This is a petition started by a collective of Black, Brown, and white anti-racism activists committed to holding Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), and specifically AFP Greater Toronto Chapter (AFP-GTC), accountable for its inaction and failure to make authentic and meaningful progress on its stated goal and objectives around Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA).

Collectively, we are requesting AFP-Global revoke AFP-GTC’s Ten Star Chapter designation for reasons outlined below.

The Chapter Ten Star/Ten Star Gold Award honours those chapters who have accomplished many of the key objectives outlined in AFP’s 2022-2024 Strategic Plan. The pathways to this achievement are outlined on AFP Global’s website and are as follows:

1. Promote inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA)
2. Promote relevant and high-quality fundraising education.
3. Increase capacity and strengthen community.
4. Champion ethical fundraising practices.

Based on the protracted harm that has been caused to Black fundraising leaders, and AFP-GTC’s lack of action when specific and detailed complaints of racism are reported, we argue that AFP-GTC has failed at points 1, 3, and 4 of these pathways. They have not acted or behaved in accordance with their own principles of Inclusion Diversity Equity Access (IDEA), as evidenced by choosing to lift up and celebrate an individual who consistently perpetrated harm against Black fundraisers.

Between 2017 and 2019, three Black fundraising professionals experienced anti-Black racism as members of the AFP-GTC board of directors. This was a known issue amongst the AFP membership and as one member of AFP noted on LinkedIn, “This situation was an open secret within my circles for years, but it was never fully brought into the light where it could be held accountable.”

In February 2023, Nneka Allen publicly released her University of British Columbia lecture “Us and Them What it Means to Belong”, outlining her experience of anti-Black racism in detail. This was followed by a two-part series (Part 1 & Part 2) on the Giving Black Podcast titled “Boards and Black Tokenism: What it Really Means to Belong”, featuring Mide Akerewusi, Nneka Allen, and Múthoní Kariuki. In this series, these three leaders courageously detailed their experiences of anti-Black racism, exclusion, tokenization, and abuse at the hands of AFP-GTC board members.

Following these revelations, our collective has called for AFP-GTC to address these acts of anti-Black racism and have called for specific actions of repair to take place. On April 12, eight-weeks after the initial and subsequent LinkedIn posts, and only after significant internal and external pressures, the AFP-GTC board issued an inadequate public apology that was buried on the website with no efforts to share this with the wider AFP community. We do not consider this a genuine apology and are disappointed, but not surprised, by the lack of urgency and humility, the dismissiveness, the incompetence, and the arrogance of this response. It is important to note here that it has been four years since a number of the incidents occurred and were communicated in writing to the AFP-GTC board. The AFP-GTC’s failure to follow up and address the specific concerns raised is hypocritical given their very public positioning and commitment to advancing AFP’s IDEA principles.

Genuine apologies focus on the people who have been harmed, not on those who have caused the harm. A genuine apology would take full responsibility for the actions, and not seek to justify harmful behaviour couched in self-serving language.

In the book From Here to Equality the authors clearly state the elements that constitute repair: acknowledgement, restitution, and closure. They clearly state that “acknowledgement involves the recognition on the part of the beneficiaries of the social injustice that’s in question; an acknowledgement on the part of the beneficiaries of that social injustice that there has been a wrong committed, and that there must be some form of repair to be provided to the folks who are the victims of the injustice.” The AFP-GTC’s statement is not action; in fact, it is not even the first step towards repair.

This is a call for action. As non-profit professionals, sector leaders, and anti-racism activists, we will not settle for anything less than radical change within AFP. This organization cannot claim to be a sector-leader if it is not willing to do the hard work of anti-racism. To this end, we are asking AFP Global to revoke AFP-GTC’s Ten Star Chapter Status effective immediately.

The dismissive behaviour and inaction by AFP-GTC is extremely serious. Keeping in mind “what you permit, you promote”, we implore AFP Global and its board to uphold its own principles of IDEA. We are prepared to take further action should this matter not be resolved in a timely manner. To have AFP-GTC continue to brandish the Ten Star Chapter Status is an insult to the industry and those impacted.

Please sign this petition in support of this action being taken.