Reflections from our Fundraiser

Posted by Lindsay Jensen, July 27, 2022

To our community stakeholders: 

The Insight Alliance recently hosted our annual Spring Celebration fundraiser on May 19th, 2022. In total, we raised just over $100,000 and had around 100 guests in attendance. There was a lot of love and support at our event, as well as opportunities for growth and change. 

During our staff meeting proceeding the event, our team had some time to celebrate our successes and reflect on those opportunities for growth. A key theme that emerged was around anti-racism and inclusion and ways that our event could have better aligned with our values. Below is a list of specific ideas we discussed and ideas we have for the future. We do want to acknowledge that traditional nonprofit fundraising and philanthropy are steeped in white supremacy, so some of these things feel more tangible to address while others are going to require larger community conversations and sector-wide change. 

Location

Our event was hosted in the Laurelhurst Neighborhood of Portland. This particular community has a long history of racism and white supremacy. The way that the surrounding neighbors treated our event (multiple drop ins, complaints to the City of Portland, etc.) attested to this fact - they did not want us there. We do want to shout out the staff at the Laurelhurst Club for their support before, during, and after the event. Going forward, we will do our research to make sure that the communities we bring our constituents to are safe and welcoming for everyone. 

Live Auctions

We included a live auction as a part of the event and we had an amazing auctioneer supporting the process. We recognize that live auctions are one of the many traditional ways to do fundraising events. However, there was a lack of awareness of how Black, Brown, and Indigenous people of color felt while wealthy white people bid on items. Especially since live auctions were a means used to sell off enslaved Africans here in the United States, which is not something we want to represent in any fashion. For future events, we are interested in pursuing other fundraising ideas such as doing silent bidding with items at diverse price points or giving through online platforms (i.e., text to give) that do not spotlight some donors over others. We know we have an incredible and diverse community of supporters who want to give in ways that they can, and we want to make sure we’re creating equitable opportunities for everyone to support our work. 

Building Community

In our reflection, we realized there were many people from various backgrounds and lived experiences that didn’t get a chance to mingle. We did not explicitly highlight who everyone was to each other and how important The Insight Alliance was to them, which was a missed opportunity for community and rapport building. Not only do we want to spotlight the vast diversity of our communities, but we also want each community to feel honored, seen, respected, and celebrated. 

Vendors

In the spirit of equity, we specifically chose a Black-owned caterer as our food vendor. Upon reflection, the feedback of having Black women serve a majority white crowd really made us think about how we can better show up for the communities of color we are trying to support. While we want to continue investing our resources in small businesses owned by People of Color, we need to better honor, thank, and recognize these vendors at our events. For example, we could have highlighted our caterers before the food was served and afterwards as well.   

Radical Consent

We had a few children in attendance who added so much love and brilliance to the space. All of the children were Black or Brown. After the event was over, we learned that other guests were patting these kiddos on the head or pinching their cheeks, which is all too common for children of color. We believe that all kids (and adults too) have a right to not be touched without their consent. At our next event we want to educate guests about radical consent and encourage folks to ask permission before touching (hugs, high fives, etc.) others. 

Why are we sharing this? As we continue to grow and shift our organizational model to reflect our commitment to being an anti-racist and inclusive organization, it’s important to us that we be transparent with our community. We are looking forward to continuing this conversation, learning, and doing better. 

Sincerely,
The Insight Alliance Staff