How Can Nonprofits Better Connect to the LGBT Community?

The Association of Fundraising Professionals  recently published an interesting Kaleidoscope article about how fundraisers and nonprofits can better serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) donors.  The article is entitled “Fundraising and the LGBT Community—Pitfalls and Possibility: An interview with Mickey MacIntyre of realChange Partners, LLC.”  Here is an excerpt from the article:

How can nonprofits better connect to the LGBT community?

It starts at the top. They need to start by having strong conversations at the board level about what it means to be inclusive. For example, if the mission of an organization is tolerance, then including gays and lesbians in the conversation is very valuable. Suppose an organization supports equity, but a fundraiser is intolerant of different types of people. This is a problem that must be addressed by the organization. You can’t have an organization putting forward one ideal and individual staff members and volunteers exercising personal belief systems that run counter to that. As a donor, I would say, “I believe in this mission, but this guy asking me for the gift doesn’t seem to want to be in the same room with me.”  This will not lead to lifelong giving.

That said, I don’t expect organizations that do not have the same world view as I do to operate with the same tolerance and inclusiveness. If it is not in the organization’s mission, then I don’t push the issue. But if you have inclusivity as part of your mission and values, then you should think strongly about what that means for the LGBT community.

For the entire article, see “Fundraising and the LGBT Community—Pitfalls and Possibility: An interview with Mickey MacIntyre of realChange Partners, LLC” in the Spring 2008 issue (vol. 2, no. 1) of Kaleidoscope.

DAB