The Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap
According to a report released in June 2017, many nonprofit and foundation leaders assume that people of color either do not aspire to be leaders, lack the proper education credentials, and/or have inadequate technical skills to be leaders within the sector. These assumptions are wrong. It is naive for these organizations to assume that the talent does not exist rather than confront the circumstances that lead to and maintain a homogeneous leadership pool.
The Building Movement Project, which works to “support and advance the potential of nonprofit organizations as sites for progressive social change” aims to bring to light the current inequalities that persist in the nonprofit workforce. In their report, Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap, the Building Movement Project asked respondents of color and white respondents about their views on leadership and training in the nonprofit sector.
This report found that the education levels of people of color and their white counterparts is comparable. Further, people of color are actually receiving upper level degrees (PhD, JD, MD) at higher rates than white respondents (nine percent versus seven percent). This data shows that people of color are achieving academic success despite the current assumptions that are being perpetrated throughout the nonprofit sector.
Another claim is that people of color simply do not seek out upper level leadership positions. Again, the Building Movement Project found this assumption to be false. People of color respond “Yes” to the question “Are you interested in Becoming an executive director/CEO (or another leadership role) of a nonprofit someday” at higher rates than white respondents (50 percent versus 40 percent). Though the desire to hold these positions is clearly present, the opportunities to obtain these positions are not.
When asked about training in project goal setting, financial management, and self care/wellness both groups had comparable levels of expertise. Though people of color and white people in the nonprofit sector have similar skill sets, the lack of “technical training” is often a response to the fact that people of color feel like they need to obtain additional training to be respected and accepted within the nonprofit workspace. Focus groups conducted by the Building Movement Project found that aspiring leaders of color believed that they had to obtain levels of technical skills higher than that of their white counterparts to be confident in applying for top level positions.
Not only are many hiring processes discriminatory in nature, once people of color are within the workforce, there are many prejudicial practices that lead people of color to leave the sector prematurely. People of color overall are experiencing these inequalities, but the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) produced a report specifically highlighting the hardships of African Americans in this field. The Exit Interview: Perceptions on why Black professionals leave grantmaking institutions looks to find the root reason for high rates of African American professionals leaving grantmaking institutions.
One sentiment that causes African American professionals to leave the sector is the feeling that there is a cap on their upward trajectory within their organizations. When asked to choose which statement best reflects employment trends in the philanthropic field for African American professions, 72 percent agreed with the statement, “They are making some progress as staff at grantmaking institutions, but leadership roles are not substantial.” The retention rates of African American professionals within the nonprofit sector are dismal. The walls of bias and discrimination are often so high that they impede individual growth within an organization.
Many professionals of color found that once they obtained a position within a philanthropic institution, they felt that they were required to represent their own race both internally and externally for the organization. One of the respondents of the Building Movement Project report stated:
“[The organization] looked to me to solve all the problems of racism within the organization. By default, POC often become the face of accountability or point of feedback in such situations. It put a huge responsibility on me; over time, I spent at least 50% of my time doing that work…rather than my job description of national organizing. A lot of my work was invisible…”
Once within a nonprofit, people of color are given two types of responsibilities: the responsibilities of the job they applied for and the responsibilities of an unspoken job to be the voice of an entire community. This pressure is not only unfair due to the unpaid responsibilities associated with it, but it is fundamentally wrong to force the people of color in the room to speak to the entire experience of an extremely large and complex group of people.
According to BoardSource, only 11 percent of nonprofit CEOs identify as people of color. This is a discouraging statistic especially because people of color are just as able to lead as their white counterparts. If nonprofit, philanthropy, and grantmaking institutions aim to fight against the injustices experienced by communities of color in society, they first need to rectify the injustice of not giving these communities the opportunity for leadership within their own institutions. Investors have the tendency to trust and ultimately invest in people that look similar to themselves. Nonprofits and philanthropic institutions will continue to perpetuate the cycle of underserving communities of color and women if they do not work to diversify their leadership pool.
