I attended the Community-Centric Fundraising Family Reunion in San Diego in April. While fundraising isn’t necessarily in my CCPH job description, I was attracted to their 10 Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising, providing a descriptive call to action to transform fundraising and philanthropy.
These principles remind me of CCPH’s Principles of Partnership, which also provide a call to action to transform cross-sector, cross-disciplinary partnerships. So while I’m not actively in fundraising, I saw a lot of potential to translate their principles into the work we do at CCPH. My admiration of their mission-driven approaches resulted in my publishing a blog post on their content hub, attending their Family Reunion, and overall enjoying the movement building conversations the entire weekend.
Highlights from the weekend:
- Learned about giving and receiving feedback as a practice to build connection and community.
- Networked with amazing fund development consultants who support organizations and companies from strategic planning and organizational development to grant writing and communications.
- Admired the session on NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comms and fundraising approaches that are hyperlocal, authentic, and joyful!
- Ate at all the delicious restaurants in San Diego graciously recommended by the reunion attendees!
- When the organizers learned I wasn’t in fundraising, they shared that they’re interested in attracting more attendees from different organizational roles. There’s always room to grow and scale.
Across disciplines and sectors, there’s so much potential to scale our principles rooted in community-centric and community-engaged approaches. This experience has taught me to look and learn beyond my current role in training and resource development.
Fundraisers don’t need to attend only fundraising events. Comms directors don’t need to attend only comms events. Many of these professional development opportunities have intersecting and overlapping benefits for multiple roles. Similar to CCPH’s message of community-engaged interventions not being a one-size-fits-all, expanding how you think about community-centeredness through different lenses is going to help you improve your overall practice.
–Charisse Iglesias, PhD, CCPH Training & Resource Director
