Only 3.7 percent of environmentally focused nonprofits disclosed data about the gender of their staff or senior leaders, and even fewer — 2.7 percent — disclose data on racial demographics, according to a new report.
The report also found that only 0.3 percent of environmental organizations disclosed information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer composition of their staff.
The study’s authors, led by Dorceta Taylor, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, said environmental nonprofits need to be more transparent about the demographics of their employees and leaders “if we are ever going to increase the diversity of the environmental movement.”
“It’s also important from the point of view of social inclusion and work-force readiness,” said Taylor, noting how America’s demographics are shifting. “If environmental organizations do not know how to recruit, retain, and incorporate people of color within their own work forces, they are going to be at a competitive disadvantage.”
The study examined 12,054 environmental nonprofits in the U.S. to see whether they disclosed demographic data publicly on sites likes GuideStar, which earlier this year merged with the Foundation Center to form a new nonprofit organization known as Candid.
Some Do Better
The report notes that different types of environmental organizations have different rates of demographic disclosure. For instance, 13.4 percent of environmental-justice organizations reported demographic information, while less than one percent of horticultural nonprofits reported demographic information.
Additionally, groups led by women or ethnic minorities had higher rates of demographic disclosure. Still, only 7.4 percent of groups with a female CEO and only 10.7 percent of groups led by an ethnic minority reported demographic information about staff or board composition.
The report also examines an earlier effort to get environmental nonprofits to report demographic information about its staff and board members. In 2014, Green 2.0, a minority-led organization that advocates for racial equity in the field of environmental causes, created a program to allow nonprofits to self-report their staff demographic information on their GuideStar profiles.
While their goal was to change the behavior of the 40 largest environmental groups, a small wave of demographic disclosures followed among environmental groups of varying sizes, according to the new University of Michigan study. In 2015, 23 organizations reported some kind of demographic information on GuideStar. That jumped to 215 in 2016, then went down to 174 in 2017, then dropped off a cliff in 2018, when only 29 reported any demographic information.
“There was some excitement around it,” said Taylor. “Organizations went on to GuideStar, put their data in, but then it just kind of petered out.”
Taylor said the Green 2.0 campaign with GuideStar may need to be reinvigorated and refocused on midsize and small nonprofits, which have lower rates of demographic disclosure than large groups.
The study, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Salience of Publicly Disclosing Demographic Data in American Environmental Nonprofits,” published October 2019 in the journal Sustainability.
Michael Theis writes about data and accountability for the Chronicle, conducting surveys and reporting on fundraising, giving, salaries, taxes, and more. He recently surveyed pay packages at charities and found wide disparities in base salaries and bonuses among nonprofit causes. Email Michael or follow him on Twitter.