You have commented on an important aspect of work being dependent upon donors. Typical donors especially people who donate larger sums of money have expectations of how they want to monies to be focused. Your experience is a warning and a lesson for us. I have found it can be a difficult choice looking at sustaining an organization while staying true to the call when I am focused on the organization. The focus of sustaining an organization begins to guide me of course. It is one of those life lessons that I will not forget. Especially over the past few years I have lost long time donors over staying aligned with seeking justice, human flourishing. The Black Lives Matter movement brought about my largest donor to withdraw donating because he disagreed with my support with the movement.
That donor’s treatment of you was horrifying. I’m sorry you and the organization went through that, and I’m glad they stood by you in the face of the donor’s threats. White guilt and the white savior complex are truly monstrous, suffocating things. They stand in the way of genuine progress and healing, placing heavy burdens on everyone. How sad that the donor could not hear your words and see that there was a wonderful opportunity to use his funds to better help the kids in your community, and to collaborate with you as an equal. Instead, he interpreted your suggestion as personal attack to his authority and “goodness”—probably because he was only ever looking at his own reflection, rather than at the needs of the people he claimed to want to help.
Wow. This lunch sounds like a modern day conversation with Jesus and the Pharisees. Such a painful, poignant example of how deeply harmful our unexamined shame is. Thank you for your courage, compassion, and curiosity - both in the making of and in the sharing of this story.
Wow yes. Inside each system we believe that if our whole system isn't copied by other people then we have failed them, thus replicating a Christmas Experience to ease our guilt of over spending on our own and neglecting the poor in our own cities.
Joel, thank you for sharing your story and experience. Thank you for taking a breath and asking questions. I am, in my older age, finally learning to do the same. P'alante.
You have commented on an important aspect of work being dependent upon donors. Typical donors especially people who donate larger sums of money have expectations of how they want to monies to be focused. Your experience is a warning and a lesson for us. I have found it can be a difficult choice looking at sustaining an organization while staying true to the call when I am focused on the organization. The focus of sustaining an organization begins to guide me of course. It is one of those life lessons that I will not forget. Especially over the past few years I have lost long time donors over staying aligned with seeking justice, human flourishing. The Black Lives Matter movement brought about my largest donor to withdraw donating because he disagreed with my support with the movement.
That donor’s treatment of you was horrifying. I’m sorry you and the organization went through that, and I’m glad they stood by you in the face of the donor’s threats. White guilt and the white savior complex are truly monstrous, suffocating things. They stand in the way of genuine progress and healing, placing heavy burdens on everyone. How sad that the donor could not hear your words and see that there was a wonderful opportunity to use his funds to better help the kids in your community, and to collaborate with you as an equal. Instead, he interpreted your suggestion as personal attack to his authority and “goodness”—probably because he was only ever looking at his own reflection, rather than at the needs of the people he claimed to want to help.
Wow. This lunch sounds like a modern day conversation with Jesus and the Pharisees. Such a painful, poignant example of how deeply harmful our unexamined shame is. Thank you for your courage, compassion, and curiosity - both in the making of and in the sharing of this story.
Wow yes. Inside each system we believe that if our whole system isn't copied by other people then we have failed them, thus replicating a Christmas Experience to ease our guilt of over spending on our own and neglecting the poor in our own cities.
Joel, thank you for sharing your story and experience. Thank you for taking a breath and asking questions. I am, in my older age, finally learning to do the same. P'alante.