September 17, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
An umbrella group that includes some of America’s biggest nonprofit organizations has created a set of standards by which charities and foundations can measure their progress in making themselves more diverse and inclusive.
The Nonprofit Workforce Coalition — which includes more than 70 charities, foundations, national and regional associations, and academic centers — is this month announcing its new Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Compact.
The document binds groups that sign it to establish a written antidiscrimination policy approved by its leaders; to follow inclusive practices in recruiting, hiring, and managing its workers; and to frequently evaluate its progress in creating a more diverse organization.
The coalition last month began to ask groups within its ranks to agree to follow the principles, and thus far groups such as American Humanics, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the University of San Diego Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research have done so, according to Stephen Bauer, executive director of the coalition, which is housed at American Humanics, in Kansas City, Mo., an organization that prepares college students for nonprofit careers.
The compact, which has been in the works for about a year and a half, says Mr. Bauer, will be announced formally at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation conference this month, in Washington, for which American Humanics is organizing a panel on African-Americans in the nonprofit field.
Despite the toll taken on nonprofit organizations by the recession, Mr. Bauer says that now is a “perfect” time for charities and foundations to focus on diversity issues, and his coalition sees its role as providing the resources to help them do that.
He asks, “Once this recession is over and they’re hiring again, what’s their strategy going to be for attracting and retaining the top talent for their organization?”
Making Progress
The Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Compact will be posted online, will list those groups that have agreed to abide by the standards, and will link readers to additional resources to help them make changes in their organizations.
Groups that sign the compact will be asked to report data to the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition to show whether they have made progress toward achieving their diversity goals.
“We want this document to be inspirational, or aspirational, for organizations, but we are trying to provide as much support as possible to these organizations to help them reach their goals,” Mr. Bauer says.
And, he notes, those goals may vary by region and other circumstances.
“Obviously, being a diverse organization in western Kansas means something different from being a diverse organization in New York,” he says. “We want the context of the organization’s community to come into play here.”
The Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Compact can be viewed on the work-force coalition’s section of the American Humanics Web site. Go to: http://www.humanics.org.
