Nonprofits Fall Short in Creating Diverse Staffs, Study Finds

Nonprofit organizations need less talk and more action if they hope to build a racially and ethnically diverse work force that reflects America’s population, according to a new national study. While most of the nonprofit employees surveyed believe their organizations value diversity, the vast majority see a disconnect between words and deeds—a lack of follow-through in terms of specific practices to hire, develop, and retain minorities.

• Employees look for the presence of minorities on their organizations’ staffs and use that as their proof of whether the nonprofit is living up to its ideals regarding diversity.
• About seven out of 10 employees of all races attempt to evaluate a prospective employer’s commitment to diversity during the interview process.
• Thirty-five percent of minorities who said they examined diversity during the hiring process said they withdrew their candidacy or declined a job offer if they perceived a lack of diversity and inclusiveness. “We were surprised at how often people of color saw subtle signs of bias [or tokenism] in the interview process,” Ms. Hagenbuch said.

Recruiting Changes

The study provides several suggestions for how organizations can take meaningful action to promote diversity.

Among the most important, says Ms. Hagenbuch, is to slow down the recruitment process to seek out more minority candidates. Too often, she noted, recruiting involves pre-existing networks and pedigree (such as graduation from certain colleges), which tend to reinforce cultural sameness.

She suggested forging relationships with groups such as the National Black MBA Association as well as recruiting minority members to the board—while taking care not to assume that any particular individual is professionally or socially connected with members of the same racial or ethnic group.

The survey was produced jointly by Commongood Careers and Level Playing Field Institute, a nonprofit in San Francisco that promotes fairness in education and on the job. Sixty percent of the participants were white, 20 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, and 4 percent multiracial. That is a somewhat different makeup than the overall U.S. population, which is 72 percent white, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Thirteen percent of Americans are black, 16 percent Hispanic, 5.2 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, and 3 percent multiracial. (Because of how Census respondents may have identified themselves, the shares add up to more than 100 percent.)