Being held back or treated differently because of who you are or where you’re from is not acceptable. But some people and communities face inequity and injustice in their experiences and in accessing opportunities. At the Community Foundation, we seek to understand, implement and promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion in line with our values. We also want to tackle prejudice, discrimination and unconscious bias and ensure we comply with equality laws and regulations.
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy sets out in more detail how we approach our responsibilities. It includes information on how we address these areas when we recruit trustees and staff.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy
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. Our forthcoming Vital Signs – Access report will follow up on many of these issues.
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. We reviewed and updated the policy in 2024. Our strategy to 2025 commits us to address diversity across our goals. At the end of 2021, we agreed and published benchmarks for the diversity of our staff and trustees against which we now measure ourselves. We have updated these measures every year since.
The Board has agreed benchmarks for the diversity of our staff and trustees against which we will measure how well we reflect our communities. The data below was last updated in January 2024.
| Benchmark | Our Board | Our staff | |
| Gender | 50% women : 50% men | 62% women : 38% men | 46% women : 54% men |
| Disability | 20% self-identify as disabled | 8% | 8% |
| Ethnicity | At least 7% from a Black, Asian or other non-White ethnic background | 8% | 4% |
| Sexual orientation | At least 3% identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual | 0% | 8% |
| Socio-economic background | 63% from intermediate or working-class backgrounds | 31% | 42% |
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, in the most recent census, the proportion of people in North East England who are from Black, Asian and other non-white ethnic backgrounds has risen to 7% from 5%. So we’ve changed our benchmark to match.
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 organisations based in London. We chose 50:50 as our gender balance benchmark to reflect the whole population, especially given our Board is drawn from our diverse membership. However, we note that data on the UK’s voluntary sector workforce shows 60% are women.
We aim to have a staff team with diverse lived and learned experience, relevant to their job roles, and broadly reflective of our communities. We have standards and procedures to ensure open staff recruitment which attracts diverse candidates and gives everyone a fair chance regardless of background. This includes a requirement to always publish the salary for job roles. We take positive action to attract candidates from under-represented groups. We do not ask for specific qualifications unless they clearly link to a role’s requirements. We remove information that might identify protected characteristics before applications go to a panel. The Foundation is a Living Wage Employer and has a remuneration policy which is explained in our audited financial statements which you can find on the resources page of our website. Although we are not required to, we also report in our financial statements on the gender pay gap.
We also aim to have a Board with diverse lived and learned experience that broadly reflects communities in our area. Our governing document sets out how our four membership groups appoint two trustees each through open nominations and elections. The Board co-opts up to five more trustees to ensure we draw on a range of skills and experience. In advertising vacancies and when recruiting trustees, we will take positive action to make sure we attract under-represented groups. Trustees are not required to have specific qualifications except where relevant to a role (e.g. accountancy qualifications for the post of Treasurer). More information on trustee recruitment is in our standing orders.
We are considering publishing benchmarks on age. From ONS data, we know that 35% of all adults in North East England are under 40, while the proportion of the working age population aged 21-39 is 39%. 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. We will also update the benchmarks as demographic data changes e.g. through Census results.
Our aim is to move towards having a staff and trustee body that reflects the benchmarks identified. The current priority is to encourage more disabled people, younger people and people from Black, Asian and other non-White ethnic backgrounds to apply for Board and staff vacancies when they arise.
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 is the Foundation’s CEO and responsible for its overall strategy, working closely with the Board of trustees.
rw@communityfoundation.org.uk
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