Giving Compass' Take:

• Vu Le, writing for Nonprofit AF, discusses how the nonprofit and philanthropy sector can better communicate with the public to accurately shape narratives of how social change works. 

• How can philanthropists contribute to shaping this narrative and spread more awareness in the sector?

• Vu Le discusses the backlash toward the Minnesota Freedom Fund as an example. Understand more about the overflow of donations to racial justice groups. 

A few months ago, I had just left my position as an executive director and was starting to work on a cool project: A sketch comedy show about nonprofit work! It would be so sweet; each episode would feature several short and hilarious skits that bring to life the complexity of our work, sometimes involving hummus (which is present in 80% of nonprofit meetings and events). No one outside the sector really understands what we do, and I thought it would be fun to let people get a glimpse. I was starting to write scripts when the pandemic hit and everything had to be put on hold and who the hell knows if I’ll ever get to it at this point.

But we need to do something, because the public’s complete lack of awareness about how nonprofits operate has some serious consequences. Last week, we saw the public pile on the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a small nonprofit that saw an influx of $35M over the past three weeks and had been able to spend $200,000 so far. The comments on Twitter are scathing, sometimes ridiculous, with people expecting MFF to have a perfect plan within two weeks on what to do with 300 times the amount they normally get in one year.

We need to be deliberate about shaping the narrative about what we do. This includes:

  1. Make general operating donations the default
  2. Show what it takes to do the work well
  3. Get people to invest in long-term strategies
  4. Have people see an ecosystem, not a bunch of stand-alone organizations
  5. Push back on people’s ignorance instead of just navigating around it
  6. Shift people’s focus to the real issues

Read the full article about shaping narratives about nonprofits and philanthropy by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.