Clients
Commitment to IDEAA
Artistic Fundraising Group is actively committed to working practices that are antiracist, equitable, and inclusive, and that are free of discrimination or harassment.
We strive to be accountable to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled individuals and the organizations that center their lives and work.
We acknowledge that our work and learning is and must be ongoing as we listen to, lift up, and center marginalized voices. We continually learn and embrace practices that dismantle harmful ideologies and practices to ensure that our values of antiracism and inclusion permeate our organizational structure and every aspect of the work we do.
We uphold these principles in our work as we:
1. Making our own values clear while leading by example
2. Invite our collaborators to join us in our commitment to continued learning
3. Actively pursuing funding, recommending resources, and providing referrals for our clients' own IDEAA work
In our work, we:
Trust and amplify the perspectives and judgment of our collaborators of color, our queer collaborators, and our disabled collaborators
Practice Community Centric Fundraising that centers nonprofits and the communities they serve in the cultivation and stewardship of institutional funders and individual donors
Foster a culture of inquiry about traditional philanthropic practices to advocate for change in practices among individual donors and institutional funders
Invest in the fundraising skillsets of marginalized artists and arts administrators with regular pro bono learning opportunities and resources
Begin each public gathering with our land acknowledgement statement
Self-identify gender pronouns in all meetings and written communications, and encourage clients to do the same
Offer accessibility options for all virtual and in-person engagements, including ensuring all in-person events are held in ADA accessible spaces
Among our team, we:
Trust and amplify the perspectives and judgment of our colleagues of color, our queer colleagues, and our disabled colleagues
Devote annual paid staff time to both individualized and group professional development in antiracism, inclusion, and equity each year
Continuously evaluate how to incorporate our learning into our policies and best practices to reform Artistic Fundraising Group as an antiracist and inclusive organization
Employ a flat conflict resolution path among our team that enables safe, sustainable IDEAA accountability among our team and clients
Conduct equitable, open, and proactive search processes for new hires for all positions, including our work to actively seek out and invest in professionals from historically marginalized communities while also investing in and promoting those individuals from within our existing team
Respect work/life boundaries without question
Foster an environment of transparent and equitable pay scales with sustainable goals for growth in rates for all roles
Land Acknowledgement
We at Artistic Fundraising Group acknowledge that we work upon the lands of the Council of the Three Fires—the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations—in addition to the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations.
These Indigenous peoples are the traditional stewards of the lands we occupy, before Chicago was a city, and they still thrive here on land that remains important to them today as they celebrate their heritage, practice their traditions, and care for this land and its waterways. It is our responsibility to acknowledge this history. It is also our responsibility to embrace our commitment to build relationships with these Indigenous communities in our own work and practices at Artistic Fundraising Group, and to uncover and invest in ways to include these communities in our efforts to support arts and culture on these lands.