Four Steps towards Race Equity at your Nonprofit

For many nonprofits making a commitment to equity is a major step forward, but after the board and staff makes that commitment, what’s the next step? I was pleased to read a thoughtful and insightful report shared by Demos that offers helpful guidance for other nonprofits hoping to take the next step. This post offers a summary of the report: Demos’ Racial Equity Transformation: Key Components, Process & Lessons (November 2018).

Demos is a multi-issue national organization that combines research, policy development, and advocacy to influence public debates and catalyze change. Equity is integral to its mission. Yet Demos, like many other nonprofits, recognized it had work to do to be an organization that was truly living its values. As a consequence, Demos set about to intentionally transform its culture so that organizational practices and norms, including its composition (staffing), would reflect its race equity values. Nonprofit leaders looking for ways to integrate race equity into their own nonprofit’s culture, or simply for guidance on how to reflect diversity and inclusion in their nonprofit’s practices, can use this new report as a handbook. Here’s a snapshot of the process Demos used:

Step #1: Start with “Why?” A lesson from Demos’ report is that the first step in transforming an organization’s culture is to start with the mission. How do race equity, diversity, and inclusion relate to mission? Demos has a mission that is focused on public policy, so when Demos asked, “Why are we doing this work?” the answer was: “We understand racism to be an impediment to genuine progress for all members of a society, and (we) see the ways that racism drives negative policy outcomes across issues, not just traditionally “civil rights” issues.” Is getting racial equity right equally important for getting your nonprofit’s mission right? If so, the first step is to explore with your staff and board (perhaps using a facilitator) WHY making a commitment to racial equity is “foundational” to the nonprofit’s mission. Demos found it useful to craft a “Statement of Rationale for our Racial Equity Transformation.” Similarly, BoardSource explains its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity for itself and the social sector. The Nonprofit Association of Oregon’s Equity Statement offers another example. I also appreciate these ideas for drafting your own nonprofit's equity rationale.

Summary: Step #1 is finding the connection between race equity and mission. Deliverable: Draft an equity rationale statement.

 Step #2: Look under the hood. Find out what’s really going on through an organizational assessment. As assessment via an anonymous survey of staff and board will help your nonprofit dig deep into its culture and practices, illuminating attitudes that exist and practices that may create a disconnect with the goals of an inclusive culture and equitable practices. An assessment can help your nonprofit discover how staff (and board members, if you want to include them) understand race equity work, and can also identify gaps in understanding. In addition to uncovering the extent to which the staff/board team is committed to the work, assessments can also document the extent to which the organization is demonstrating race-equity values in its programs and through its collaborations with external partners. Most importantly, the results of an assessment can help a nonprofit prioritize the learning experiences that will be most useful to move staff and board members along on their race-equity-diversity-inclusion journey. The assessment that Demos used is included as Attachment B to its report. Others are linked in the resources I suggest below.

Summary: Step #2 is identifying where there are gaps in practice or knowledge so you know what to focus on in Step #3. Deliverable: An analysis of the results from the assessment.

 Step #3: Learn together! The assessment should give you a good idea of where the gaps are in your nonprofit’s collective understanding of biases, discrimination, and different identity experiences (race, gender, sexual orientation etc.). Many nonprofits already have a continuous learning culture, but if yours doesn’t, learning together about the often-sensitive subjects that race-equity raises is a powerful team-building process. Learning together will inevitably uncover personal examples of how your nonprofit’s staff and board members experience identity and bias. Some basic introductory sessions about multicultural competency or unconscious bias may be the right way to start. While it is very important that the CEO/executive director demonstrates personal commitment to the entire process, at this stage one or a few staff members can be asked to lead monthly or more frequent individual and group learning activities. Some ideas include: watch videos together, read articles and discuss them, or listen to podcasts on topics such as color-blind racism, white fragility, and historical and structural racism and/or sexism, gender bias etc. The assessment may reveal that there are specific skills the team needs to build. Targeted skill-building or one-on-one coaching interventions may be needed as part of the learning process. Learning together builds self-awareness and can result in better communication and interpersonal interactions across the organization. It is at the heart of transforming the work culture. Engaging various staff members to lead these learning experiences also offers opportunities for staff members to grow their leadership skills. Demos shares an assortment of racial equity readings as Attachment C to its report. Others are linked from the resources below.

Summary: Step #3 is learning together in order to broaden your team’s understanding of how race equity impacts personal and organizational decision-making and conduct. 

Step #4: Operationalize equitable practices. Policies and procedures reflect the organization’s cultural norms, so as your nonprofit’s people grow more aware of how a race-equity lens affects interpersonal relationships, decision-making, and even the nonprofit’s programs, it is likely that internal policies and practices will need updating. Hiring practices are probably the most obvious policies that directly reflect race equity goals, but many other operations policies, from compensation to leave time, may also need to be reviewed with a race equity lens. As an example, Demos made changes to its practices around interviewing candidates as well as around paid holidays, dress code, pay advances, travel, and sick leave. Demos’ report describes many ways that the hiring process was adjusted to hire and retain staff with different backgrounds and perspectives. Demos’ updated hiring “handbook” is included as Attachment E to the report.

Summary: Step #4 brings the nonprofit’s policies and procedures in line with its values.

I recommend taking the time to read the complete report as it will offer many other ideas and inspiration for your own nonprofit's race equity transformation. The report shares details that can easily be transferred to other organizations. The attachments at the end of the report are freely offered as templates for other nonprofits to adapt. Insights from staff members sharing key lessons are sprinkled throughout the report.

My favorite quote in the report is from a white staff member who shares how the race equity learning journey she participated in at Demos with her colleagues at work opened new vistas for her personal learning journey:

“…Now I look at the art I surround myself with, the books I read, music I listen to, and shows I watch…by integrating the spaces I am in physically, and mentally, I have found that I see and experience so much more… I was really missing something and I am excited to see what else I can find…”.

 I hope that your "nonprofit people" will find the race equity journey is just as exciting for their personal growth as it is transformative for your nonprofit. In addition to Demos’ Racial Equity Transformation: Key Components, Process & Lessons, I've pulled together some resources below to support your nonprofit's Race Equity Transformation Work:

Resources for Step One: Foundational analysis – Why is this work “mission-critical” for your nonprofit?

• Why diversity, equity, and inclusion matter for nonprofits (National Council of Nonprofits)
• Mission Critical at AIR (video) (American Institutes for Research)
• Advancing the Mission: Tools for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (Annie E Casey Foundation) 

Resources for Step Two: Organizational assessment

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Self-Assessment tool (Michigan Nonprofit Association) (for purchase)
• Diversity and Inclusion Self-Assessment tool (National Association of Colleges and Employers)
• Tool for Organizational Self-Assessment Related to Racial Equity (Coalition of Communities of Color)
• Self-Assessment tool for nonprofit organizations (Nonprofit Association of Oregon) (not specifically tailored to race equity) 

Resources for Step Three: Learning

• Racial Equity Tools
• Racial Equity Resource Guide (W.K. Kellogg Foundation)
• Race to Lead (Building Movement Project)
• Nonprofits you are the champions for diversity, equity and inclusion (National Council of Nonprofits)
• What lies beneath: The state of NYC Nonprofit Board Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York)

Resources for Step four: Implementation

• Awake to Woke to Work (ProInspire/Equity in the Center)
• 3 ways to test for racial equity and inclusion competency (The Management Center)
• Talking about race, social justice, and equity as a person of color during a job interview (Rainier Valley Corps)
• Replacing ineffective diversity interview questions (JPHigherEd)
• Diversity Strategic Action Plan (The ARC)
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy template (Bloomerang)