests, which are linked below. And of course, do register for the next #BAMEOnline conference. I'll see you there.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Recommended Reading Material:

 

I hope you've enjoyed listening to this episode of the Fundraising Radicals podcast and that this conversation has challenged, informed, and maybe even inspired you and your fundraising leadership practice. 

Please do subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice. 

New episodes drop on the 1st and 15th of each month, so make sure to tune in to get more global perspectives on fundraising and leadership in the non-profit sector. 

You can find translated shownotes & transcripts of this podcast in French and Spanish here: https://www.fundraisingradicals.com/podcast-transcripts

More about Fundraising Radicals:

If you want to find out all the ways in which we’re working to empower, equip and engage fundraisers all over the world:

Pam Cheney

Graphic Designer and traveller

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Get It Right First Time When Fundraising Across Africa with Dr Lilian Mabonga | Ep 3