How Many People of Color Serve on Your Organization’s Board?

According to this press release, New York City foundations and the nonprofit organizations they support tend to have racially diverse staffs, but this diversity decreases at higher levels of seniority.

Sound familiar?

Philanthropy New York and the Foundation Center conducted a major study this year and produced a new report called Benchmarking Diversity: A First Look at New York City Foundations and Nonprofits (which you can download for free here).

The study, the first of its kind in New York and the U.S. to examine foundations and nonprofits side-by-side, “provides a factual basis for understanding diversity in the city’s philanthropic sector.” The idea is to inspire informed conversations and ultimately better progress in the diversity and leadership of these organizations.

Here are just a few key findings of the study:

Among the 95 Philanthropy New York member foundations responding to a survey, nearly half (48 percent) of administrative staff members are people of color, as are 43 percent of program officers, 16 percent of chief executives, and 18 percent of board members.

Foundations with at least 25 percent people of color on their boards are more likely to have racially and ethnically diverse staffs, to have diversity policies on staffing and grantmaking, and to specifically target populations of color through their grantmaking.

Among the 540 nonprofits organizations responding, over a third identifying themselves as “minority-led organizations” do not have a chief executive who is a person of color, meaning that many such organizations are led by white CEOs. (More details about findings and methodology can be found on the press release.)

So… what to do with this information? I had hoped to find hands-on trainings in New York where nonprofit or foundation leaders could learn how to purposefully, sensitively increase diversity within their organizations. I didn’t find any listed on the topic for October or November at the Foundation Center. But on October 29, Philanthropy New York will host a briefing and discussion about the study and the president of the Foundation Center will give an introduction. Hopefully that will be a productive space to learn more or inspire next steps. If you know of other resources, please leave a note in the comments!