People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 12: NonprofitAF author Vu Le

Vu Le is a prominent social impact activist who brings clear-cut insights and humor to our nonprofit world. Welcoming him as a guest on "People in Fundraising" is a total honor, and so much fun!

Vu is the author of the website NonprofitAF.com, from which he published a selection of posts in a 2003 book, "Unicorns on Fire: A Collection of NonprofitAF Posts, Finally Edited for Spelling and Grammar." And if you're not following "Crappy Funding Practices" on LinkedIn, do so TODAY at https://www.linkedin.com/company/crappy-funding-practices/.

Vu covers a great array of topics in our interview, with enthusiasm and hilarity and passion, including:

* As an avowed Trekker ("Star Trek," for the uncool), what lessons can be drawn from this universe of shows and characters and applied to our work in philanthropy.

* Vu' post that made me get over my podcast insecurities for the last 18+ months and invite him to be a guest: "Hey white colleagues, we need to talk about these non-inclusive lists and panels you're always putting together." As a white guy, it re-affirmed my goal as a podcaster to be more intentional and thoughtful with representation among guests now and into the future.

* Vu talks about needing "over-representation of people from marginalized communities," and how white colleagues like myself can avoid tokenization in our efforts to feature a much more inclusive and broader representation of our communities. This includes guests with less-visible indicators of being from "not dominant groups," as he has written.

* Vu's reaction and thoughts to a quote from psychiatrist Carl Jung (I try to weave in quotes from past and current thought leaders in various disciplines): “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Among other societal contributions, Jung championed the anima/animus concept, that there's a feminine side to men and a masculine side to women.

* How he thinks about and chooses social impact/nonprofit topics to write about on his website and LinkedIn, including topical subjects like the Israel- Hamas conflict.

* Vu's thoughts on what he'd like to see as one new fundraising best practice that would be adopted by all nonprofits, and conversely which one currently in use needs to be banned.

Enjoy Vu's awesome conversation, and thank you Vu for being an outstanding guest!