Time For Change At AFP GTC

May 24, 2023

Following the resignation of all members of the board at Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter (AFP GTC), Birgit Smith Burton announced that I will be assuming the role of Interim Chair of AFP GTC.

I am grateful to Birgit for placing faith and trust in me to partner with her as we explore the development of a new AFP GTC with new ways of thinking, being, and doing. As well, we must build a new culture, and a new interpretation of what it means to be of service to fundraisers. In our conversations, Birgit and I envisage an AFP that sets the example and builds a blueprint for transformation.

To traverse the path of transformative change, we need first to acknowledge the avenues from our past. As I do so, I see that my appointment is not a marker, a resolution, or a beacon of success for our Chapter or for the AFP movement. This is not yet a moment to feel proud or to congratulate. I am mindful that I am the Interim Chair of an Association that failed me and my friends as volunteers, as members, and as fundraisers, and has by all reports, failed many others too. I am mindful that I am chairing an Association that lacks the humility to properly apologize for its wrongs and finds greater self-assurance in pursuing racism than it did in pursuing reconciliation.

My appointment is better understood as my personal response to a very clear calling to serve, to heal, and to restore trust and confidence in an organization that plays an important role in the pursuit of social justice. I will not dwell on the irony or the strangeness of this situation. I believe it is the right thing to do, and that is good enough for me.

My appointment marks the beginning of a new direction, however my public action and commitment to the movement for change within AFP GTC continues. So, for context, it is important to note that the demands sought by our growing movement for justice at AFP GTC still need to be met. We still need AFP GTC to:

1. Apologize unreservedly for the harm caused to former board members

2. Seek reconciliation and restitution to those harmed

3. Remove the 10-star designation of the GTC

4. Revoke the Fundraising award given to Caroline Riseboro

AFP GTC needs to carry out the above with courage, ignoring the threat of legal action. While these demands continue to be unmet, I stand by my prior calls to action for economic withdrawal from AFP GTC by sponsors, members, and event attendees.

My appointment is not a solution for the past wrongs. It is the impact of what happens when apologies are withheld. Those who seek the apologies continue their mission, using every means at their disposal to achieve restitution and closure. This is the way justice has worked throughout history. And as is common, the work of fixing falls to the dedication of the very same people who call out most for equity, because those who stand in the way of equity, stand in the way of equity!

I am not backing away from my demand for justice. If anything, as Interim Chair, I am doubling up on my expectation for AFP to do better, be better and set powerful examples of equity to the local and global fundraising community.

I know AFP GTC members are asking why the AFP GTC board of 2019 chose conspiracy rather than conciliation as a means of dealing with conflict, and why the 2023 board collectively resigned, instead of collectively apologized.

I, like so many Black people, have experienced many racist offences in my life, some on the street, some in bars and restaurants, some as I worked, some as I played, and some as I volunteered. Many, I have not acted upon.

The offence caused by AFP GTC is one of those that I did act on. I was and continue to be empowered by self-less advocates for change, people of all genders and races, united in our movement for change. At this time, I would like to thank my fellow co-conspirators, my fellow vocal change advocates, my fellow fundraisers who took a stand, and supporters who gave me assurance in their own unique ways. My aim is to honour your voice, choice and control (power).

My first recollection of volunteering for AFP GTC was in 2009, when as a new immigrant to Canada I spoke at an AFP GTC conference and thereafter was recruited onto a committee. I had pride that I had found a place to belong as a fundraiser new to the city. Each year after that, I either spoke at an AFP conference or served on an AFP committee for the next decade. My volunteering stopped in 2019 when in principle, I resigned from the board, never having felt more betrayed by board peers, whom I had also considered to be my friends. That sense of being failed sits within me. It’s that sense that I bring to the board table – and it manifests in a fear of failing AFP GTC staff and members.

I accept the invitation to chair AFP GTC over the next 18 months as an opportunity to also deliver new experiences and levels of accountability to our staff, volunteers, partners and members. I accept the opportunity to rebuild trust and confidence in the Association, and to be a voice to fundraisers who have felt marginalized, excluded and/or harmed by the Association’s actions. One of my biggest passions is to re-envisage and then reset the purpose of organizations. It’s this area that I especially would like to address as a skill I will bring to AFP GTC.

These are the three priority equity actions I pledge to uphold while I am chair:

Be accountable: Prioritize the interest of members over the interests of the board.
Respond to fundraisers’ needs: Invite all stakeholders to inform the strategic direction of AFP GTC, placing and practicing equity at the centre of our work.
Be totally transparent: Share openly, and communicate the ways in which change is being led, through thoughts, challenges, opportunities, successes, and failures.

The work ahead requires answers to the following questions: “What does a caring AFP GTC look like, feel like, and act like?”. These are questions which I would like to pose to Toronto’s fundraising community. The answers to these questions must influence the direction we travel for the next 18 months and even the next 18 years.

Leadership is first and foremost a pursuit of example setting. I am prepared to lead by example.Report this

Published by

Mide Akerewusi, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Econ), CSR-P, CDEP.

Dear LinkedIn Friends and Family Thank you for all of your thoughts and acts of solidarity following my appointment as Interim Chair of Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter. This article expresses my vision for the work ahead and explains where we are in the journey for racial equity and justice within AFP GTC. #equity #fundraising #change #leadership

Time For Change At AFP GTC

Published by

By Olumide Akerewusi