In Their Words, Community-Centered Fundraising

Longmont Community Justice Partnership is grounded in practices and values that promote equity and challenge our current systems in favor of a world that considers the entirety of humanness. This year LCJP seeks to expand these values to its fundraising. “We wanted to be able to sort of extrapolate these values of equity and accessibility that we try and promote in our programs into our fundraising efforts too,” explains LCJP Executive Director, Shalene Onyango.

This year’s fundraiser, In Their Words: From Hurt to Healing, LCJP takes a new approach to its annual fundraiser, emphasizing community-centric fundraising. Shalene Onyango emphasizes that community-centric fundraising is about igniting and engaging a broad base at a smaller level on a consistent basis. It emphasizes cultivating community to make an organization’s work as accessible to as many people as possible by creating different avenues to participate.

LCJP was led to this approach to fundraising with the recognition that this is already built into the organization’s mission. “The core values of community centric fundraising are rooted in race, equity, social justice. These are obviously values that LCJP shares and are things that we are trying to promote in our own work with restorative justice. And, you know, acknowledging we can't have restorative justice without social justice and we are a community based organization that is driven and led and fueled by our volunteers and by our community,” says Onyango.

Not only does LCJP seek to honor its values, the staff and board recognized a desire to hear from those most impacted by their work in restorative justice. This led to the decision to emphasize storytelling as part of the night. Participants of restorative justice processes have been invited to share their stories and experiences. Previous fundraising events felt as though they were missing this key aspect of what makes LCJP stand out, making room for people’s stories.

In Their Words aims to cultivate a sense of community throughout the night. One way we’re doing so is by making it a family friendly event. There will be activities, food, and stories that appeal and impact all ages. Additionally, ticket prices will be set at varying levels so lots of different people can attend. Fundraising missions may also look a little different than folks are used to as LCJP will be asking folks to donate on a monthly basis instead of one large sum of money. This is an effort to make donating a more accessible option and engage more folks. This event works to ignite an interest in restorative justice, while remembering that just as our programs are built for everyone, so should our fundraising efforts.

In Their Words will not only educate on the spectrum of restorative justice and its countless impacts, but also allow event-goers to understand how restorative justice is rooted in community. “We're really just providing a platform for people who have shared interest and shared values to come together and celebrate those shared interests and shared values. We really want to foster a sense of belonging for folks. All of the resources that people can give to the organization are valuable,” continues Onyango.

LCJP wants folks to leave understanding the transformational and lasting impact of restorative justice. “It can be transformational for people, it can be transformational for communities and, you know, all people coming together to support one vision is also transformational,” says Onyango.