“These book circles were an opportunity to extend our reach into those different sectors and groups. We’re not asking you for money. We’re not fundraising. We’re saying, ‘Join us. Join us in conversations.’”
— Sari Raskin, Community Foundation for Northern Virginia
Nonprofits are always looking for ways to better connect with donors, so they feel closer to the organization and its mission. Community foundations in Northern Virginia and Delaware have found ways to connect that don’t involve a direct ask and help address concerns their donors have expressed: book clubs where people from different backgrounds come together and talk.
“A theme that we heard coming out from our fund partners and from our board members was just how divisive the times were feeling,” says Gabrielle Webster, director of donor relations at the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. “That’s a problem that’s hard for philanthropy to solve because you can’t really throw money at people not communicating. So how do we create these spaces? This was our attempt at that.”
I spoke to Webster about the book circles for a story running in the Chronicle‘s Commons project, which explores how nonprofits and foundations are working to close divides. But the project, which is spearheaded by fundraisers, is also a model for better connecting with supporters. The book circles were designed so multiple small-group discussions — either virtual or in-person — could be held throughout the year. They culminated with a large gathering where the author spoke and attendees could ask questions.
The community foundation distributed copies of the book to volunteer hosts who agreed to bring together people with different perspectives for discussion. It sounded good in theory, but there was a problem.
“The first year, a lot of the questions were, ‘How do we find people who have differences from us?’” Webster says. “We all kind of self-select and silo, not even intentionally.”
Webster says the foundation doesn’t collect information on supporters’ political outlooks, so it couldn’t put together people with wildly different policy views. However, for the second year of the program, during which participants discussed How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks, it attempted to assemble diverse groups based on other factors.
“We tried to put people together whose paths may not necessarily cross,” Webster says. “Even if they don’t necessarily have extreme differences, they maybe just wouldn’t have met each other otherwise. They work in different sectors or they live in different parts of the region.”
The key is having different people from the community get comfortable with each other so that when tough problems arise, they’re able to meet with one another, be respectful, and move the community forward, says Sari Raskin, vice president of grants and community leadership at the community foundation.
“We’re about bringing people together so we can come together to solve problems and be creative and respect one another and each other’s perspectives,” Raskin says.
For more on the book circles, read my entire article.
Corporate Giving Trends. The median amount corporations gave to charity from 2021 to 2023 increased just 2 percent after adjusting for inflation, according to a new report by Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a nonprofit that focuses on social responsibility at corporations.
The annual report, “Giving in Numbers: 2024 Edition,” surveyed 219 large corporations about their giving habits and social practices. The report measures giving as “total community investment,” which includes cash, gifts through corporate foundations, and noncash donations, such as products. The small overall increase in giving was tempered by the fact that 53 percent of the companies surveyed gave less during the period.
For more data from the survey, including how companies are cutting back spending on racial-equity efforts, read my entire story.
