Foundations have little racial or ethnic diversity on their boards, yet typically don’t view that as troubling, according to a report released Wednesday.
Whites fill all the trustee positions at four out of 10 foundations, according to a survey by BoardSource, a research and support organization for nonprofit boards. Even excluding family foundations, whose leadership group is often small and homogenous, 35 percent of boards are all white.
Altogether, people of color account for only 15 percent of foundation trustees and only 5 percent of board chairs.
Such numbers apparently don’t trouble foundation leaders significantly. Just half of CEOs say they are dissatisfied with the makeup of their boards, according to the survey. Only a quarter say demographics are a “high priority” in trustee recruitment.
“It seems that foundations are not yet convinced that their individual board’s racial and ethnic diversity matters,” the report declares.
Board Dynamics
BoardSource President Anne Wallestad cautions that the report is based on a small sample, just 141 foundations. But she says the findings are “nonetheless illuminating in terms of the dynamics at play within foundation boards” and what might lead to change.
Foundation board members, she notes, are less diverse than trustees at other charities. Whites make up the entire board at only 24 percent of charities apart from foundations, according to the report.
“Within the foundation sample, it’s less clear that there is an acknowledgment of the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in terms of board composition,” Wallestad says.
Charities, the report notes, face scrutiny from the communities they serve, the public, and their supporters. Foundations, meanwhile, don’t always face such external pressure.
This BoardSource report follows the release last fall of discouraging data from the organization’s biennial survey of nonprofit board chairs and CEOs. That survey found that nine out of 10 nonprofit leaders are white.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, in an analysis of the boards of the largest 20 foundations, found that at least three had no people of color. That analysis also supported the claim that elite perspectives shape the views and work of large philanthropic institutions. Some 40 percent of trustees at those foundations have an Ivy League degree, and more than half live in the Northeast or California.
Best Practices
Today’s BoardSource report also explores practices that contribute to a board’s positive impact on an organization. Related findings include:
- Few foundations conduct self-assessments of their performance. Just 38 percent of foundations have done such work in the past three years, the survey found, compared with nearly half of all other charity boards.
- Almost a third of foundation CEOs give their boards a grade of C or lower when rating their guidance and support.
- Board chairs and CEOs both pointed to three areas of board work that could be improved: outreach and ambassadorship; strategic planning; and commitment and engagement.
