How hiring for “existing donor connections” reinforces inequity in a sector that exists to reduce it
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
It’s the myth I smashed on stage at this year’s FIA Conference.
I chose it because I grew up on the wrong side of it.
Rural Western Sydney. No one in my family had been to university. No one worked in corporate offices or boardrooms. There were no warm introductions, no internships arranged through family friends, no quiet endorsements in the right ear. When I entered fundraising, I didn’t know a single donor.
Today, I lead Philanthropy at Mary MacKillop Today and sit on the Marketing & Growth Committee of Plan International Australia’s Board. Not because I knew anyone first – but because I built trust, led with integrity, and connected donor values to real impact. Relationships are the outcome of that work, not the prerequisite for it.
And yet, our job ads tell a different story.
Scan any fundraising job board and you’ll find some version of it: “existing donor connections desirable,” “proven HNW network,” “established relationships with philanthropists.” Stripped of jargon, the message is simple: we want someone who already knows rich people.
That isn’t strategy. It’s exclusion. When “existing donor connections” become a hiring criterion, we’re not selecting for skill – we’re selecting for proximity to privilege. Who someone knows is rarely random; it’s shaped by schooling, family background, geography, and access to elite spaces. These are not professional qualifications. They are inherited advantages, repackaged.
The signal this sends is clear.
To candidates from rural and remote communities, working-class backgrounds, and First Nations communities; to candidates with disability, migrants, carers, and anyone without access to elite networks – the message is: this sector isn’t for you.
The consequences compound. We shrink our talent pool. We homogenise leadership pipelines. And over time, we narrow whose voices shape our sector, how stories are told, and which causes get funded.
For a sector that exists to reduce inequity, that’s a contradiction we can’t afford to ignore.
If we’re serious about equity, the change starts with how we hire.
It means removing “existing donor connections” from job criteria and replacing it with what actually drives fundraising success: relationship-building capability, ethical stewardship, strategic thinking, and the ability to translate impact into compelling cases for support. It also means recognising that networks aren’t something candidates either have or don’t – they’re something the sector can actively build. That requires backing early- and mid-career fundraisers with the support, mentoring and access others inherit by default, and investing in professional development that grows networks through the work itself, not around it.
Most importantly, it means rejecting the idea that philanthropy is a closed circle.
It isn’t. It’s a conversation – one that should be shaped by people with diverse experiences, perspectives, and pathways into the work. If we believe in the values we promote, our recruitment practices need to reflect them.
Because when we hire for connections instead of capability, we don’t just reinforce inequity – we reproduce it.
Read also: Putting children at the centre: Activating hubs to fix a fragmented system
April de Haan
April de Haan is Philanthropy Manager at Mary MacKillop Today and sits on the Marketing & Growth Committee of Plan International Australia's Board. Earlier this year, she won the 'Myth Smashers' segment at the Fundraising Institute Australia Conference for her speech challenging the myth "It's not what you know, it's who you know."
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