Three years after George Floyd’s murder prompted urgent calls for a racial reckoning, many nonprofits are pledged to the ideals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, but change doesn’t yet run deep.
That’s according to a new survey of nonprofits that suggests the strategies and budgets of a large share of groups don’t reflect their public pledges to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, sometimes called DEIJ.
More than half of groups surveyed — 53 percent — have a formal DEIJ statement, yet only 38 percent report having designated budgets for related investments. Only about a third of organizations said the staff person responsible for DEIJ-related work has the resources or authority to support organizationwide change.
“It really comes back to whether or not organizations are willing to put a little bit more rigor and effort into how they do certain things,” said Antonio Cortes, managing director of equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice at Nonprofit HR, the consulting firm that conducted the survey.
Groups are prioritizing hiring and recruitment efforts, but that’s often where DEIJ work stops, said Rachael Forester, a senior consultant with Nonprofit HR.
“People often view this as solely about representation,” Forester said. “We’re not addressing those key areas such as compensation, promotion, career pathways, and the everyday culture and microaggressions that staff members are experiencing or facing.”
Other equity advocates agree. Janet Albert, a partner with Bridge Partners, an executive-search firm that specializes in inclusive and equitable recruitment and hiring, said people of color hired in the wake of Floyd’s murder haven’t always found their new organizations are ready to change.
“Really good people are looking or have found new opportunities,” Albert said, describing the outflow as “a small exodus.”
Nonprofits and philanthropy are simply too afraid to make the bold change they say they want to see, said Michael McAfee, head of PolicyLink, which promotes economic and social equity.
“The white supremacists, the white nationalists — they’re committed,” McAfee said. “They’re not weighing the American sentiment about whether they should advance that agenda or not. They’re committed to the America that they want. And we’ve got to have that same type of commitment.”
Diversity and equity advocates are watching for any signs of wavering support in the nonprofit world in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down race-conscious affirmative action in higher education.
Eberechi Obi, a Nonprofit HR senior consultant, predicts some nonprofits that have taken a performative stand — what she calls “diversity theater” — will use the court’s decision as an excuse to retreat. Committed organizations, however, “will actually step forward,” Obi says.
“They understand that we should actually bring more resources, more money, more manpower into the work because it’s even more important now.”
‘Breaking and Resetting Bones’
A host of issues contribute to the slow progress of DEIJ work even after the widespread protests following Floyd’s murder, according to Nonprofit HR. These include the challenge of overcoming decades of bias and racism in the United States.
Some groups are slow-walking DEIJ efforts because their boards or leaders haven’t bought in. During the pandemic, organizations may have been so busy addressing existential crises that they couldn’t invest time or resources in DEIJ.
Many groups simply don’t know how to bring about change. “Pretty much every single organization we work with has an extremely high level of desire for this work and a low level of competency,” Forester said. “We need to figure out how to match those two things up so that we have the desired results.”
There’s also a natural resistance to the structural changes that DEIJ demands, Obi said.
“It’s like breaking and resetting bones,” she said. “There’s going to be people who don’t want those bones to be broken.”
Other findings from the survey, which had 352 respondents:
- 60 percent of groups said diversity at the senior-leadership level was a challenge. Half described board diversity as a challenge.
- Nearly two-thirds of organizations said they had provided general diversity training. Sixty-four percent reported that they had offered implicit or unconscious bias training.
- About a third of organizations reported that their executive director or CEO was accountable for DEIJ efforts. Twenty-eight percent said the leadership team was in charge. Only 8 percent said the role belonged to a chief diversity officer.
Nonprofit HR is hosting a free webinar and review of the survey findings on Thursday, July 20, at 2 p.m. EDT.
