WHAT THE FUNDRAISING
35: Sexual Harassment in Fundraising
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“My job is to bring people to task, to have people be accountable. And if the money goes elsewhere, if there’s a geopolitical problem, we have to confront that, but that’s a different issue and shouldn’t be sideswiped.”
– Ann Olivarius
Episode #35
Overview
In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast…
I have the incredible honor of interviewing Dr. Ann Olivarius who is recognized around the world for her pioneering work in representing victims of sexual violence, sexual harassment, and discrimination. Today Dr. Olivarius is a member of the organization Women Moving Millions, and the Chair of McAllister Olivarius, a leading firm in the US and UK representing victims of sexual misconduct and discrimination in employment, universities, hospitals, and other institutions. Her firms have achieved landmark settlements for survivors of abuse and have successfully coordinated international efforts to bring people to justice.
In this two-part series, Dr. Olivarius shares a wide perspective on the issue of sexual harassment, talks about some cases she’s worked on through her successful career and explains why we urgently need to create fundraising norms that create more safety for fundraisers and break the cycle of toxic power dynamics.
In part 1, we get to hear about Ann’s coming of age and the background stories that led her to birth the legal case for sexual harassment and coin the term date rape. We talk about some of the gender dynamics and historical foundational elements of the funder/fundraiser relationship that make it particularly vulnerable for sexual harassment situations. And we talk about some of the other forms of violence and racism in the sector because, as we know, sexual harassment is not the only form of harassment and abuse. At the same time, we also know that sexual harassment is a huge issue in our sector and one that needs to be talked about in a bigger way.
In part two, we are diving into how to create organizational support for your fundraisers and how to ensure your donors understand your guidelines and process for protecting fundraisers from sexual harassment. Dr. Olivarius explains what a nondisclosure agreement is and how it is used as a tool of oppression. We also talk about how the corporate sector has changed and the progress we have seen in terms of accountability and protection. We address how to deal with legacy issues in organizations, and Dr. Olivarius gives some clear advice around how organizations and this sector can best protect fundraisers and what to do when sexual harassment happens.
The goal of this series is to acknowledge this issue, learn together, understand what collective action looks like, learn how to create safer environments for our fundraisers, and create an opening to process our past trauma through different lanes of support (the legal route is only one of many options).
This series is going to push you and make you uncomfortable. It’s forcing us to ask some hard questions and it gives some clear next steps on how to create organizations that better support and protect our fundraisers. I hope you’ll join me for this important conversation….
sexual harassment sexual harassment sexual harassment sexual harassment sexual harassment sexual harassment sexual harassment
EPISODE GUIDE (PartI)
- (04:42) - Who is Dr. Ann Olivarius? The sexual abuse and power dynamics during her coming of age and how that led to the work she does today.
- (08:53) - How the legal basis for sexual harassment came to be what we know today
- (17:07) - Dr. Olivarius’ experience with Women Moving Millions and how it impacts the way she looks at the movement of money and fundraising
- (20:23) - Drawing the Line: The importance of holding people accountable for sexual harassment even if other problems arise as a result
- (22:29) - Money and Control: How theories on money and the movement of money is used to reinforce and protect power
- (23:43) - Sexual harassment in philanthropy: the gender dynamics and historical foundational elements of the funder/fundraiser relationship that make it particularly vulnerable for sexual harassment
- (27:06) - How do you know when it’s sexual harassment?
- (27:31) - Changing the dynamic imbalance and how to create fundraising norms that support fundraisers to do their critical work.
EPISODE GUIDE (pART ii)
- (03:26) - The structures that need to be in place for reporting and accountability.
- (08:19) - Some of Dr. Olivarius’ past experiences and how they have given her the clarity to be the activist she is today
- (11:30) - How documentation can help to identify patterns of behavior, protect other staff members, and make it clear when you do have a sexual harasser
- (13:06) - Why it’s important to be paying fundraisers more and the role this plays in getting fundraisers the respect they deserve
- (14:39) - What is the real role of an NDA and the implications of a nonprofit using or not using them.
- (17:56) - Organizational policy or procedure recommendations from Dr. Olivarius
- (23:58) - What is at stake for organizations if they hold people accountable for sexual harassment and what’s at stake if they don’t hold their funders accountable.
- (25:16) What is the intersection in our sector between sexual harassment and the other forms of harassment, abuse, and racism experienced by our Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous colleagues
- (27:31) - What to do if you want to file a claim?
- (30:24) - Where Dr. Ann Olivarius finds courage: The fight for women equality in many fronts worldwide.
- (34:03) - Managing traumatic stories both personally and professionally
- (36:04) - Where to contact Dr. Ann Olivarius.
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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THIS EPISODE
- Money Must Work for Systematic Equity - Whether it is racial, economic, political, gender equity, you have to be clear about what your organizational goals are and lead with that in your relationship building.
- Look at the Redistribution of Power - Money needs to be shared with people who are proximate to the issues that we care about. It's not trickle-down economics, it's from the ground up. We need to pay attention to who's getting empowered in the process.
- Everyone Needs to Be Accountable - Organizations need to be accountable for measuring impact, but donors also need to be accountable in the way they support the advancement of the whole sector (for example - being comfortable and supporting pay increases for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers).
- Set up reporting structures: Set a safeguarding mechanism for people to appropriately, safely, and timely report any incidents of sexual harassment.
- Don’t Use Nondisclosure Agreements & Share Your Policies: Share with your donors that your organization does not use NDA’s. Doing so conveys the message that the organization will not give any privacy to potential abuse.
- Go public about the issue: Have your organization declare that any wrongdoing will be published publicly. That way people working there can feel protected and potential aggressors are set straight about the organization’s boundaries and values.
- Support Therapy & Other Healing Practices - Survivors are not always going to want to come forward publically, or file a claim. That doesn’t mean that we can’t support them with other healthy and healing practices, like therapy.
QUOTES - Part I
- “That was the effect of that very high-class male culture, where every woman at Yale could get an abortion legal or not. But every woman at Yale was also subject to rape.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “The root discrimination in the world seems to me to be sexual. Women are still the underclass in every society across all sectors.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “My job is to bring people to task, to have people be accountable. And if the money goes elsewhere, if there's a geopolitical problem, we have to confront that, but that's a different issue and shouldn't be sideswiped.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “Power and control is the currency of that brigade of older men who give their money away. And women are typically very good at securing that money.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “No one sexually harasses someone higher on the totem pole. It's always the reverse. A touch on your lower back, the comments about appearance, that's sexual harassment. It's looking at you as a sexual object.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
QUOTES - Part II
- “The fact is that women themselves are not treated with a lot of respect in many sectors. And if you're a waitress, if you're a sex worker, if you are a woman who doesn't have a lot of power, you're not getting respect generally in society and that has to change.”- Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “Where men are in control we are going to have these problems. We have to set up reporting structures and reports are put in under safeguarding mechanisms that the people who report are not going to be abused or threatened or bullied. e have to make sure that that's done properly. And according to the law, it's actually a violation of law for a fundraiser to be sexually harassed. There's no question about that. So it's important that it gets documented in a way that's appropriate and timely.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “And that's why the laws are there to protect people so they can do their jobs. Why shouldn't fundraisers be able to do their jobs? They're not asking for money. They're developing a system where they can achieve a goal. The donors can achieve a goal and those goals hopefully advance society.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “They put their hand on the girl's back or whatever the situation they're at fault. That's a violation of the law.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
- “You document the record and trust that the system will work, trust that your employer will take care of that through the right thing. If not, you go to the law and if not, you go to the press. There are ways to handle things and you can always go online and speak your truth.”
- “It's time that this sector gets taken credibly. We have to make that happen. So we professionalize the norms. And we claim our voice, our rights, our dignity. It has to happen. We do it for ourselves. We do it for our girls. We do it for the people around us.” - Dr. Ann Olivarius
additional resources
- National Day of Conversation about the issue of sexual harassment of fundraisers in the charitable and nonprofit sectors
- Previous Recordings from the National Day of Conversation
- Resources for Fundraisers from The National Day of Conversation
- Time’s Up for Sexual Harassment in Fundraising
- The Human-Centered Work Project's Article on redefining “professionalism”
- Article: The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards by Aysa Gray
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I teach nonprofit fundraisers to bring in more gifts from the RIGHT donors… so they can stop hounding people for money. Fundraising doesn’t have to be uncomfortable.
- CEO & Creator of the Power Partners Formula™
- Disruptor in the funding sector, changing lives everyday
- Relentlessly committed to the movement of money into the nonprofit sector
- Focused on win-win partnerships that allow fundraisers to be authentic and empowered in their work
- Over 15 years working in nonprofits (managing director and ED of multiple fast-growth organizations)
MALLORY ERICKSON
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episode transcript
Part i
Part ii
