The changemaker’s guide to diversity and inclusion for nonprofits

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are concepts too often reduced to a footnote—a line item to check off at this month's HR meeting. However, when implemented with care, DEI initiatives can transform your organizational culture and contribute to creating a more just society for all.  

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of developing a DEI strategy, tips for overcoming common challenges, and four steps you can take to create a strong foundation for success at your nonprofit. 

We’ve also included a list of DEI resources for nonprofits, along with several examples to help you get started. These include a few of the ways we're taking to foster a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse team here at Givebutter.

What are DEI initiatives, anyway?

An acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI initiatives are the steps an organization takes to 

develop a fair, welcoming environment for a workforce representative of the wider community. While these efforts vary, some popular DEI policies nonprofits implement include providing cultural competence and diversity training, creating employee resource groups, adopting equitable hiring practices, and combating pay gaps. 

Within the workplace, these three terms have specific meanings:

• Diversity: Diversity refers to recruiting qualified candidates and hiring people from a wide range of backgrounds, including underrepresented groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, and more.‍
• Equity: Equity means ensuring justice and unbiased impartiality in company policies, procedures, and access to resources. Successful equity initiatives necessitate an understanding and acknowledgment of racial, economic, and gender disparities, to name a few.‍
• Inclusion: Inclusion ensures everyone feels welcome, heard, and respected in your workplace. It involves addressing unconscious bias, creating an environment that celebrates differences, and providing time and resources for these efforts.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are meant to work in tandem with one another. It is not enough to recruit and hire a diverse workforce if, for instance, Black employees aren't given the same opportunity for advancement as their white counterparts. Or, if an individual gets a promotion, it doesn't do much good if they face constant microaggressions from senior leadership.

Organizations must transform these concepts into actionable steps and DO THE WORK to create lasting change.

Challenges and benefits of DEI in nonprofit organizations

“Doing the work” for inclusion, diversity, and racial equity in nonprofits benefits people and organizations enormously. Still, DEI champions face several common challenges that impede their progress. 

DEI benefits 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion benefit not only staff from marginalized communities but also create a better environment for everyone in a nonprofit organization’s ecosystem. 

💛 Diverse perspectives: When a nonprofit’s leadership and staff come from diverse backgrounds representative of the larger community, particularly the community it serves, it creates a stronger, more creative, and agile organization driven by diversity of experiences, perspectives, and solutions. 

💛 Inclusive work environment: DEI initiatives empower employees to bring their whole selves to work, leading to higher confidence, improved performance, and a greater sense of belonging and ownership of the organization’s mission. Inclusive practices also boost camaraderie amongst staff, creating a solid foundation based on people and relationships. 

💛 Equitable practices: Nonprofits that infuse equity into their policies and practices will attract and retain better candidates. As word spreads via employee networks and online forums like Glassdoor, organizations can improve their reputation and be a model for others who want to “walk the talk.” 

DEI challenges

There are many challenges to culture change in any organization. DEI has its own set of hills to climb, but for every obstacle, there are changemakers who have carved a path forward. 

🏔️ Community buy-in: Share your DEI initiatives internally with leadership and staff and externally with program participants, volunteers, donors, etc. Be prepared (and willing!) to accept feedback from all stakeholders to create a truly more inclusive culture.

🏔️ Resistance to change: Even well-intentioned staff and leaders may bristle at conversations about race and privilege. To ensure the progress of DEI efforts in your organization, make DEI training non-negotiable for staff, leadership, and even your board of directors. 

🏔️ Performative allyship: As DEI training programs have gained popularity, grassroots groups have called out institutions (often with white executive directors) that make broad, sweeping claims against racism or gender bias in a DEI statement yet fail to take actionable steps against their own harmful policies. Inviting candid feedback from all groups and creating a safe space where everyone within your organization can weigh in on your efforts is critical. 

4 steps toward building successful DEI initiatives at your nonprofit 

Creating a DEI action plan for your nonprofit is imperative but requires time, resources, and buy-in.

From 2020 to 2021, the hiring of DEI practitioners increased by 90% as organizations felt greater urgency to build more inclusive, supportive workplaces. This long-overdue reckoning across industry lines also saw a surge in the nonprofit sector, yet only 2% of nonprofit leadership positions have shifted to people of color in subsequent years. 

Let’s look at four steps to build a strong foundation for DEI at your organization. These actions can help you better understand where your nonprofit is now and where you need to go, especially if you want to have a lasting impact for good.

‍Step 1. Review your organization’s policies 🔍

Your organization likely has documented policies related to human resources (e.g., hiring, performance reviews, promotions), marketing, fundraising, and even procurement. Gather all of your policies and review them with a DEI lens. Do they promote diversity? Do they encourage inclusion? Are they equitable? 

Ultimately, you want to identify which policies help people feel like they belong and are set up for success and which ones could lead to exclusionary practices, however unintentionally. For example, Givebutter’s holiday policy initially considered all federal holidays. However, leadership recognized the need to update this policy through the “People and Culture” employee Slack channel, in which colleagues discuss current events, celebrations, and different life experiences. Now, all staff have two floating holidays to fit a broader range of cultural celebrations and personal beliefs. 

🌟 Pro tip: Work with a third party. Due to a lack of equity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace, black women will make nearly $1 million less in their lifetime than white men. To combat bias and ensure equal pay, consider working with a third-party vendor to determine compensation packages.

Step 2. Reflect on your organization’s practices ✅

Often, a policy is used as a guideline, but this leaves room for interpretation of how to implement it. This interpretation allows bias to creep in and should be kept in check.

For example, how are you recruiting your staff? Looking for referrals from your immediate network can lead to a recycled group of candidates, especially for senior leadership positions. 

🌟 Pro tip: Broaden your recruiting toolkit! At Givebutter, we advertise positions on job boards targeting people from different demographics, such as Diversity Jobs and InHerSight. We also track Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data within our applicant tracking system to ensure we recruit diverse candidates.

Step 3. Assess your organization’s perceptions 🎧

Your policies and practices may be equitable, but if people don’t feel them, the organization will suffer. Conduct interviews, focus groups, and anonymous surveys to better understand how your staff, board members, supporters, partners, and funders perceive you. It's a bonus if you also gather input from those who could but don’t use your services!

Remember that diversity initiatives aren't just about your in-house work—they're also about how you share diverse voices externally. Take a hard look at your marketing and communications channels and see where there are opportunities to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

🌟 Pro tip: Be intentional. At Givebutter, we consistently highlight diverse voices in our blog, newsletter, and social media content. We also lift up and give back to changemakers from historically marginalized communities through initiatives like Black Philanthropy Month, during which we donate $10K to Black-led nonprofits.  

Step 4. Conduct training 🏃

Notice that this is the last item on the list. Often, nonprofits jump to training as a bandage solution, but for training to be successful, you need to know where you stand as an organization. You need to know that your policies and practices are equitable. You need to know that your staff perceives your organization as a place where they belong. If those things don’t hold, you need to have a plan in place to improve.

Only after leadership has shown a true commitment to DEI will training be successful.

- Heather Burright, Founder and CEO, Skill Masters Market

Successful efforts prioritize DEI training for nonprofit boards and leadership—not just staff. At Givebutter, all employees must take annual harassment and discrimination training through our PEO (professional employer organization) platform. We also provide a mandatory diversity course and training on managing biases. 

🌟 Pro tip: Don’t stop at training. Advocate for opportunities for continued learning and growth at your nonprofit. For example, BIPOC staff at Givebutter created Brown Butter, an employee resource group (ERG), to build community, share resources, and promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the company. 

DEI training for nonprofits and other resources

Don't go it alone when starting DEI initiatives at your nonprofit. Organizations looking for expert guidance, including low-cost or free DEI training for nonprofits, educational programs, and even DEI statement examples nonprofits can use as a model, will find excellent options from this inexhaustive list of DEI resources.

• The Management Project provides training, coaching, and other resources for nonprofit leadership infused with DEI practices, including the interactive online course Managing to Save the World. 
• Equity in the Center holds working sessions, partner training, and convenings to promote its Race Equity Culture™ services. Check out their suggested learning path to get started. 
• The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond leads its signature Undoing Racism Workshops for community groups and nonprofits. 
• HRDQ’s Diversity Works training program is an interactive, station-based training series on diversity awareness. 
• Continuing Education institutions across the country, including Cornell, Georgetown, and the University of Pittsburgh, offer DEI Certificate Programs for nonprofit professionals and leaders. 
• Interaction Institute for Social Change’s wide range of racial equity training can be accessed online or in person. 
• Atana’s website features several e-learning courses on diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, workplace communication, and more.   

Become a DEI champion at your nonprofit 

No matter what kind of nonprofit you’re a part of, there’s never been a better time to assert your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Whether you’re an executive director, volunteer, board member, or active supporter, you can start taking steps to build, maintain, and support a community that looks different, thinks different, and has different life experiences—and create ways to encourage and celebrate the diverse voices and backgrounds of your team members.

Follow the steps and tips in this article to start developing DEI initiatives at your nonprofit. Make sure to seek out training and the support of other communities of changemakers working to make their organizations—and the world—a better, more equitable place.