How Your Organization Can Authentically Celebrate Its First Black History Month
The Wisdom of WOC is a weekly advice column where the WOC Community can submit its questions about fundraising and philanthropy, and have them answered by our founder, Yolanda F. Johnson, and special guest editors from the WOC community.
From Our Mailbag
Q: My organization has never celebrated Black History Month before but want to make an effort now. Is it too trite/what is an appropriate first try?
—Anonymous
A: It’s never too late to celebrate Black History Month! It’s an important thing to incorporate for many reasons, including demonstrating to your community that you care about recognizing the contributions and history of African Americans. What you always want to keep in mind, is to never become performative in your demonstration. It should be real and authentic and thoughtful enough not to slip into cultural appropriation vs. appreciation. A good question to also ponder, is why, in 2022, your organization has not yet embraced Black History Month? I suggest that you take some time to explore your history as an initial step.
Then, as with everything, start with your mission. That will be a guiding principle. Then, be sure that if you are not a Black person, to not prescribe what you think should be celebrated or other things you’ve seen other orgs do. Rather, welcome and invite conversation with Black stakeholders (staff, constituents, volunteers, board members and even trusted donors) to get their thoughts on how they see your organization authentically celebrating Black History Month. Then, in partnership with them, think about your constituents and the community your serve and your donor base and stakeholders. What will resonate with them? Is there something particularly timely or obvious that is related to your work that you can celebrate or recognize? Be open to many formats. Events, initiatives, social media campaigns, e-communications, etc. might be the best fit for your starting point.
Overall, this could really be a win for you; an opportunity to bring people together and allow your Black stakeholders to give voice to how they see celebrating Black culture. You can use this as a starting point for further conversations with all of the people of color within your community to become more inclusive overall. And remember that you don’t need to start big, but you do need to start at your best. If you are inclusive, intentional, and thoughtful about your Black History Month celebrations, you’re also more apt to be successful.
This Week’s Expert
Yolanda F. Johnson, Founder of WOC
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