Fundraisers pursue diversity at Pittsburgh summit

Source: Pittsburgh Post-GazetteOct.存倉 02--Jaye Lopez Van Soest has worked in the fundraising field for nearly two decades, but she still arrives at many business meetings where she is the only Hispanic person. Not to mention the only lesbian."It's happened a lot to me in my career. You walk in a room where you are on the only person who looks like you. That can be daunting for some people," she said.Ms. Lopez Van Soest, who is 41 and the development director for the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, has successfully navigated a profession traditionally populated by white women. Because she's passionate about making the philanthropy career path easier for her peers and younger professionals, she is a co-chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Diversity and Inclusion Summit to be held today in Pittsburgh.The summit comes a day before the opening of the organization's annual Leadership Academy at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown, which is expected to attract several hundred fundraising professionals to the city Thursday through Saturday.Besides convening the summit to map out initiatives that would attract more minorities into the fundraising sector, and to develop strategies to be more welcoming to diverse individuals in the industry, Ms. Lopez Van Soest sees the effort as critical to "making the profession look more like the communities we serve."In other words, those who raise funds for nonprofits and charitable causes should be able to relate to those who benefit when those dollars are spent."There's a mindfulness of wanting our profession to reflect the constituencies that many of us serve. There's no reason why this profession shouldn't mirror them," said Ms. Lopez Van Soest.According to a 2012 Association for Fundraising Professionals report, 74 percent of the organization's members were female and 90 percent were white.The highest number, 23 percent, worked for educational institutions and the next highest, 20 percent, raised funds for human services organizations. The association has 30,000-plus members worldwide.Today's event marks the second diversity summit for the or儲存anization. The first, held in Baltimore in 2005, "generated a lot of ideas about what the association and sector could do to advance the cause of diversity," said James Phelps, the other co-chair of this year's event and principal with JKP Fundraising in Vancouver, Wash.One of the things that came out of the 2005 summit was the formation of seven affinity groups within the association organized around race, sexual orientation and religion as well as one for members who don't work in major urban areas. The affinity groups are African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, Jewish, faith-based, GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) and rural.Mr. Phelps, 48, holds a law degree from the University of Oregon but took an administrative position after law school with an organization that provides residential hospice services to AIDS patients. Since then, he has never left the nonprofit sector.His experience working with gay groups may have actually been a barrier to him being hired at law firms in the early 1990s."The fact I had things on my resume that made it clear I was sympatico with the gay and lesbian community led me to not finding a job. That's probably why I am so passionate about this work. I know how it feels to be excluded," he said.The association's drive to diversify its membership also relates directly to the bottom line, Mr. Phelps said. "If you're serving a population that has 29 nationalities that speak 35 languages, perhaps within your organization you should have people who look like the people you're serving. In the fundraising profession, you'll be able to raise more money."Sponsors for the summit include four association chapters, including the Western Pennsylvania chapter. Other sponsors are Highmark Health Services and the D5 Coalition, a Chicago-based collaboration of foundations, individual donors and other organizations that work toward establishing diversity and inclusion in the philanthropic sector.Joyce Gannon: jgannon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1580.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at .post-gazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage