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BIPOC Executive Leadership Representation in Nonprofits

 

Halloween has already passed, but as a lowly law student with arithmophobia, I feel compelled to provide you all with some spooky statistics in November. It is no secret that the upper ranks of America’s professional workforce have a diversity problem, and in particular, a racial diversity problem. Unfortunately, this remains true in the nonprofit sector:

-          Studies have shown that just 20% of nonprofit executive directors and CEOs are people of color, and 66% of nonprofit Board members are white.[1]

-          Another study reported that between July 2019 and January 2024, “47% of all staff… 70% of CEOs/Executive Directors (EDs)... as well as 66% of Board members identify as white.” [2]

Compare these figures with the general population per USAFacts: over 40% of the U.S. population identified as non-white in 2023, a figure that has grown over 17% since 1990.[3]

Why does this matter?

I know what you’re thinking…your barber is from Jarhanpur, but she always knows exactly what kind of haircut suits you despite not looking like you. Even though you’re from Boravia, you trust her with your precious hair (a.k.a. livelihood) regardless of your differences.[4] Trust me, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in the real world, a lack of racial diversity in organizational leadership has detrimental effects in general, and for nonprofits, these effects are highly pronounced because they can stall progress for the very causes they serve.

For those of us who believe in the power of racial diversity, these statistics should sound the alarm bell. Nonprofit leaders, particularly Board members and Executive Directors, are integral to an organization’s purpose and direction. It is leadership that develops policies, considers proposals, allocates time and resources, and much more. These major decisions often arrive in boardrooms with executive leaders as the final arbiter. Many nonprofits purport to ameliorate societal woes and systemic conditions, but how can they properly do so without including the very stakeholders this environment affects most severely?Image: Footnote [5]


Furthermore, it doesn’t matter whether these organizations explicitly target issues affecting the BIPOC community. Nonprofits tackle issues like healthcare, food insecurity, education, mental health, and much more. These matters are often intertwined and overlapping with racial identities. For example, if your nonprofit is focused on decreasing food insecurity for Americans as a whole, then the largest benefactors of your efforts would be a community of racially diverse stakeholders.

Without racially diverse leadership, your organization could lose out on the opportunity to:

-          Instill confidence in your community stakeholders.

-          Attract and retain a talented workforce. [6]

-          Prevent implicit bias from creating filter bubbles, misinformation, and groupthink.

-          Empower your organization with a sense of urgency.

-          Attract zealous philanthropists who consider the diversity of organizations before             donating to them.

What can you do?

Before digging in, I want to note that these tactics are ones that primarily address systemic racism. They seek to combat limiting factors such as cognitive biases and a lack of intentional employee development efforts. I’m not a betting man, but I’m willing to wager that you probably don’t believe that your organization and its members are prejudiced or biased. You may even strongly believe that your organization is taking all of the reasonable steps to find and cultivate diverse talent.  However, the truth of the matter is that it is difficult to objectively critique work that you’ve put your heart and soul into. It takes perspective, intention, and humility to take a step back and nitpick something that seems completely acceptable on the surface. As you look around at your peer nonprofits and even other organizations outside of the nonprofit space, you will find that many find no issue with how they are currently run. That status quo of complacency is, in my opinion, both a symptom and one of the many causes of systemic racism.

To take the next step into the future and elevate past other nonprofits, here is a non-exhaustive list of tactics your nonprofit organization can employ [7]:

1.      Start from the ground up by intentionally hiring employees with varied backgrounds and experiences.

2.      Utilize blind resume screening, and focus applicant interviews on objective skills while accounting for lived experiences.

3.      Require implicit bias training for all staff and leadership.

4.      Develop meaningful pipelines for racially underrepresented employees to attain Executive and Board positions.

5.      Track and report diversity metrics for your Executive and Board leadership ranks, then set measurable short and long-term goals.

6.      Create democratic governance systems that allow your employees and other stakeholders the opportunity to use their voice (e.g., town halls)

7.      Look outside your typical established networks.

8.      Whenever vacancies arise, your organization can pledge to interview minority candidates (i.e., the NFL’s “Rooney Rule”).[8]

9.      Lastly, be mindful of the well-being of your staff members of color, and refrain from placing all the racial equity work on them. It will be emotionally costly and tedious for them.

 

By: Ryan Macharia

[1] Leading with Intent: BoardSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices (Washington, D.C.: BoardSource, 2021).

[2] Uchida, K. (2024, May 16). What to know about U.S. nonprofit sector demographics . Candid. https://candid.org/blogs/diversity-in-nonprofit-sector-candid-demographic-data-report/

[3] USAFacts. (2024, August 28). Is the US becoming more diverse? https://usafacts.org/articles/is-the-us-becoming-more-diverse/

[4] Did I just reference a DC movie? Yes, James Gunn’s Superman has left an indelible mark on me.

[5] Hales, L. J. (2024, April 8). Food insecurity in U.S. households varies across race and ethnicity. Food insecurity in U.S. households varies across race and ethnicity | Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=108925 

 

[6] Dixon-Fyle, S., Dolan, K., Hunt, D. V., & Prince, S. (2020, May 19). Diversity wins: How inclusion matters. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters 

[7] The nonprofit DEI leadership gap: Why Diverse Leadership Matters. Diversity. (2025, March 10). https://diversity.com/post/nonprofit-dei-leadership-gap-diverse-leadership-matters ; Mitchell, F. (2021, December 9). Nonprofit leadership is out of step with America’s changing demographics. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/nonprofit-leadership-out-step-americas-changing-demographics ; McWenie, M. (2023, December 6). ASU Lodestar Center Blog. ASU Lodestar Center. https://lodestar.asu.edu/blog/2023/12/how-can-nonprofits-improve-outcomes-diversifying-their-leadership

[8] Stapleton, A. (2025, November 9). Paul Tagliabue’s NFL legacy: More money, more diversity and a concussion conundrum. WRAL.com. https://www.wral.com/news/ap/720db-paul-tagliabues-nfl-legacy-more-money-more-diversity-and-a-concussion-conundrum/

 

 

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