What to Do About Donors Who Require Your Nonprofit to Be ‘Woke’?

The “war on woke” could be one path back to our common hopes and goals. 

Recently, Katrina’s father passed away. At the reading of his will, the executor read the phrase, “the masculine shall be taken to mean the feminine,” and then said, “That’s for the ‘woke’ among us.” She was so stunned by the callousness of the imposition of his ideology on the reading of her father’s will that she was silent, speechless. Of course, women — especially married women — had limited ability to form contracts and own property as individuals for much of our nation’s history, which is why the phrase was inserted for absolute clarity. 

Similarly, use of the word “tribe” in what audience members deem an act of cultural appropriation will get you a nice little backlash online and in house along with accusations of not being “woke.” That Otis, someone who holds a doctorate in social psychology, is using the word to describe a social process that is independent of any particular culture will not get you out of the “you’re not woke” label.  

The word “woke,” what does that even mean? The Oxford English Dictionary defines woke as: 

“Originally: in a state of awareness or vigilance; spec. well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to… In more recent use, sometimes derogatory, esp. as a means of characterizing such alertness (or the political and social views stereotypically associated with it) as doctrinaire, self-righteous, or pernicious.”

Today, if lobbed as an insult, “woke” means one is simply too aware and too sensitive to racial and social discrimination and injustice. The insult of being “too woke” or “not woke” is hurled with wild abandon today in the most unusual of situations. 

So, in this fraught environment how dangerous is it to be “woke” or “not woke” for us in social good? Are we in danger of alienating donors because we are too “woke” or “not woke enough”? What, if anything, should we do about that? 

First, are those of us in social good “woke” by definition? Given that women and minorities are often underrepresented in data sets that drive nonprofit-supported research, we are often not “woke,” but one has to dig to find out. But, for those with a woke-induced rash, showing women and minorities in our collateral helps us pass the woke sniff test. 

Our nonprofit corporate-speak in human resources sounds a lot like we’re woke, but the statistics of employment in nonprofits scream “not woke.” And in the largest nonprofits, we are the “least woke.” Research has shown that the likelihood of a woman being hired as a nonprofit CEO decreases by 0.2 percentage points with each million-dollar increase in its revenue. 

So we’re in this weird place. A lot of nonprofits are not really “woke” but potentially suffer from looking “woke” to donors unfriendly to woke-ness. (We’re going to continue to put “woke” in quotes because we just hate the word altogether now, given its recent bastardization to be an insult. It’s kind of like the Confederate flag, which means something altogether different than it did years ago.) 

On the other hand, there is a whole set of donors who require us to be “woke” for them to happily donate. How do we play this terrible game? 

1. Do the Right Thing in Preparation

Make sure the history of your organization reads favorably in the future. Do the right things to promote diversity and equity. But in times of conflict, this is not your defense. This is baseline good organizational behavior. Eliminate indifference as a vulnerability.

2. Know When to Respond

Assuming your organization is working toward equity and inclusion, local politics may offer an answer when accused of being “too woke” or “not woke enough.” There are things a local politician doesn’t get to vote on when in office. National defense? A local politician’s opinion doesn’t matter. They don’t get to vote on that. Ban on books in the local library? That politician is required to say their stance out loud because they might get to vote on that. 

If an area of conflict is outside of your mission, the organization doesn’t have to take a stance. Instead, you can redirect back to the thing on which you agree with your patrons: the mission. If the area of conflict is in how you address our mission, you must engage. 

3. Redirect Back to the Mission Relentlessly

When forced to engage, continually redirect back to the mission. Point out that energy directed away from the mission hurts your mission population. Doing this will eliminate the vast majority of conflict if you are disciplined. 

There will still be people on one side or the other who will simply want to pick a fight and have airtime about you being too “woke” or “not woke enough.” You’ll have to engage thoughtfully with constant redirection back to the mission with them, and you won’t always be successful. But your board, your staff and your major donors will see you remaining dedicated to the mission. 

4. Make Lemonade

In the examples of conflict we gave earlier, here’s what happened: 

• Reading of the will. Katrina let it go. The will was executed and she didn’t die. 
• Use of the word “tribe.” We used a synonym, said the same thing, and Katrina didn’t die. 

Conflict averted; higher goal achieved.

In our fractured society, any place or idea around which we can have common ground, like curing kids of cancer or reducing suicide rates, will serve our society beyond the mission by bringing people together. Instead of seeing the “woke” battle as the problem, see addressing mission challenges as the opportunity for us to lead the way in coming back together over common hopes and goals. 

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.