Capacity Building 101

At Women Unite! our goal is to use what we have to do what we can. Part of that includes knowledge sharing!

Now that we have a few years of doing this work under our belt, we have examples of what’s worked and what hasn’t, what makes sense for small organizations and what doesn’t. We’ve done our best to compile that information into a series of guides and tools.

We hope these resources help build your capacity, not just for raising money, but for building community, cultivating hope, and making our world a more just, more compassionate place.

Community-Centered v. Donor-Centered Approaches

Part of our founding was in response to the inequities within the nonprofit sector and the many ways philanthropy reinforces unjust systems. We recognize that these guides are coming from a primarily donor-centered philosophy that tends to place relationships with donors at the center of nonprofit fundraising, often at the expense of community relationships. 

We share these not as an endorsement of the failures of nonprofits, philanthropy, and capitalism but as a recognition that these are common ways of working within the sector. These are tools and recommendations that should be used (or not used!) based on what is best for your organization, your mission, and your community. Ultimately, there is no one-size fits all approach. By sharing these guides we hope to provide a survey of ideas and examples that may make your work a little easier.

We also encourage everyone using these guides to explore some of the following resources, each of which offers important critiques of nonprofit fundraising and alternative paths for the future.