September 17, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Although some large nonprofit organizations have created jobs in recent years to oversee their efforts to make themselves more inclusive, one of America’s largest nonprofit groups is tinkering with that approach during the recession.
After creating a chief diversity officer position in 2006 and seeing repeated turnover in the job, the American Cancer Society has opted not to fill the role again, says Laura Reeves, the charity’s chief talent officer. The decision, she says, is part of an overall shift in strategy, which means she is now overseeing efforts to embed inclusive values into the way the organization thinks about its staff, volunteers, and the public it seeks to reach with its message.
“Our mantra is, everyone has less, but we’re trying to do more good with fewer resources,” says Ms. Reeves.
Collecting Business Cards
Like other organizations, the American Cancer Society is leaning more heavily these days on online training and rethinking how it will distribute information to far-flung staff members and volunteers. But the group has also just started a new project to increase the number of job candidates in its pipeline, with a focus on diversity recruiting — despite the continuing recession and soft employment market.
“It may be an odd time to focus on diversity recruiting, you might think,” says Ms. Reeves. “But there are a lot of people looking for volunteer positions, and we’re always looking for volunteers.”
The organization has been collecting business cards at job fairs, fraternity and sorority events, and medical-association meetings that draw diverse participants, cataloging the cards, and sending the cards’ owners information on volunteering and working for the charity.
When it comes time to recruit staff members or volunteers, Ms. Reeves says, “we can very quickly pull up folks who are interested in us.”
