Dear AFP Nova Scotia Members,
Last year, after news of the racism that happened with the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter (GTC) Board became public, we knew staying silent was not an option. Within weeks of learning what happened to Nneka Allen, Múthoní Karíukí and Mide Akerewusi we issued a statement of solidarity on our website.
At the same time we made a commitment as a board to take action and do our own work. We know that racism is systemic and that we all must take responsibility to do our part to uphold the values of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA).
Our work started at our Maritime Fundraising Conference last June, with a frank conversation led by April Howe. We appreciated the honest feedback from you our members and others in the sector. It inspired us to engage April as a consultant with our Chapter to lead us through the creation of our own IDEA Pathway.
As part of this work we created a working group dedicated to moving this work forward with the board and membership.
How we started
One of the first things we did as a board was to look inward, reflecting on our own bias, racism and unpacking where each of us were in our understanding of equity work. The many touchpoints we had with April, in tandem with on-going education, informed our pathway and helped us develop the following overarching statement of our Chapter’s commitment to IDEA:
AFP Nova Scotia is grounded in the core principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. We are committed to listen with humility, speak with respect, and engage with intention.
In our work. Across our sector. For our communities.
Continued investment in this work
For the first phase of this work and to develop our IDEA Pathway and IDEA statement we agreed as a Chapter that we would fund the work internally, we used our grant back funding from the AFP Canada Foundation and any profit from our Maritime Fundraising Conference to prioritize the work. We also utilized the funding we would have typically donated to AFP Canada and AFP Canada Foundation.
Phase two of this initiative takes us through the activation of our IDEA Pathway and we knew it would require further investment that was beyond our means as a Chapter. We submitted a proposal for funding to AFP Global and so pleased to share that our proposal was accepted.
Thanks to the support of AFP Global, we can now begin the next phase of our work to weave IDEA into our everyday operations and culture.
What comes next
As you can see detailed in the IDEA Pathway and timeline there are a number of different priorities we plan to roll out this year including: conducting a Survey of you, our membership and our sector, to better understand the dimensions of what representation means to you; and developing a learning strategy for ongoing IDEA education that added to the value of our membership and fundraisers in our community.
Our framework is built on the three pillars to Learn, Lead & Leverage. These principles are already being applied:
· Our upcoming Maritime Fundraising Conference, we will examine established fundraising best practices through an expanded lens of inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and anti-racism. In an effort to increase representation and remove barriers, we have opened up the board nomination process to include nominating others.
· We are reviewing existing board policies to determine which policies need to be updated and to identify critical gaps to be addressed. We also intend to use our AFP Foundation Grant Back Funds to advance IDEA.
We recognize that this work is a continuous journey. We encourage you to hold us accountable to our commitments and we will continue to make space for your input and feedback.
How to participate
We want you to be a part of this journey with us, as we move through the steps on our IDEA Pathway we will be looking for volunteers to help support this work.
If you are interested in joining our working group please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at afpnovascotia@gmail.com.
As always, we are open to any suggestions, concerns or ideas you would like to share.
Thank you
We’d like to thank you, our membership, for the passion, energy and drive for change that you bring to our sector. Without your support and commitment, this work and initiative would not be possible.
With gratitude,
AFP Nova Scotia Board
And
AFP Nova Scotia IDEA Pathway Working Group
Fiona Valverde
Whitney MacLean
Basim Sobeih