Produced by Fund the People and the Center for Urban and Racial Equity, this comprehensive report offers important findings on the challenges and opportunities of investing in intersectional racial equity in the U.S. nonprofit workforce.
With over 12 million paid workers, nonprofits employ the third largest U.S. workforce. This means 1 in 10 people work in the nonprofit sector. Despite its size and impact, nonprofits face a chronic deficit of investment in their staff.
To further complicate matters, the nonprofit workforce struggles to attract, retain, and support people from racially, ethnically, and otherwise diverse backgrounds to build a robust and durable talent pipeline. Our research gathered and analyzed data from over 1,400 survey responses, 3 focus groups, 20 interviews, and a literature review.
Fund the People’s exploration builds upon important existing research about the sector’s dismal record on diversifying its executive leadership ranks. We applied an intersectional racial equity lens across the career lifecycle of nonprofit professionals.
Our study looks at nonprofit employees at various positions and stages in their careers—because the entire workforce is valuable.
We’re advocating for philanthropy to learn from other organizations to eliminate the disconnect between what nonprofits say they need to advance intersectional racial equity in the workforce and the practices invested in by foundations.