OUR VALUES
COMMUNITY CENTRIC FUNDRAISING
We are proud practitioners of Community Centric Fundraising (CCF) — a values-driven movement that challenges traditional fundraising norms and centers equity, relationships, and the well-being of the communities nonprofits exist to serve, rather than the preferences of individual donors.
CCF didn't emerge from a boardroom. It grew from conversations that writer and nonprofit leader Vu Le began publicly in 2015, building on years of dialogue with leaders of color — especially women of color — and white allies who felt deep dissonance with the way the sector had long practiced fundraising. Those conversations sparked a gathering of Seattle-area executive directors and fundraisers of color, who came together to explore how fundraising could be reimagined to align with equity and social justice.
The movement stands on the shoulders of organizations and thinkers who paved the way long before CCF had a name — among them the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, and the foundational work of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Grace Lee Boggs, James Baldwin, and many others.
In the summer of 2020, the CCF Founding Council — Andrea Arenas, Erika Chen, James Hong, Rehana Lanewala, Vu Le, Anna Rebecca Lopez, Michelle Shireen Muri, Christina Shimizu, and Dr. Sean M. Watts — officially launched the movement with its 10 Principles. The movement has since grown into a global effort, with regional councils now forming across multiple continents.
We are grateful to carry this work forward. Our practice is guided by CCF's core pillars, and we encourage you to learn more about the full movement at communitycentricfundraising.org.
Our work is guided by its 8 core pillars:
-
COMMUNITY FIRST
The community's needs and voice shape every strategy — not donor preferences.
-
REDISTRIBUTE POWER
We actively work to shift power toward those most affected by the mission.
-
RACIAL EQUITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Fundraising practices must reflect and advance equity at every level.
-
COLLECTIVE OVER TRANSACTIONAL
Building authentic relationships — not extractive donor transactions.
-
MUTUAL BENEFIT
Donors and communities thrive together — generosity flows both ways.
-
TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY
Honest communication with donors, staff, and the communities you serve.
-
WELL_BEING OF FUNDRAISERS
Sustainable fundraising means caring for the people who do it, too.
-
CULTURE OF PHILANTHROPY
Embedding generosity into your organization's DNA — not just your development office.
Land & Labor Acknowledgment
We honor the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands encompass the land and waters we now call Tulsa, Oklahoma — including the Wah-zha-zhe (Osage), Kitikiti'sh (Wichita), Kadohadacho (Caddo), Mvskoke (Muscogee [Creek]), and Tsáligi (Cherokee) Nations, among them those who were forcibly displaced from these lands. We recognize that we operate within the boundaries of the Mvskoke (Muscogee [Creek]) Nation Reservation, and we commit to ongoing education about the Indigenous histories, sovereignty, and deep relationships with the land and water that shape this place.
We also acknowledge the enslaved Black Americans whose forced, uncompensated labor built the foundational infrastructure of this nation — its roads, railways, institutions, and economic systems — the benefits of which continue to sustain society and commerce to this day. Their contributions were extracted through violence and denied recognition for generations to this very day.
We name these truths as an act of accountability and acknowledgment, and as a reminder that the prosperity many inherit was built upon the suffering, resilience, and stolen lives of Indigenous and Black people.