Collecting Courage:
Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love
Collecting Courage chips away at the idea of ‘inherent goodness’ in charity.
The Time is Now.
This book represents the beginning of a process to systematically catalogue and archive our stories so our voices are the ones that shape the narrative about our experiences. For those who can relate to the stories shared in the book, we hope they give you the courage to lean in and give voice to your experiences. For those committed to being allies and accomplices in dismantling barriers and championing a sector culture of belonging and reciprocity, we hope the book illuminates a path to action.
What People are Saying.
Podcasts featuring author-editors Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, and Nicole Salmon discussing Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love.
Click the images below to hear what they have to say.
Collecting Courage Book Launch.
The Virtual Launch of "Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love," held on November 25, 2020. Collecting Courage is a collection of stories from fourteen Black writers – charity and fundraising leaders from across Canada and the United States – who have come together to speak about their experience working in the charity sector.
Publisher Gail Picco hosts the editors Nneka Allen, Camila Pereira and Nicole Salmon reading from their work. The readings are followed by a Q&A with the editors and contributors Birgit Burton Smith, Christal M. Cherry, Marva Wisdom and Mide Akerewusi are featured.
Other contributors not featured in the video include Kishshana Palmer, Heba Mahmoud, Naimah Bilal, Niambi Martin-John, Fatou Jammeh, Muthoni Kariuki, Sherrie James and Nicole E. Cozier.
Reviews.
“Collecting Courage was hard to read at first, in the way that it's hard to suddenly see another human face after long solitary confinement. It was a shock to my system, to see my pain and my joy as a fundraiser of color reflected back to me so clearly.
Since then, I've found community, and rely on a network of people dismantling oppressive fundraising practices.
But the work is big, and often lonely. So I turn back to this book for comfort. Every page, every poem, feels like a glimpse of a dear friend, distant and present at the same time. I cherish it deeply.”
MARISA DESALLES - GOOD TILTH CONSULTING
March 2, 2022
“…we must work towards changing our sector so that our Black colleagues are less likely to need support to process the trauma we impose on them every day.”
- Cathy Barr, Vice-President, Research & Strategic Relationships
IMAGINE CANADA READS COLLECTING COURAGE: JOY, PAIN, FREEDOM, LOVE
February 22, 2022
“Collecting Courage is a collection of poems, harrowing and upsetting first-hand accounts of racism encountered in the non-profit world, beautiful prose, and finally, joyful and hopeful words from Black Canadian and American Fundraisers. Every NGO leader should read it. We need to start dismantling the structures of oppression that function in all our organizations if we are going to create better outcomes for everyone. This brilliant book is a great starting point to understand more about the lived experience of fundraisers everywhere that have held our work back.
The book 'seeks to address historic exclusion and oppression in the charity sector' - and it does. The narratives are all exceptionally poignant, moving and irrefutable. Ultimately it is a hopeful book that shines a light on the path to move forward.”
HENRY ROWLING - FOUNDER, FLYING CARS
February 8, 2022
“Collecting Courage was a gift to me. As a white male in leadership, it challenged me to understand my white male privilege, create a new sense of empathy and compassion for our Black brothers and sisters in the non-profit sector, and inspired me to actually do something about it. The individual stories in this book say ‘out loud’ what I and other white male leaders would most likely never hear face to face, because of fear of, at best, being dismissed, or at worst, retribution. But, I needed to hear them. It changed me."
JEFF SCHREIFELS - SENIOR PARTNER, VERITUS GROUP
January 31, 2022
“Collecting Courage feels like a healing circle that gives space for discussion with colleagues who bravely share their hurts, their celebrations, and their hopes. It also reads like sitting in a master class with some of the continent’s most successful fundraisers.”
Book review: Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love
RAINE LILIEFELD - THE PHILANTHROPIST
April 28, 2021
“Two themes emerge from Collecting Courage. Firstly, racism towards Black fundraisers is historic and continues to this day, penetrating, poisoning, and polluting the charitable sector. Secondly, that by sharing the narrative of fundraisers who are Black and have experienced that racism can come unity, joy, freedom and love.”
Collecting Courage is an open, urgent call-to-action to end racism in the charitable sector
RUBIN KATAKI - THE CHARITY REPORT
April 15, 2021
“Each carefully woven piece carries a segment of a soul, lifts up the brilliance of a brain and gifts to you—the fortunate reader—an unforgettable collection of courage.”
The Extraordinary Costs of Fundraising While Black
TYCELY WILLIAMS - ADVANCING PHILANTHROPY
January 1, 2021
“Despite the challenges chronicled in the pages of Collecting Courage, the authors are one triumphant success story after another. They share intimate details about their own struggles to become leaders in the sector—directors, professors, executive directors, CEOs, CFREs, PhDs, MBAs and fundraising executives who have raised millions of dollars for some of North America’s most prestigious schools and charitable organizations.”
Collecting Courage: ‘Reads Like an Exposé’ Of Canada’s Nonprofit Sector
GINELLE SKERRITT - CHARITY VILLAGE
December 9, 2020
“Collecting Courage is the first and only book that is brave enough to expose the poison that pervades our institutions, corrupts the corridors of power, fuels hate amongst its people, and allows injustice to flourish. But that’s not its endgame. Each writer, by laying bare their pain, also expresses a special resilience through which they find love for oneself and community, create a space for healing, and invite everyone to rebuild a sector that sees its own truth and potential.”
Collecting Courage: A Powerful Truth on Black Love, Freedom and Philanthropy
DR. KRISHAN MEHTA - THE CHARITY REPORT
November 26, 2020