This month, the Urban Institute released its benchmark study of racial and ethnic diversity in California’s nonprofit sector. The overall findings are all too familiar. People of color remain underrepresented in nonprofit leadership, comprising 57% of the state’s population but holding only 25% of the executive director or CEO positions. Most notably, the researchers found that Latinos are the least well represented, holding fewer than 10% of nonprofit leadership positions while making up more than one-third of California’s overall population.

Although the study does not delve into attendant questions, such as how diversity in leadership impacts a nonprofit’s ability to effectively serve diverse populations, or what confluence of dynamics are behind the underrepresentation of leaders of color in one of the most diverse states in the nation, it is nevertheless valuable in providing basic quantitative benchmarks that seem to be lacking in the nonprofit sector as a whole. In a recent interview for our NonprofitNext research project, Michael Watson of Girl Scouts of the USA observed the dearth of baseline data on nonprofit diversity, both in staff leadership and in the board room. Whereas the corporate sector has long made a point to share demographic information about company leadership – recognizing what this means not only in terms of image but of real impact in the marketplace – the nonprofit sector has yet to be as transparent about its own diversity…or lack thereof, as the case may be.

The Urban Institute study is one small step toward assembling objective data that may enable the sector to better answer the question “How diverse are we?” But this quantitative approach cannot stand alone – only by understanding how diversity supports mission-driven work and helps make the sector more effective, responsive, and resilient does this data become truly meaningful.

Without a broader context, the numbers alone invite oversimplified and reactionary responses the likes of which have plagued us for decades of affirmative action pro/con debates (evident in reader comments on coverage of the report’s release in both the San Jose Mercury News and the Chronicle of Philanthropy) and are even less effective in advancing the dialog today. To help us move beyond the limitations of this “representational diversity” frame, we need to share compelling stories and experiences of how more diverse nonprofits contribute to a more dynamic, successful, and high-performing sector.

Tags: california, diversity, girl scouts of the usa, Leadership, NonprofitNext, urban institute

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Growing Diversity, NonprofitNext. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.