Fundraising Principles
Metro Blooms’ Fundraising Principles ground our commitment to racial, environmental, economic, and social justice. We recognize that people’s economic and environmental realities are unequal and inequitable. These principles reflect our commitment to unravel these inequities by operating from a place of collaboration, abundance, reciprocity, and respect.
We stand behind Community-Centric Fundraising Principles which provide a framework and perspective for the development of our own. A committee of staff, donors, board and community members shaped Metro Blooms’ Fundraising Principles. It’s likely these principles will change over time as our work evolves and we continue to listen and respond to our communities. We invite you to join us in upholding these principles as part of our community of supporters.
We ground our fundraising in equity, racial, environmental, and social justice.
- We listen, trust, and respond to all of the communities we work with, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
- All of our work happens in collaboration; as such, we redistribute funds and prioritize fundraising efforts in support of the communities we work with.
- We understand that people are at different stages in their journeys in racial, environmental and social justice. We recognize privilege and wealth are often inextricably linked and wealth inequality is often tied to racial inequality. We encourage donors to examine their proximity to privilege and wealth.
We recognize the abundant and diverse ways of contributing to our work.
- We honor gifts of time and lived experiences with the same value as financial investments of all sizes.
- All who engage in strengthening the community are valued, whether volunteer, staff, donor, partner, community, or board member.
- We build meaningful relationships that are long term, mutually beneficial, and centered ingrowth and collaboration. We strive to go beyond financial transactional exchanges.
We are transparent and accountable with our funders, partners, community members, volunteers, and board members.
- We commit to sharing the impact of the work we accomplish together and also the challenges we face.
- We commit to sharing our financial information and program outcomes.
- We promise to be good stewards of donations of time, money, and resources.
We treat donors as partners.
- All partners in our work, regardless of their financial capacity or contributions, are treated equally.
- We are transparent about our values and engage in difficult conversations when our values are out of alignment with a donor’s intentions.
- Donors’ contributions are central to our work. We value our donors’ insights, and we will respectfully, but firmly, push back when donors say or do things that could hurt our work or the communities we partner with.
We prioritize the collective community over individual organizational missions.
- We believe communities are best served when we see ourselves as part of a larger ecosystem working collectively to build a just society.
- We collaborate with organizations whose missions are interconnected with ours, supporting them to ensure they are also strong. This includes sharing ideas, funding, and resources such as grant opportunities and funder relationships.