As a WBENC-certified woman-owned small business, EBC Associates understands the importance of diversity in the workplace, especially at the top.
A mix of representation among corporate leaders is both a financial value to the organizations who nurture it and a moral obligation to those who decry injustices and discrimination elsewhere.
That’s exactly why it’s so painful to hear that nonprofit organizations continue to struggle with racial diversity, something that should come so naturally to their industry.
NEW STUDY SHOWS PROBLEMATIC LACK OF DIVERSITY
A recent survey of more than 1,700 nonprofit executives gave a stark illustration of the makeup of philanthropic leadership, revealing several startling truths about the one-sided racial demographics therein.
Nine out of 10 chief executives are white. Nine out of 10 board chairs are white. Eighty-four percent of board members are white. More than a quarter of nonprofit boards are completely white. Sadly, these figures have gone relatively unchanged in two decades.
Worse still, those same respondents claimed that diversity meant a lot to them and their organizations, that they were wildly unsatisfied with the lack of people of color who have a seat at the boardroom table.
Which moves us to ask this question: Do they really mean it? And if so, why aren’t they doing more?
WHAT CAN EXECUTIVE RECRUITMENT DO TO HELP?
We could spend a lot of time explaining why racially homogenous leadership is dangerous to businesses in any industry. We could, but we won’t.
There is a world of people out there who have suffered under discrimination who can better articulate its complexities and agonies. EBC Associates defers to them and their wisdom. We recommend reading Sean Thomas-Breitfeld and Vu Le as starting points (Le went into greater detail about the survey we wrote about above).
But a few words of recruitment advice to any nonprofit organizations that are hiring: Explore beyond your conventional networks. Don’t go shopping around for people to fill some imaginary quota. Instead, recognize that, however unintentionally or unconsciously, you may be more closed off from diverse talent than you think you are.
OPEN YOURSELF.
Add to the conversation on LinkedIn and Facebook, or learn about our recent partnership with Fundraising Leadership, executive coaching experts who specialize in nonprofit and philanthropy.