Innovative strategies of Somos El Poder and First Nations Development Institute help nonprofits diversify income, navigate challenges, and enhance community connection.
Early in her career as a development officer for a small dance nonprofit, Ashley Echevarria was concerned that her Puerto Rican heritage would limit her credibility in the predominantly White fundraising environment.
She instead learned how to make it her strength, thanks to training offered by Somos El Poder, which focuses on improving and growing Latinx nonprofits’ fundraising. Its goal: leverage more resources than direct philanthropic funding would alone.
After the training, Echevarria appreciated that her identity was integral to donor work. Somos El Poder teaches fundraisers that communicating honestly, especially from a cultural perspective, results in extremely effective fundraising.
That training is part of a movement placing culturally informed fundraising in the hands of smaller nonprofits, an approach that diversifies income streams, helps nonprofits thrive through challenging times, and enhances the connection to their communities.
“What they emphasized is that you need to be yourself.”
“What they emphasized is that you need to be yourself,” Echevarria said. “The training helped me realize that this is the work I'm passionate about, and while I probably don't look like the other people that you typically see in this role, there's nothing inherently good or bad about that.”
First Nations Development Institute, which has provided funding for Indigenous organizations for decades, has been working in a similar way through its project, “Native Fundraisers Community of Practice.”
The training for Native nonprofit and Tribal program professionals is collaborative, respectful, and rooted in Native communities. Members of the Native Fundraisers Community of Practice develop core grant writing principles, funding pitches, and storytelling focused on the strengths, abundance, and ingenuity of Native communities and bolstered by their cultures and ways of living.
Deb Stacona (right), receives her completion certificate from First Nations Development Institute Vice President Catherine Bryan (left) in 2023. Credit: First Nations Development Institute
First Nations has provided training to nearly 100 Native leaders since launching the community of practice in 2019. More than 350 nonprofit leaders have completed Somos El Poder's fundraising training. Both organizations’ trainings have been transformational for participants.
“Getting in there and really seeing effective ways to [fundraise]—how to present yourself, and how to really sell… the uniqueness of what we offer—I wouldn't have gotten that without this training,” said Justin Cree, Director of Akwesasne Cultural Center, a nonprofit focused on the history and culture of the Akwesasne Kanien’keha:ka Mohawks. “Our whole approach really benefits from what they've done for us.”
Powerful Voice
Somos El Poder asserts that culturally relevant fundraisers from a community understand best the needs of a community and how to craft messages that resonate.
Showing the Latinx community how to tap into its power and voice through its nonprofits inspired Armando Enrique Zumaya, a highly successful fundraiser in his own right, to establish Somos El Poder in 2020.
“Very early on, I saw that Latinx nonprofits were extremely fragile, heavily dependent on federal funding and grant funding,” Zumaya said. “I founded the organization to stand up for and strengthen the Latino community through our nonprofits. I want people to see Latinos as a powerful voice and community in our country.”
Somos El Poder Founder and Executive Director Armando Zumaya has worked in fundraising for more than 40 years. Credit: Somos El Poder
Along with fundraising and development training, Somos El Poder supports professional development and consultations for Latinx nonprofits across the U.S. All those efforts are designed to empower and raise the confidence of Latinx fundraisers and to utilize their cultural background as a tool in their philanthropic work.
Those initiatives also boost the careers of development professionals. Echevarria said the Somos El Poder training was instrumental in her rapid rise. Today, she is Associate Development Director for Alternatives, a Chicago nonprofit providing restorative justice programs and behavioral health services for young people.
Skilled and Innovative Fundraisers
Most professional fundraising development is for large-budget institutions with complex fundraising programs, not more modest Latinx and Indigenous nonprofits.
The gap inspired First Nations to design trainings that ensure long-term resilience of Indigenous nonprofits and communities by building a cadre of skilled and innovative Indigenous fundraisers.
That capacity is essential. Less than one percent of all philanthropic resources go to Native organizations and causes, according to First Nations’ 2024 Annual Report.
“We all have a role in upholding narratives about Native communities that showcase their successful community development.”
“We all have a role in upholding narratives about Native communities that showcase their successful community development and asserting to philanthropies that Native communities and leaders hold innovative solutions that are most relevant to their needs,” said Catherine Bryan, First Nations Vice President of Grantmaking, Communications, and the Native Arts, Language, and Knowledge Program.
Participants at Fundraising Con Ganas receive instruction on many aspects of fundraising, such as what nonprofits should include in their pitches for support. Credit Somos El Poder
First Nations’ research and messaging guides, Reclaiming Native Truth, emerged from that perspective and are coupled with the community of practice training. Reclaiming Native Truth emphasizes strengths-based communications and fundraising that emphasizes the richness of Native cultures and how to preserve and steward them for generations.
“I absolutely loved the training,” said Trey Adcock, Executive Director of the Center for Native Health, which focuses on collective health issues for Indigenous Americans. “Part of it is just being in community with other Native People. All the tribes are different, but there are also common experiences and challenges. There's real beauty in hearing other stories.”
He said Reclaiming Native Truth was “brilliant… clear… powerful and it works.” Its framework “made its way back into the DNA of our organization.”
Tahlia Natachu-Eriacho, Executive Director of the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project, said the community of practice training “mentored me on how to create bridges between my community and amazing people who do want to invest in the well-being of people, helping show them how we get those dollars to the places that need it most.”
Native nonprofit workers gather and collaborate to enhance grantwriting, funding pitches, and storytelling. Credit: First Nations Development Institute
Dispelling Fundraising Misconceptions
Tania Estrada, Executive Director of The Women’s Building, a Latina-focused community organization, said Somos El Poder training allowed her organization to reimagine itself, starting with its board.
Somos El Poder founder Zumaya attended their board retreat to talk about fundraising, connecting to community, and shifting approach. Estrada said, “What we committed ourselves to, as a result, was to become a fundraising board.”
Teaching fundraisers to harness their communities’ potential also dispels misconceptions about the communities’ giving power.
“It's really, really beautiful, when you are in a space of trust and understanding about your mutual cultural background, remembering how we were all taught by our abuelitas (grandmothers),” Estrada said. “Somos El Poder really explained how we can use this perspective for fundraising, demystifying the idea that we cannot fundraise. We just need to be more vocal about it and explain how it is the core of these strategies for our communities.”
Since 2023, MacArthur has provided $450,000 in support to First Nations Development Institute for general operations. MacArthur also has awarded Somos El Poder $450,000 through Commonweal in flexible support and fundraising training support from 2021 through 2025.
