DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
Doing good isn’t enough.
As nonprofit consultants, we’ve been paying close attention to the evolving national dialogue around police brutality, Black Lives Matter, and systemic racism. But,to be honest, while we’ve seen quite a few personal and professional solidarity statements, we don’t see nearly enough honest introspection. Us included. We keep asking ourselves, what does it means to commit to shared values around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?
Here’s our view: Being serious about erasing systemic inequities is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re committed to doing our part one engagement, one position, one decision at a time. We work internally and externally, across all our engagements and interactions, to make real, meaningful and tangible change. Ending systemic racism is our shared responsibility and it’s just getting started.
How we show our commitment:
WE VOLUNTEER IN OUR COMMUNITIES
Both at an organization level and at a personal level, we are committed to delivering more than 1,000 hours of volunteer work each year in our local communities through Board service, pro-bono engagements, and local initiatives. In addition, our CauseCupid, probono service to nonprofits, places Board members on hundreds on nonprofit boards, each year, building capacity and leadership from within.
WE MENTOR & COACH OUR PLACEMENTS, ORGANIZATIONS & BOARDS
Requiring “plug and play” candidates is not only unrealistic, it’s highly inequitable to require that all candidates present the same leadership experience and hard skills. That’s why we mentor and coach all of our placements for a full year after placement, offering the support and guidance needed to ensure a successful placement. We build inclusive decisionmaking with transparent goals to gauge achievement.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO INCREASING BLACK AND BROWN LEADERSHIP IN THE NONPROFIT SECTOR.
In order to increase Black and Brown leaders in our sector, we need to engage with both established leaders and those-in-progress to promote and expand cross-training and mentorship within the nonprofit sector. We also challenge the inequitable hiring requirements and leadership and decision-making structures that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
WE CONTINUALLY CHALLENGE THE SOFT-BIGOTRY IN THE SECTOR.
The things “donors” won’t like is the strawman argument for dismissing every single bold move we make as a sector towards anti-racism. While there are certainly professional norms for institutional and major donor cultivation, we owe it to ourselves to call out those practices that are unnecessary and inequitable. We are developing anti-bias training for all our engagements.
WE ARE BUILDING DEI WITHIN THE SECTOR, AND WITHIN EACH ORGANIZATION WE SERVE.
We help organizations take measurable actions now and in the future through our intentional service offerings that create holistic, inclusive, participatory decision-making, and equitable strategies. Our sector-wide work builds capacity for organizations through services such as: Supported search, Board development training and education, CauseCupid and Mergers and Acquisition exploration. Through our services and thoughtful practices, we’re building the pipeline for nonprofit leaders.
BUILDING DEI INTO YOUR EXECUTIVE SEARCH
Our unparalleled process ensures equity and inclusion through inclusive surveys and stakeholder interviews, focus groups, structured hiring processes, recommendations on un-biased job descriptions and a focus on anti-biased decision making, taking into consideration where your organization is and where it is headed. We recruit from beyond the regular sources, ensuring more than 90% of our finalist panels include candidates from underrepresented communities.
INCLUSIVE INTERNAL FOCUS
Include stakeholders from all levels of the organization in the candidate profile process builds a better candidate profile, while strengthening community.
BROADENED RECRUITING EFFORTS
Taking cues from the community being served, reach beyond our database to include non-traditional and hard-to-find talent in our recruiting efforts.
STRUCTURED INTERVIEW PROCESS
Evaluate candidates consistently and fairly, making objective hiring decisions and holding all candidates to the same standards.
MITIGATING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
Minimize the opportunity for unconscious bias by ensuring mental shortcuts and assumptions don’t interfere with the chance of hiring a great candidate.
Ready to ensure your DEI practices are aligned with your organization?
