Navigating the fundraising world as a BIPOC expert comes with its own set of unique challenges.
From overcoming systemic barriers to building impactful relationships in spaces that traditionally haven’t embraced diversity. This episode dives into the gritty realities and triumphs of fundraising while black.
Christopher Beck is a seasoned Major and Principal Gift Advisor, who shares his journey from accidental fundraiser to powerhouse connector. From early mentors to high-stake donor interactions, Christopher unpacks the nuances of ‘relationship capital’ and its transformative power in the world of high-level giving.
🎙️ Tune into this insightful conversation to learn how authenticity, resilience, and a deep understanding of donor psychology drive success in fundraising. Whether you’re a BIPOC fundraiser or an ally in the field, this episode is filled with actionable wisdom for everyone.
Join us in shifting the narrative towards more equitable fundraising practices. Listen now!
Important links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbeckone
Episode Transcript
RHEA 00:00
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Welcome to Nonprofit Lowdown, I’m your host, Rhea Wong.
Hi
folks. Rhea Wong here with you once again, Nonprofit Lowdown. My friend Christopher Beck is joining me here today. He is a Major and Principal Gift Advisor. we’re going to talk about all of the things concerning being a Major Gift Advisor, Major Gift Officer, as a man of color, as a black man.
And I’m All of his experiences. So Christopher, welcome to the show.
CHRISTOPHER 01:02
Thank you. It’s an honor to be here.
RHEA 01:03
So before we jump into it all the way in, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got your start in fundraising. Cause most kids don’t grow up thinking I’m going to be a fundraiser when I grow up.
CHRISTOPHER 01:12
Yep. I woke up one day and said I want to be a fundraiser and not, no, I got my start, in Nashville, Tennessee with another organization and the organization took a chance on me. I was super excited about it and I’m grateful for my mentor. Harold Witherspoon. He gave me a shot and really trained me in the right way to do this work and he taught me early on about relationship capital.
He taught me about what that really meant and I will tell you when I start to really understand what relationship capital meant, it changed my whole trajectory in fundraising.
that simply means knowing the value of relationships.
Knowing how to work relationships. How to work with people. Everybody’s different. there’s no one size fit all to it. But you gotta understand that when people, when they trust you you’ve earned their capital, right? And it’s your job to steward that well, right?
And so I’ve been, I’m a person of faith. I’ve been very fortunate to to work with some really great people that’s trying to make the world a better place.
RHEA 02:09
So I’m gonna jump into it because I As a person of color myself I predominantly found myself in rooms with older white folks who had a lot of money.
my experience of having gone as a scholarship kid to a private school was helpful in helping me to navigate spaces that weren’t necessarily what I was brought up in. So I’m just curious for you, can you talk a little bit about, How you’ve learned how to become comfortable and navigate spaces where you may be the only one.
CHRISTOPHER 02:40
So I’ve learned Not to take anything personal, right and I’ve also since this is something that I want once I got into Fundraising and I saw the different avenues and I recognized that I wanted to do Planned giving major gifts and personal gifts all the things And I started to look around in the space, and I realized there wasn’t a lot of people of color in it.
And so, I had an inkling of what I was getting into. And I was like, okay, I’m just going to put on my big pants, right? I’ve always just tried to keep the conversation about the donor, right? Regardless of how otter. ai it’s a vetting process, right?
And I say that respectfully, they’re trying to understand you and I also understand that I may be a lot of times I’m the first person of color to talk to them about their money or some things of substance. And I understand that takes time and a huge comfort level, right? So I just, I never pressure them.
It’s all about them and their timeline. And I just try to make sure that they understand that my job here is to help them to understand their why, right? And to make them feel comfortable as possible.
RHEA 03:39
You talked about something. Talking to people about their money, and I think as fundraisers, a lot of us have to reckon with our own orientation of money, our own stories about money, some trauma that we may have with money and historical, who gets it, who doesn’t get it, who is included in the capitalist system, etc.
Can you talk to me about any personal work that you’ve done around your own orientation to money?
CHRISTOPHER 04:05
Yeah, personally, I’ve been fortunate. My dad taught me about money at a a very early age. And he would always say that, son, money is no good if you can’t make it work for you. and so I’ve always understood that.
So he got me my first little kind of business, if you will, was a firecracker stand. So I sold firecrackers, but I had to borrow the money from him. And so I was so excited. I made 300 bucks. But he was like, son, you got to pay me back my money that I invested in you. And so with that, I just understood. Early on, the value of money, what it means and so I, I’ve been okay with it.
RHEA 04:37
Has it ever been daunting to you? Cause I remember when I first started in this game in New York City, I mean there’s tremendous amount of wealth, right? And I was like, Oh, these people use, summer and winter as verbs.
They’ve got multiple houses, they’ve got private jets. And I just felt very uncomfortable until I think I did some work on myself around why do I feel uncomfortable? With money and a lot of it had to do with stories that my family told about rich people are different than us oh that’s for rich people, not for us, or money doesn’t grow on trees or stuff like that.
So I’m just curious, can you remember the first time that you were confronted with a reality that was very different than like your own reality?
CHRISTOPHER 05:15
Yeah, sure. It’s a great question. Yeah, I remember there’s one donor in particular, We were a few dollars short of a campaign goal, and I was simply calling to get some advice on his thoughts on how we could make the goal, right?
And he said, Oh, Christopher, I’ll just write you a check. I was like, Huh? I said, No, I was calling to get some advice. He said no, I’ll write you a check for the remaining balance. Okay. And at that moment I realized, okay, he’s not calling to ask his wife, he’s not calling to check his money manager to see if anything’s in the account.
he literally wrote the check, right?
RHEA 05:47
What type of check was it?
CHRISTOPHER 05:48
It was a big check. It was a big check. At that moment, I was like, okay, there is another level to this, right? There are some folks out here that has disposable income that they want to just do good with.
That was my first kind of eye opening, and he did help us reach our goal that day and I was excited, so yeah.
RHEA 06:05
How long have you been doing this do, this major gift work?
CHRISTOPHER 06:08
A little bit over 20 years, man.
RHEA 06:10
Wow, really? Because you look like you’re 30, so good job. I would take that.
Okay can, You walk us through the progression of when you first started versus in the middle versus where you are now. Did you change your mindset? Like how have you been able to be in the game so long? Because I know a lot of folks feel like they burn out, particularly folks of color feel like they really burn out in doing this work.
So how have you been able to sustain yourself?
CHRISTOPHER 06:34
So again I’m a person of faith and so I really rely heavily on my faith to help me stay focused because for me I’m just a vessel but at the end of the day, I don’t have the power or the autonomy to make anybody, hey, write me a check, right? All I can do is let them know what we’re doing you have the power, i. e., the donor, you have the power to help, and can I just share this opportunity with you, right?
And it’s their decision. That’s one way. And in other way I have coaches. I have coaches that help me think through different scenarios and help me walk through some of my mental stuff that I have going on. Sometimes when I get bogged down. And then groups like AFP, A A D O, which stands for African American Development Officers Network.
Men of color in development Which, that, that organization there is a subset affinity group of AADO. Those groups help spread the word. provide a safe space for men of color to talk and be open and share about what they’re dealing with. So that’s how I’ve been able to do it and have great family support.
So great family support.
RHEA 07:33
Now, do you find that there are different phases or different issues that people deal with at the beginning of their career versus being more established in the career?
CHRISTOPHER 07:42
Yeah. Early on in your career in doing this, you’re trying to just figure it out. Like it’s, again, there’s no playbook.
Oftentimes, you just walk into it. You’re just giving a desk a phone and say, hey go raise funds. But as you grow in it, you bump your head a little bit. You get some get some dirt underneath you, right? And you get to a point in your career to where, you’ve seen a few things.
And then it’s like, great. How do I. Bring in some of the knowledge that I’m learning into the space, right? How do I especially, People are not ready for it. If you take now just all the things that’s happening with the shrinking donor base, baby boomers aging out, the new philanthropist, donor advised funds like you got to be able to, I think nowadays take all of those things and know a little bit about everything, right?
Just be good at it. I try to stay current on trends and what’s going on, and I try to weave those things into all the work that I’m doing a little bit by a little bit so people can see it. So yeah.
RHEA 08:33
One thing I’m thinking about, too, is the diversification of high net worth donors and the fact that, historically it’s been white, but what we’re seeing now are, lots of folks of color who have wealth that want to be philanthropically inclined.
I’m curious about What are you thinking about that? How are you thinking about tapping communities of color, specifically, black philanthropists, to start to raise money for the causes you care about?
CHRISTOPHER 08:58
That’s a great question. So again, this is totally my thoughts, right? I don’t think most people of color will call the, black people will call themselves philanthropists, right?
Because we’ve just helped people, that’s what we do, right? You guys know the data, all the numbers that we give more if I just, Christian income than anybody else, right? And for me it’s about educating the black community, communities of color, Being philanthropic what does it really mean?
What does it look like? And most of our philanthropic work has not been, logged, if you will, and so that’s being done now. Thanks to people, organizations like AFP, And so we are having to take that information back and share that with the community so they understand.
Yeah, you are philanthropists. It may just have looked a little different, right? But every little bit helps. I always start with education, just awareness and but letting them know, hey, we do want to raise money, but we understand that there, there’s going to be a level of Of education has to come first.
You gotta understand that, right? So I guess if I had to sum it up in one simple term, it would be just education first.
RHEA 09:55
Yeah, it’s so funny you say that because I think about that a lot. Like in, you know, in the trainings community, we don’t call it philanthropy, but we do call it helping out your family.
We call it sending money back home. We call it, paying for someone’s education, right? That is philanthropy, but it’s not capital P Philanthropy, right? We, it’s, but it’s very community oriented. So a couple of last questions. if you could Give yourself advice, the, from 20 years ago, young Christopher starting his career.
What advice would you give him?
CHRISTOPHER 10:23
I would say be confident. It took me a long time to be confident in who I am, in this space, in this skin, in what I know. It took me a while. And once I did realize that. I was in the middle of a pandemic when I became somebody like I literally saw myself metamorph into something else because I started to believe in who I am.
And I what I knew, I knew. And so I think for anybody that’s starting right now, you know, the work if you’ve been doing this work for longer than five years, you know, the work and I will say that the next little bit as we navigate this new donor, this new landscape post COVID. It’s going to be a little bumpy, right?
it’s not going to be for the faint at heart, but stick to the basics, the basics would never fail you, right? They would never fail you. So that’s what I would tell myself.
RHEA 11:10
You know, It’s funny you’re talking. Cause I think about a sports analogy, which is you got to do the reps, right?
You just, you got to stick to the plan and you’re going to show up for practice and you just do the thing. so that’s like a confidence for a second. Cause we’re in. Hearing you say is a lot of your transformation has been a mental one, like a shift in your confidence, shift in like how you show up.
And I know talking to a lot of fundraisers, they feel like, Oh, I can’t be my authentic self or I don’t feel like I can bring my whole self to work. So What came first, like the confidence, then the ability to show up as your full self or the showing up as your full self and then building confidence?
And how did you build that confidence, like tactically?
CHRISTOPHER 11:49
It was confidence. It’s confidence. For me, the confidence came first and I could show up fully, right? You can’t, people can’t see it, but I did not have all this hair on my head, a few years ago. It’s happened because of COVID. most people see me with a low haircut and all this jazz, and I’m like, man, I’m just going to be myself, right?
and coaching helped, listen to some of your podcasts and just, and just some other, no, real talk, and just some other people building community. I had a support system that, that kind of helped me be my authentic self, right? And yeah. Once that happened, oh man.
Yeah. Yeah. All the things.
RHEA 12:22
Yeah. Yeah. When you really step into who you are and, the other thing that occurs to me is this phrase that’s coming up for me is outwork insecurity, right? So if you’re insecure, Just work harder because results will speak for themselves and you’ll become more confident when you see those results and then it’ll just build on Itself.
Yeah, so I’ll work your insecurity
Okay last question for you Can you tell us about the best gift you’ve ever Binded like what’s your favorite donor story?
CHRISTOPHER 12:50
Yeah Wow So Walking the donor and helping them to understand the power of their philanthropy, right? And literally helping a donor go from just, I don’t want to say a zero, but just helping them to understand that your gift can make a difference.
It took me about three years but it was literally like the best It was a really enjoyable time that I had because I learned about the donor. He learned about me. We shared, stuff together and it was really cool. So just to see him go from I’m not giving you any more money to a really transformational gift was really impactful.
And probably the most impactful thing about it was they felt good about it at the end. And he was like, Hey, thank you. Thank you for helping me. Be able to do this right? And so I often think about that.
RHEA 13:40
I love that because I think so often as fundraisers we think of ourselves as oh, I’m trying to get something as opposed to I’m trying to give something and what I’m trying to give is the opportunity for you to create the legacy you want to create with the wealth that you have, right?
At the end of the day, we all just want to do good stuff. So that’s really powerful. And is it okay if I share my favorite gift? Oh, please. It’s not a size, it’s not a size thing, but I was doing a little fundraiser. A bunch of my students after Hurricane Katrina, they wanted to raise money for the kids of New Orleans.
And so I had the kids like, you’re doing the talent show, helping out, like passing out flyers at the door, etc. At the end of the performance, Moses Gardner, I remember her saying, He hands me this crumpled up little envelope with Moses on the front. And he like slides it over to me and I open it up and it’s 10 inside.
And Moses hadn’t gotten that 10 because he played drums in his church band. And I was like, Moses, you don’t have to do this. And he goes no, the kids of New Orleans need it more than I do. And, it brings tears to my eyes. I phrased millions, but none of it has ever meant as much to me as that 10 from Moses Gardner that he gave from playing drums in the church band.
CHRISTOPHER 14:51
And you know why?
Because you saw the true meaning of philanthropy he gave from his heart. He gave from the abundance of what he had. And that gift right there is transformational like five times over, no matter if it’s, 5 million, right? But those are the gifts. And that’s why, I love the work that we do, like when you see people giving from the abundance, no matter how much they have, and you know it’s a stretch for them, man, like it’s so much power in that, man, so much power.
RHEA 15:19
And I think the giving is also, it can’t be measured, right? The feeling that I give, that I get from giving something that I truly love, That I can see is impactful to someone’s life, like you can’t put a price tag on that.
CHRISTOPHER 15:35
No, I totally agree, and like I said, it all goes back to the donor, right?
Because when we’re asking people to make a gift, no matter what the size, right? You’re asking them to give from what they have, but it’s still pulling from something. I don’t think we think about that enough. If we ask them to give X amount, it’s coming from somewhere, whether they have it or whether if they have it, additionally, or they just got to make some things happen to do it, but they’re still giving.
So just the fact that they’re giving and they’re giving unconditionally, right? There’s so much power in that man. So much power in that.
RHEA 16:06
Wait, last, I know I keep saying last question, but I keep trying to see you forever. You said that this gift that you were working on took three years. And we know that big gifts take time, right?
It takes time to build trust. It takes time to build relationships. How do you balance the tension between working at the pace that the donor wants to work versus within the consideration that There are timelines, right? Like sometimes you got to meet payroll. Sometimes there’s a sense of urgency and sometimes I do think.
That our short sightedness keeps us from really landing the bigger gifts because we’re thinking about right now tomorrow, but we should be thinking about what’s the 10 year goal? So the question is like, how do you balance the two of, Hey, my donor is going to only move as fast as they’re comfortable at the same time that I’m getting pressure from, my higher ups, like you got to close the gift now.
CHRISTOPHER 16:57
So I always try to keep an open dialogue with my, my supervisors or whatever, and let them know what’s going on. And I think for me, as long as you can, and this is, again, my personal opinion, as long as you can show, I like to say, strategic movements, strategic engagement opportunities, or create strategic engagement opportunities for the supporter, and share with your supervisor or your director that you are moving the needle.
That has worked for me again that has worked for me because at the end of the day it’s gonna be on the donor’s timeline no matter what But if you can show that you’re just moving a needle I think People can’t knock that because you’re working right?
I mean you’re working as fast as you can so yeah that has worked for me
RHEA 17:35
what’s the role of likeability in fundraising because sometimes When I You know, looking at people who want to be in my program, I actually interview everybody because, frankly, not everybody is cut out to be a fundraiser.
I think there’s a level of emotional intelligence, a level of likability that you have to have. And so I’m just curious, in your experience, like, How much of a role does likeability play in being able to land the gift?
CHRISTOPHER 18:00
Oh my goodness. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say about 90%.
RHEA 18:03
Wow! Yeah.
Okay.
CHRISTOPHER 18:05
Because, I think people, especially your sophisticated, and I don’t mean no disrespect to anybody, but especially your sophisticated donors, right? They can see when you’re authentic and when you are really working on their behalf, right? and I always, I always tell myself, like when I’m going for a donor meeting, if a donor invites me and say, Hey, Christopher, yeah, call me back, you know, I look forward to our next coffee meeting.
At that point, I’m like, Oh yeah, you know what I mean? but if they don’t say that, I know I have a little bit more work to do, right? And so I got to figure out, I didn’t quite engage in the right way or I missed something, right? So yeah. So I would say 90%. And if they like you mean they’re going to, they can see themselves working with you.
That’s a big part of the battle right there.
RHEA 18:45
So you said something so interesting, working with you. And I think that’s a little bit different than your average fundraiser, because your average fundraiser will be like, I’m doing stuff to the donor to get something. And I think what I’m hearing is that orientation of we’re working together for a goal, right?
And how can I help you as a donor, get the thing that you want, achieve your goal.
CHRISTOPHER 19:08
Yeah. So I borrowed this from Our friend Greg Warner he calls it a sage, right? So I am simply just an advisor, a sage, helping the donor to figure out I think he got it from Dr. Russell James, their philanthropic interest, their hero, their donor story, if you will.
So I’m helping them identify that, right? and that takes work. And That’s kind of how I like to see it. This is a mutually beneficial partnership, right? It’s not one sided. we’re in this together. And that’s how I look at it.
RHEA 19:34
OK, juicy.
Last question. I promise the last question. Can you share a gift that didn’t or an ask that did not go the way that you wanted or went sideways? And what did you learn from it?
CHRISTOPHER 19:44
Yeah. Yeah. So working with a family
Made the ask, and they said no, right? And looking back at the time, I thought the time was right. It was about a year and a half into it. I thought the timing was right. And they said no, right? But, I thanked them for the opportunity. And we kept on being friends, We never stopped. I kept calling, every six months or whatever, they kept sending me text messages, so the friendship was still there so they said no.
Fast forward about two years later, they reached out and they wanted to talk, right, and we were able to work on some things and they made a donation, but it was all about their timing, right? They felt good about it. They needed to clear up some things.
it went south, but we, I stayed the course, right? Being a friend, being my authentic, being the sage, right? And on their timeline they reached out and said, Hey let’s, Let’s have a conversation.
RHEA 20:35
Okay. So how do you, cause you said something about the friendship and I think there can be, it gets very gray area, right? Cause sometimes people really like you and they want to hang out with you. And then you’re like, Oh, is it now? It’s weird because we’re in the friend zone.
And I actually was. It’s like cultivating you, but now you think we’re homies. So how have you handled that in the past? Because I have fallen into that trap for sure.
CHRISTOPHER 21:00
So again, this is, these are totally my Christopher isms, right? I don’t know if you can be your authentic self with a donor without sharing a part of yourself.
You have to be able to give them a little bit, right? Just so they know that you are real and that you are not, you don’t see them as a widget or a, or an ATM, right? And so I just, I try to make sure that they know that I’m for real. And that I do have feelings. I, I have my moments.
And yeah, so sometimes I, I’ll call a donor just to check in, totally don’t want anything except just to talk, right? One of my donors she loves flowers, right? She loves flowers. And so I may just if I’m out somewhere on a traveling, I may just send a snapshot of a of a flower that I know she might like and those little things.
That makes all the difference in the world to her, right? Just again, just building real authentic relationships and sharing a part of yourself, and then letting them know that you hear them too, right? I’m not a flower person, But if I’m taking time to send her something about a flower, okay?
He’s really thinking about us as a family,
RHEA 21:56
you keep saying as a family. Are you, when you’re thinking about a decision for a really big gift, are you thinking about it from a family perspective or an individual perspective?
CHRISTOPHER 22:07
Yeah. There’s always family, right? Because again, if you’re talking about asking people to give from their assets or something like that You might be taking from their kid’s college fund, or or whatever the case may be, so always and try to, always try to include, talk, when I’m talking to the donors I may try to bring up something about, do your family know that you’re thinking about this? How much is your family involved?
Like, try to let them know that this is a, Total engagement of everybody, not just one person. So yeah and that shows them that I care about them and their family as a whole. Again, this is just how I do it, right? I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but.
RHEA 22:39
Have you ever had to walk away from a donor and just be like, no, like we can’t do business together?
How do you know when the time is right? Because I think sometimes we, we get ourselves into maybe like abusive relationships with their toxic relationships with donors because we feel like, Oh, we need to get that check.
CHRISTOPHER 22:57
Yeah. You just know just from the vibe, some of the questions they’re asking it’s not for the betterment of the good it’s more so for them and what can they get out of it, from a, very selfish way, so I will absolutely walk away, no qualms, yeah, absolutely, and have, yeah.
RHEA 23:12
Okay, Christopher, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I’m going to put your LinkedIn info in the show notes. Is it okay? Okay.
CHRISTOPHER 23:19
Do you want to share what we’re talking from?
RHEA 23:20
Yes. So right now we are at AFP icon in Toronto. This has been so fun.
I am calling it the Coachella of fundraisers. I was calling it the Burning Man, but I realized people aren’t really wearing costumes. So like we’ll call it the Coachella. I’m an AFP icon virgin. I’ve never, this is my first time. But it’s been so fun. It’s been fun. Actually. So Christopher and I have been connecting on zoom and phone, but this is our first time in person.
So I took the opportunity to stick a microphone in his face. So thank you for indulging me.
CHRISTOPHER 23:50
It’s been a pleasure. So happy to meet you. I’m a huge fan of your work and just thank you for the opportunity.
RHEA 23:55
Thank you and have a good day.
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