Being held back because of who you are or where you’re from is not acceptable. But some groups and communities face inequalities and injustices in the way opportunities and resources are shared in society. At the Community Foundation, we value diversity and treating everyone fairly. We comply with equality and anti-discrimination laws and regulation, but we also seek to go beyond legal requirements to understand, implement and promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion. We also want to make sure we tackle prejudice, discrimination and unconscious bias at the Foundation and across everything we do.
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy sets out in more detail how we approach our responsibilities. The meaning of these words to us is as follows.
In October 2019, we announced a focus on philanthropy’s role in addressing equity and inclusion. We set out to celebrate our region’s diversity while shining a light on the work of organisations who help communities with lived experience of racism, homophobia and other types of discrimination. We wanted to widen the lens of whose giving gets to be in the philanthropy picture. And we wanted to address some uncomfortable truths, because we and others have a responsibility to do more to tackle prejudice and build inclusion so the North East can be a more equitable society. Our key messages were that we knew we needed to do more, we didn’t have all the answers but we hoped we were asking the right questions.
In March 2021, we published our Vital Signs reports on diversity, equity and inclusion. They examine the experience of five groups whose contribution to the vibrancy of our region is often inhibited by deep-seated inequalities: women; people with learning disabilities; Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities; disabled people and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.
We've also taken time to look at our own practices. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy came as a result of listening to our membership of individuals, voluntary organisations, businesses and public bodies. Our strategy to 2025 commits us to address diversity across our goals. For 2021-22, our objectives are to agree and publish benchmarks for the diversity of our staff and trustees against which we will measure ourselves. We’re also going to work to engage more diverse donors and supporters. And we’re going to be looking at ways to ensure better support for organisations led by and serving communities experiencing racism, sexism, homophobia and discrimination against disabled people.
As one of our objectives for 2021-22, in June 2021, the Board has agreed the first set of benchmarks for the diversity of our staff and trustees against which we will measure how well we reflect our communities.
| Benchmark | Our current Board (13 people) | Our current staff (24 people) | |
| Gender | 50% women : 50% men | 46% women : 54% men | 54% women : 46% men |
| Disability | 20% self-identify as disabled | 0% | 8% |
| Ethnicity | At least 5% from a Black, Asian or other non-White ethnic background | 0% | 0% |
Why benchmarks and not targets?
When we say benchmark, we mean a standard against which we measure ourselves. Whereas a target is something that must be met. We think benchmarks are more helpful than targets, as they give us a way to ensure we are consciously considering diversity and checking how reflective our trustees and staff are of the communities we serve and are from. While we might not always perfectly fit a benchmark, if we move too far from it, we will say so and set ourselves actions in response. For example, we might review our recruitment processes or target under-represented groups. And, sometimes, these actions might require a target. Benchmarks also allow us to recognise change in our region’s demographics. For example, a greater proportion of younger people in North East England are of Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds than in the population overall.
How has each benchmark been set?
We have taken account of demographics in North East England where possible, as the area we serve and where our staff and trustees live and work. For ethnicity this means our benchmarks may be very different to those of organisation based in London.
What about other aspects of diversity?
There are three other areas where we plan to publish benchmarks: age, sexual orientation and socio-economic background. So far, we’ve looked at the following.
We’re going to do some more work on what our benchmarks should be and would welcome any suggestions.
We will update our benchmarking data every year based on anonymous surveys of our staff and trustees. As well as working to add benchmarks for age, sexual orientation and socio-economic background, our immediate priority is to encourage more disabled people and more people from Black, Asian and other non-White ethnic backgrounds to apply for our Board and staff vacancies when they arise in the next 6-18 months. We also want to maintain our good position on gender balance.
We are also working on diversity, equity and inclusion in our grant-making. Using data from our new grants system, we plan to analyse and publish further information about our reach to diverse communities and how well that reflects where we think we should be.
As ever, none of this means our conversations are over – but we hope what we are saying and doing shows our commitment to addressing inequalities and injustices.
Rob Williamson
Chief Executive
@RobCFTyne rw[at]communityfoundation[dot]org[dot]uk
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