News/Blog

By Craig Shelley, CFRE
President-elect, AFP-NYC Chapter
Partner + Chief Growth Officer, Orr Group

I’m writing this just having flown home from AFP ICON in New Orleans (and boy are my arms tired!!), a gathering of nearly 3,000 fundraisers from across the globe.  I left armed with content from the great sessions I attended including those on fundraisers as leaders, the differences between successful and failing campaigns, how to communicate with donors, and a session on how I can be a better ally and advocate for my female colleagues.  I also left with a stack of business cards representing new friends, and lots of laughs with old friends, highlighted by “Jambalaya with President Jill” and several of our other chapter board members.

By Jonah Nigh
Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement
The New School

“Oh! You were the diversity hire!”

 “Do you speak Mandarin?” (Spoiler alert: I do not. I am Korean and Japanese and adopted by a Russian Jew and a Texan.)

“Just so you know, I am not homophobic.”

“He’s exotic.” (Last spoiler alert: I grew up in Minnesota. It was not exotic.)
 

By M. Angel Flores, AFP-NYC Secretary
Senior Vice President, CCS Fundraising

How is your relationship with money? That’s quite the personal question, isn’t it?! As fundraisers, we are constantly working in this intimate space with our donors. Yet, how many of us are comfortable with our own relationship to money?

My relationship to money is a work in progress. I recently joined a financial literacy and planning program specifically for women. As we near the end of Women’s History Month, I want to boldly elevate our collective fundraising efforts to fully embody the true meaning of philanthropy – love of humanity – for the expressed purpose of lifting up women by helping to build and increase their wealth. A woman’s wealth offers a view of her and her family’s overall financial health and how easily she can invest in her future, handle a financial emergency, and more. Sounds easy enough but first, let’s review the stats.

By Jennifer Moore, AFP-NYC Treasurer
Vice President of Development, DoSomething.org

Each year, March brings with it both a physical renewal in the environment and in my case a mental one as well. Perhaps it’s the combination of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day paired with the extended daylight hours, and more time outside, but I always get an extra boost of inspiration and motivation this time of year.

And even though we’re only a few days into the month, this year is no different.

By Melissa A. Benjamin
Director of Development
Fiver Children’s Foundation

As we near the end of Black History month, I decided to revisit one of my favorite writers, Langston Hughes.  His poem, “Mother to Son” has always resonated with me, but in reflecting on the past fifteen years of my fundraising career, it feels even more poignant. 

By Crystal Fields-Sam
Chair IDEA Committee
AFP NYC Board Member

The feeling that you get when you have told the right story to the right person at the right time is nirvana. That feeling is the perfect combination of knowledge, experience, skill, luck, and magic called Fundraising. Fundraising is the vehicle a worthy cause utilizes to traverse obstacles which would otherwise prevent it from being heard.  Black History Month, the creation and celebration of it, is such a cause and proof that a powerful story can change the world!

By Jill M. Scibilia, CFRE
VP, Development, Phelps Hospital, Northwell Health

Today we have the privilege of honoring our late AFP-NYC board colleague Michele Hall-Duncan with the Ralph E. Chamberlain Award at our 2023 Annual Meeting. The award is given to a fundraiser for a lifetime of service to our fundraising community.  We lost Michele much, much earlier than any of us would have wished when we lost her to breast cancer six months ago. Her legacy of wisdom and service will live on and be a source of inspiration for all who had the pleasure of knowing her.

By Susan Shapiro, AFP-NYC Mentorship Committee Co-Chair
President, Shapiro Associates

As the sector transitions to a generation of leaders that are younger and more ethnically and racially diverse, AFP’s Mentorship Program provides a singular opportunity for these new leaders to increase their fundraising capacity, working with experienced fundraisers in a supportive environment.

The Mentorship Program is designed to help participants clarify their career vision, develop new skills, and gain confidence in the skills they already have. The 2023 Program will be in full swing when it kicks off in late January, with twelve sets of mentors and mentees that have been matched, based on mentors’ skill sets and mentees’ preferences and goals. Take a peek at the 2023 Mentorship Look-Book on the AFP- NYC website to see the full complement of this year’s participants. 

By David McGoy, CFRE
Founder and President, ASSIST Development Consulting
Director of Governance and Board Placement, Robin Hood Foundation

Over the past year I’ve had discussions with CEOs, Development Officers, and board members representing 75 nonprofit organizations and provided training for over 300 more, and it’s hardly a spoiler alert to say that fundraising continues to be a major pain point for boards.

You’ve heard it all before: Resistance to and confusion about fundraising is rampant. There is a lack of clarity, and in some cases a lack of transparency, around fundraising expectations. In many cases board members are well intentioned but are not sure exactly what to do. Discomfort with asking is common, as board members grapple with their own awkward relationships with money, fear of rejection, and a perception that soliciting donations poses a risk to relationships that they value. There are even board members who don’t believe that fundraising is their responsibility.

By AFP-NYC Board Members and Professional Advancement Co-Chairs
Anne Townsend, Principal, ART + Strategy
Mindee Barham, Chief Philanthropy Officer & Interim Co-Executive Director, Scratch Foundation

As we enter the last month of the calendar year, we give thanks to YOU, the fundraising community - our friends and colleagues who we work alongside, helping our organizations raise the funding needed to deliver mission-driven programs in NYC, across the United States and around the world.

We are thankful to our AFP NYC community for all it does to support our fundraising sector throughout the year. We are thankful to the IDEA committee for their dedication and support in helping us lift up and ensure the tenets of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access are at the core of everything we do at AFP NYC.