[NPFX Ep. 85] Fundraising from Proximity: The Power (and Burden) of Lived Experience (with Sadé Dozan)
Recent data suggests that more than half of nonprofit professionals are considering leaving their jobs — and those numbers climb even higher for frontline fundraisers. In today’s episode, Sadé Dozan from Borealis Philanthropy joins Russ Phaneuf to discuss the "invisible labor" that might be burning you out faster than your actual workload. Tune in to learn how your lived experience can be a powerful asset instead of "baggage," ways to set internal boundaries to protect your emotional capacity when the work feels deeply personal, and why leadership needs to support a fundraiser's whole identity to finally break the cycle of employee turnover.
Episode highlights include:
Why traditional fixes like salary and benefits sometimes miss the root cause of fundraiser burnout
The challenges of fundraising when the work is deeply connected to your own lived experience
The pressure to translate complex, messy realities into neat, fundable stories
The cost of carrying the emotional weight of constantly deciding what to share, what to soften, and what to protect
How proximity and lived experience can drive policy change and organizational learning
Why nonprofits often fail to recognize lived experience as an asset — and how that’s baked into the system
How burnout and high turnover signal deeper issues in culture, power, and decision-making
What to look for when seeking a healthier nonprofit workplace
Why boundaries are essential for fundraisers whose identities and work overlap
How to identify who is carrying the emotional and relational labor inside your organization
Listen here:
Additional Resources
[NPFX] Authentic, Ethical, and Effective Messaging — From Theory to Practice (Bridge Conference Q&A)
[NPFX] Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Getting Started the Smart Way
[NPFX] Improve Donor Retention and Engagement with P2P Fundraising
Guest
Sadé Dozan is a philanthropic advisor and culturist, whose work sits at the intersection of wealth, care, culture, and power. She serves as Vice President of Advancement at Borealis Philanthropy, leading organization-wide fundraising and communications strategy during a period of profound sector transition. She is also the Founder of Melanate., a movement infrastructure initiative cultivating leadership, narrative power, and resource fluency among Black women and gender-expansive people working in wealth and philanthropy.
Host
Russ Phaneuf, a co-founder of IPM Advancement, has a background in higher education development, with positions at the University of Hartford, Northern Arizona University, and Thunderbird School of Global Management. As IPM's managing director & chief strategist, Russ serves as lead fundraising strategist, award-winning content creator, and program analyst specializing in applied system dynamics.
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