Apra Carolinas Webinar:
Friendly Fire: When Well-Intentioned Data Practices Harm - and How to Fix Them Ethically

In a time of escalating fundraising demands and tight resources, philanthropy teams are often squeezed between performance pressure and the ethical guardrails meant to protect stakeholders. This session will help understand how even standard, widely accepted prospect development and data practices can unintentionally invade privacy, erode trust, or reinforce inequity—despite everyone’s best intentions. We will explore how harm shows up (privacy, dignity, equity, trust), and where the ethical line lies between what you can find and what you should use. Through real-world scenarios, the session will introduce concrete, adaptable strategies and takeaways to tighten access and purpose, build in bias checks, and redesign processes to reduce risk without sacrificing strategic fundraising, so that “friendly fire” becomes preventable rather than inevitable.

This session is free to everyone.

When: Thursday, February 19th at 2PM EDT

Where: Zoom

Cost: FREE

About the Speaker:

Priya Balachandran is a passionate nonprofit professional and strategic researcher with versatile expertise across the social service, education, and healthcare sectors, demonstrating a deep commitment to driving meaningful community impact. She is a Senior Researcher and Development Analyst at Northern Illinois Food Bank, where she leads and executes all aspects of prospect development. She has established structured approaches to prospect research, spearheaded the implementation of a new prospect management process, and designed real-time metrics dashboards to enhance philanthropy operations. Beyond her primary responsibilities, she has contributed to organization-wide initiatives, including the Strategic Plan UNITE—Pathway Advisory Committee, the DEI Committee, the Data and Ethics Subcommittee, and the Changemakers Task Force.

Priya is an active leader in key philanthropic associations, including board member of Apra Illinois, faculty for Apra International Fundamentals, board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago, and vice president of the AFP Continuous Learning Council. Priya also serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of Certified Nonprofit Professionals, and has played a key role in launching and driving Feeding America’s PhilOps and Prospect Research Community of Practice. She has presented for Apra, AFP, and the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, among others.