Young and Female Boards Work Harder, Says Report

Title: “The Impact of Diversity: Understanding How Nonprofit Board Diversity Affects Philanthropy, Leadership, and Board Engagement”

Organizations: Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, with BoardSource and Johnson, Grossnickle, and Associates

Summary: Nonprofit organizations with more women on their boards and more people under 40 are more engaged in charities’ work and are more likely to participate in fundraising and public-policy advocacy, according to the assessment of the chief executives of charities included in the study.

Yet older charities — those founded before 1900 — tend to have boards that are more highly engaged in their work, according to their chief executives. Those older organizations and groups with higher revenue tend to have the least diverse boards.

The study by the Lilly Family School analyzed data from a 2017 BoardSource study, of more than 1,500 nonprofit CEOs and board chairs, along with information gleaned from nonprofits’ informational tax filings and the Lilly Family School’s list of charitable gifts of $1 million or more.

Among the findings:

• Women make up half of education groups’ boards and 49 percent of the boards of environmental and animal-welfare groups. They are most lightly represented on the boards of religious organizations, where they make up just under 28 percent of trustees.
• People under 40 are most heavily represented on the boards of international organizations (23 percent) and most lightly represented on the boards of health charities (14 percent).
• Blacks make up just over 14 percent of the boards of education groups, where they are most heavily represented. Only 1 percent of trustees at international organizations are black.
• Hispanics are most heavily represented at religious organizations, where they account for nearly 1 in 10 board members. They are most lightly represented at arts nonprofits, making up just under 3 percent of those boards.
• Asian-Americans make up nearly 4 percent of advocacy nonprofits and other so-called public-benefit groups and are most lightly represented at religious organizations, where they make up less than 1 percent of board members.

Correction: An earlier version of this article indicated that the study measured fundraising success rather than board members’ engagement in fundraising activities. It also did not reflect the fact that the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy led the study.